DMS Drama Production a Huge Success

  

Congratulations to the cast and crew of the DMS Drama Club on a stellar performance of Katastrophe Kate! The club performed two evening shows over the weekend. Under the direction of Ryann Riefler, students told the tale of a chef named Katherine who created a chili worthy of taking on the road to Texas. Katherine had to mix in with the outlaws as she took on the persona of Katastrophe Kate. The chili cook off between her recioe and that of Jose Habenero proved to create an even better chili when the two wre combined. All this happened while Sherrif Sam got up the nerve to ask Miss Lucille to marry him! It was a fun performance full of son, dance and humor. Way to go DMS and Mrs. Riefler!

A Charitable Project from Driver Middle School Art Students

The grace, peace, and softness of a butterfly that people feel when they see one, helps us realize why the "butterfly" is the symbol for the not for profit organization "The Hope for the Bereaved" of CNY. This year, as in the past years, DMS art students were involved in helping to raise money for the charity. Students created beautiful butterfly watercolor paintings and ornaments. The paintings were reproduced and made into cards, and the ornaments adorned a Christmas tree that were sold at a fund raising dinner and auction event at the Oncenter on November 18th. Students involved in this endeavor were Mrs. Femano's 7th grade art classes and the following students from Mrs. Ferrara's 6th grade classes: 

Abigail Delaney, Emma Alexander, Mackenzie Libera, Rachel Randall, Alessa Dixe, Briyana VanHelsdingen, Samantha DiMarco, Kayla Fogg, Caleb Wetherall, Nicholas Femano, Dan Posecznick, Steven Baunee, Lauren Lundrigan

DMS 7/8 Choir and Select Choir Perform

The DMS 7/8 Choirs put on a beautiful winter concert last week.  Under the direction of Kristin Peenstra, students performed Do You Hear What I Hear? 100 Years (with accompanist Brian Ackles, Sean King and Neil Minet), Walking in the Air, Winter Medley, Lift Them Up! A Festive Fa La La, Come Celebrate this Festive Day and How Fair A Rose?  As a special treat, they also sang What A Wonderful World while a slide show of student quotes and selected pictures scrolled.  Great job to all our choir students!

A Successful Career Day!

One of the major themes stressed by Principal Michael Dardaris at Driver Middle School (DMS) is to “Try something new.” DMS seventh and eighth grade students had just that opportunity as the Driver Middle School Guidance Department staged it “Career Day at DMS” on Friday, December 9^th. More than twenty-five guest speakers spoke on career choices that ranged from veterinarian to engineer, photographer, firefighter to chef. Martha Walsh-Hood explained the importance of the legal profession as “our nation deals with issues such as health care, human rights and immigration.” Each guest speaker reviewed the responsibilities of their chosen profession while at the same time touching upon the skills, required education, and experience needed to be successful at each of their respective careers. Each 7^th-8^th grader were able to attend 3 different session with 3 different guest speakers of which they chose. Each workshop/session lasted 40 minutes. Teaching and learning is all about connections and the career day event was a wonderful example of the learning connection between school and the community resources. A special thanks goes to Alan Wing and Kim LaRose in the Guidance office for organizing the Career Day and a extra special thanks goes to all the presenters who attended the event.

Winter Band Concert

Congratulations to all our band members who put on a fabulous concert this week.  Our Elementary Band and the 7/8 band performed to a full house on Wednesday the 7th.  They did an awesome job.  We are all very proud of them and of our conductors, Mrs. Turner and Mr. Costa. 

DMS Annual Spelling Bee

Congratulations to Jeffrey Shi who has won the DMS Annual Spelling Bee and has become the School Champion for the 2011-2012 School Year!  Jeffrey was the last of 18 students standing after 14 rounds of words in our oral spelldown.  He did an awesome job.  Jeffrey and Audrey Frajda have qualified to continue in the Regional Spelling Bee which will be held in January at Onondaga Community College.

We had over 200 students participate in the Bee beginning with a written exam earlier in December.  Congratulations to all students who took the risk to get involved in the Spelling Bee.  We had many awesome spellers!

Red Ribbon Week was a Huge Success!

Red Ribbon Week is a nation-wide initiative that asks both children and adults to take a stand for drug prevention. This year, Red Ribbon Week was a great success at Driver Middle School! We had several activities during the week and participation was excellent throughout the school. On Tuesday, there was a contest between the 4^th through 6^th grade classrooms to see which homeroom could have the most students wearing red! We had seven classes that had 100% participation and after being picked at random from those seven classes, Mrs. Dixie’s room won the pizza party! We also had a poster contest between the 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th grade students and the posters were judged on creativity and how well the artist represented the Red Ribbon Week theme, “Drug Free: Not Just For a Week, but for Life!” We had over 150 entries and the winners are pictured below! A special thanks goes out to all of the teachers and administrators who made the Red Ribbon Week activities a success and to all the students who participated in the fun!

Merry Go Round Theater

Merry Go Round Theater sahres a performance that shares Native American history and culture with our 4th grade students.

Senior Citizen Breakfast

Thank you to the Senior Citizens who joined us for our Annual Senior Citizen Breakfast in October!  It is always an honor to have you here!

Pumpkin Carving

 On Wednesday, October 26^th, NJHS students will have the opportunity to host a Halloween pumpkin-carving event in collaboration with Syracuse University’s Executive Education Programs and The Redhouse Arts Center. Students presented the history of Halloween and the tradition of Jack-o-lanterns to a group of Indian families. Then they lead the families in making their very own jack-o-lanterns!

Kris Joseph Visits DMS

SU Basketball player, Kris Joseph visited DMS on Friday, November 4th to spend some time with our students.  The focus of his message was to have tolerance of others, respect their differences and respect yourself by doing well in school.  He talked about setting goals and working hard to meet those goals without giving up when times get tough.  He also reminded students that the adults in their lives are here to help even though they might not recognize that now.  Students were given the opportunity to ask some questions and some lucky students won an autographed photo of Kris.  Thank you Kris for taking time out of your schedule to spread an important life lesson to our students!

Things are Happening at DMS

It is hard to believe it is November already!  So much has happened here at DMS already and the year is just zooming by!  Our students have heard many messages since the start of the year to support our character education and our sage and comfortable environment. At the start of the year, our 7th and 8th grade students joined the HS to participate in Rachel's Challenge.  Rachel Scott was the first person killed in Columbine HS in 1999 and the mission of Rachel's Challenge is to honor her memory by spreading the message she tried to live by every day.  Her message is to do good things for others as a form of "paying it forward", spreading acts of kindness and starting a chain reaction.  The program encourages students to treat others in a positive, respectful, kind and compassionate manner.  This message was then shared with our students in grades 4-6 by some of our 7th and 8th grade leaders.  All of this ties in very well with our focus on anti-bullying initiatives for this year.  While we strive for a safe and comfortable environment we want all students to understand bullying and know that it will not be tolerated.  Our goald is to teach students how to handle bullying situations and know where they can go to get help. 

Area All State

Sixteen of our DMS students were selected to participate in Area All State Band which was held on November 5th.  This is a great accomplishment for our students and an outstanding representation of our school and our music program.  Congratulations!!

Home and Careers

The 8th grade Home and Careers classes are making toddler dresses and shorts for an organization called Little Dresses for Africa.  They will be sent to countries in Africa or other countries around the world including the US, where clothing is needed.