Spelling Bee 2012!

Congratulations to all the students who participated in our annual Spelling Bee.  We had over 400 students take a written spelling test on the 6th of December to qualify for our Oral School Spelldown.  Some of the 25 words students had to spell in the written test were:  visual, hydraulic, punctual, kinetic, smithereens, blizzard, patio, and procrastinate.  Additionally there were 5 tiebreaker words such as: contentious, crustacean and excruciating.  All students in grades 4-6 took the spelling test along with  interested students in 7th and 8th grade.  Congratulations to Jeffrey Shi, 6th grade, who missed only one word on the written test and spelled ALL the tiebreakers correctly! 25 students qualified to participate in the oral spelldown by getting 16 or more words correct on the written test.

The oral spelldown took place on the 13th of December with 23 students participating: Violet Mahler, Max McAulif, Peter Tulowieci, Zach Osborne, Grace Coon, Amy Francesconi, Rechael Kaufman, Ethan Mosure, Jackson Masters, Katy Wangeness, Emily Falge, Dan Wrona, Sebastian LaVine, Maddy Mahoney, Jeffrey Shi, Josh Barlotta, Justin Shoeneck, Kevin Brown, Nick Zimmer, Brett Weiler, Noah Brown, Nate Keller, Anna Perry, Lyle Freeman, Matthew Mathieson, Riler LaFrance, Mike Provvidenti.  This group consisted of three 4th graders, two 5th graders, nine 6th graders, six 7th graders and eight 8th graders.

It took 8 rounds of words to get down to our final three! Zach Osborne came in third place as our runner up. After the 10th round we had our two finalist that will be moving on, Anna Perry and Daniel Wrona.  It took another 7 rounds of words to name a new school champion, Anna Perry!  That was the longest and toughest spell off we have had in many years.  The last two words spelled correctly by Anna were: pompadour and parliamentary. 

Both Anna and Dan are 7th graders and will represent Driver Middle School in the Regional Written Spelling Bee sponsored by the Syracuse Post Standard and WCNY studios.  The next phase of the competition will be on January 19th at Onondaga Community College.  If Anna and/or Dan are in the top 35 spellers after that round they will move on to the televised oral spelling bee at the WCNY studios in February.

Congratulations Anna, Dan and Zach!  You are amazing spellers!!!  We are proud to have you represent our school!

Concert Season has Begun!

Congratulations to our DMS Bands who kicked off the DMS Winter Concert season last Wednesday.  The Elementary Band and the 7/8 Middle School band each performed to a full house last week. Some of the pieces performed by the Elementary Band under the direction of Mr. Carmen Costa were:  The Star Spangled Banner, Funfest March, Zap!, Holiday Bells are Ringing and the Polar Express.  Additionally, the students played Christmas Time is Here while pictures from "A Charlie Brown Christmas" were being displayed behind them!  The Middle School Band under the direction of Mrs. Audrey Turner played:  Awake the Iron, Canto, Joyful Journey, On The March, Groovee and Santa Meets the Big Bands.  Both bands performed fabulously!  Thank you for an enjoyable evening.  Your talent is amazing!  The 4th and 5/6th grade choirs take the stage this week on Wednesday the 5th! Please join us for another wonderful concert evening.

Students Donate Materials to Send to Hurricane Sandy Victims

Under the direction of Kathy Rein, National Junior Honor Society students organized an effort asking our student body to bring in supplies to donate to the victims of Hurricane Sandy.  Grade levels were designated particular items to focus upon based on the needs of the victims.  The supplies collected created 69 school supply kits along with many other items (pencils, paper, construction paper and notebooks) sent along separately. We also created 88 health kits and sent extra band-aids, toothbrushes and combs. This school wide effort will help out over 157 people/families that are in need of supplies and support. With a little friendly home room competitions, special recognition goes out to Mrs. Sevey's home room who brought in 210 items and Mrs. Pawlewicz's home room who brought in 109 items! Way to go students!

After collecting all the items, the NJHS students boxed them up into kits. Special thanks also to some special people at National Grid who are getting our supplies downstate by Thanksgiving! Our supplies are going directly to Rockaway Beach.

Students Learn about the Dignity Act

At the start of school all students learned about the new Dignity Act which calls for a zero tolerance of bullying behavior in school.  New York State’s Dignity for All Students Act (The Dignity Act) seeks to provide the State’s public elementary and secondary school students with a safe and supportive environment free from discrimination, intimidation, taunting, harassment, and bullying on school property, a school bus and/or at a school function. The Dignity Act, includes but is not limited to, acts of discrimination and harassment based on students' race, color, weight, national origin, ethnic group, religion, religious practices, disability, sexual orientation, gender/gender identity, or sex.

Harassment means the creation of a hostile environment by conduct or by verbal threats, intimidation, or abuse that has or would have the effect of interfering with a student’s educational performance, opportunities or benefits, or mental, emotional, or physical well-being or causes a student to fear for his or her physical safety. DMS is committed to providing a safe and comfortable environment where all students can receive an education free from the distractions of bullying and/or harassment.

On the first day of school all students in grades 4-8 participated in a group activity to create pieces of a video that we will submit in the Stop Bullying Video Challenge.  At each grade level groups of students worked to create posters, scripts, brochures, background music, and a RAP to use for this video and within our school to promote the Dignity Act and our commitment to Stop Bullying.  Students also designed a promo item that we will purchase for all school members to be worn as a constant reminder.


Help us STOP BULLYING!

Third Annual Spaghetti Dinner

We held our annual spaghetti dinner on June 6th and served approximately 80 people.  Our National Junior Honor Society served our guests a dinner of salad, bread, beverage, spaghetti and dessert.  After dinner, our Peace Through Language group provided a babysitting service to young children and our HS Teen Institute Students led activities for the younger students while parents were given a presentation on Internet Safety.  Soon to be DMS Parent and Secret Service Agent Tom West provided some relevant and informative guidance on how to keep children safe on the Internet.  Mr. West said the most important thing parents can do is COMMUNICATE with your children.  Parents should ask their children what they are doing on the Internet, who they are talking with, what sites they visit, etc.  He said while we can place technological safeties on our computers there is always a way around the roadblocks.  The best "firewall" is the parent.  Parents should communicate, monitor and report.  He asked parents to teach children how to use technology wisely and safely and not to give out personal information about themselves and not to friend people they do not know when using social network sites.  He also suggested having computer access in an observable location so you can more easily monitor what your children are doing.  Mr. West talked about cyberbullying and sexting indicating it is becoming a very widespread problem.  Parents and students should always report incidences of cyberbullying and sexting.  The following website is an excellent resource for learning more about Internet Safety and we encourage everyone to take a few minutes to check it out.

Thank you to all the teachers who donated pasta and sauce, to a parent who donated the salad and dressing, to the PTA members who made all the desserts, to all the teachers and students who helped prepare, cook, serve and clean up.  It truly was a building effort and a worthwhile event!

Fourth Graders Participate in Videoconference!

Fourth grade students from around the state participated in a videoconference on the Erie Canal to learn about the history of the Erie Canal and its impact on NY State.  Ms. Alexander's 4th grade class was one of the classes who participated in this experience.   

The conference was held in 3 sessions. The first session's goal was to introduce the classes. Ms. Alexander's class created new lyrics to the Erie Canal song and performed it for the other participants (See video- "Alexander Erie Canal Song"). The second conference was titled "Mystery through History" in which students had to solve a mystery related to the canal using knowledge of this era's history. The culminating activity was a class project. Ms. A's class met on a Sunday afternoon at the Camillus Erie Canal Park and filmed information on the history of the park and Sim's Store to answer their essential question "How does the Camillus Erie Canal Park help preserve the history of the canal?" Watch the video, titled "Erie Canal Documentary".  On May 30th, the classes "came together" through our video conferencing equipment to share their final lessons.  Our students did a great job and enjoyed the experience of learning with other students.  Ms. Alexander said:

"We decided to take on this project because we enjoy learning about history and using technology whenever possible.  So....What better way to learn about the Erie Canal than to research, write the script, and film on location for a State-wide Video Conference about the Erie Canal!!"

 

47 Students Inducted into National Junior Honor Society

On May 22nd we inducted 47 new students into the Naional Junior Honory Society.  Students are selected into the society through an application process.  They must demonstrate the qualities of the Honor Society which include Scholarship, Service, Leadership, Citizenship and Character.  Our candidates are the leaders of our school who demonstrated these qualities on a regular basis and are proud to be members of the Society.  Speeches were given by current Honor Society officers:  Maddy Locastro, Jamie McLennan, Shannon White and Emily Buschbacher, as well as other members Kayley Wagner, Mackenzie Proud, Sydney Wentworth, Matthew Bailey and Courtney Sayre.  The 7th and 8th grade Select Choir sang our National Anthem and performed a musical selection for our enjoyment called I Dream A World. Congratulations to all of these students for their hard work, effort and dedication to being leaders in our school and community. Emily Alexander, Robert Beyel, Madeline Bird, Victoria Boos Margaret Brennan, Kevin Brown, Michale Brown, Anna Canny, Madison Conklin, Daniel Cusick, Kayla Drager, Allison Field, Tyler Gerbsch, Taylor Gould, Kira Hawes, Eve Hughes, Nathan Keller, Elizabeth Kelsey-Gossard, Braxton Knapp, William Kisil, Evelyn Leubner, Sydney Lewis, Kern Linder, Brianna Linn, Andrew Marsh, Isabella Matro, Lisa Morocco, Cecil Nelson, Colette Rigas, Shane Rohe, Sarah Rohe, Haley Ruggles, Drake Satter, Ashley Seymour, Michael Spicer, Matthew Strempel, Frankie Szczech, Michaela Tangredri, Ethan Tanguay, Hannah Tarolli, Abigail VanCamp, Grace Vensel, Abigail Vetsch, Caleb Wetherell, Elizabeth White, Tristan Wiley.