"The Spike" Newsletter

“The Spike” Newsletter for November 2009

Message From Principal Brent Seedall

By now, you should have received some important information about our Student Led Conferences during November 23-25. If you haven’t, please call the school at 464-5800. These Student Led Conferences are a wonderful opportunity for parents to see how their son or daughter is doing in their classes at DPMS. Student Led Conferences also provide a time for students to discuss with you goals for maintaining or improving their success in the future. During these conferences, students will discuss each of their classes as well as show you samples of work they have done throughout the year. Teachers and parents who have experienced this format first hand have generally been pleased with the results. We hope that you will find this time beneficial as well.

A reminder that “The Spike” Newsletter will be bi-monthly on our school’s website and if you have any ideas, comments or suggestions on how to make this newsletter better, please contact me at 464-5807 or seedalb@dpsd.org. We appreciate your time in reading this newsletter and hope you continue to enjoy it.

We are truly grateful for the support you give Deer Park Middle School. Whether it is getting your child to school on time, helping them with their homework, attending an after school activity or volunteering at our school, research shows that the more parents are involved with their son or daughter’s education, the more successful they will be. Thank you for taking such a tremendous amount of interest in your child’s education while they attend Deer Park Middle School.

Counselor’s Corner by Lorie Selle

How Can Parents Stay Involved In Their Child’s Education?

Parent involvement in the middle grades is just as important as it was in elementary school. Studies show that kids whose parents stay involved during these years do better in school. But in the middle grades, most kids give parents a consistent message: stay away from school. How can you play a role in your child’s education when he/she doesn’t even want to be in the same time zone as you? Here are some tips:

Join the DPMS Parent Group. We do parent group meetings four times a year. Your child probably won’t want you to help out in his/her classrooms, but you can if you still do this if you want to. Some other ideas are the following---you might work in the library or you could help sponsor a club or team. There are lots of ways to stay a part of your child’s education.
Learn who can help. Your child probably has several teachers. When you have a problem, you may not know which teacher to call. Here’s a rule of thumb. If your child has a problem in one class, ask to talk to that teacher. If the problem is in several classes or involves a general adjustment to the school, contact Mrs. Selle and she can set up a meeting with all of the teachers.
Read the newsletter. Deer Park Middle School posts this electronic newsletter every several months. Those who read it know when report cards are coming home, when state tests will be given, when band concerts will be and so on Check our web site often; it’s another good way to learn what’s going on at DPMS.
Learn how to get in touch with teachers. Some teachers are easy to reach by phone. Others prefer contact by e-mail. When you meet the teachers, find out which way they prefer.
Make sure the school knows how to get in touch with you. At the start of the year, give the school your home phone number. Give a work number if you have one. Give a cell number if you have one. If these change during the year, be sure the school knows.

From the Desk of Tim Mulvey, Assistant Principal

On October 20 of this year, Deputy Dave Morris gave a presentation to our parent group on “Gangs”. Those parents that were present felt that more parents needed to see this informative presentation on gangs in the Spokane area. We were looking for another time to have him present again. He has agreed to repeat his presentation during our late day for Student Led Conferences. On Monday November 23 he will do his presentation at 5:00 pm and continue repeated as often as possible with the last presentation starting at 6:00 pm in the middle school band room. As one parent said after the presentation "All parents should see this." Please plan on taking the time to take advantage of this opportunity to obtain valuable information.

From the Front Lines—Main Office

We are off to a great second quarter. It is hard to believe that our first quarter is over. We currently have 475 students enrolled here at Deer Park Middle School. The office is operating very smoothly. We strive to do our best each day with delivering messages to your students so we would ask that you continue to call us with your messages prior to 2:00 pm. Some days we are on an assembly or activity schedule and it is difficult to find your child and we want to make sure all messages are delivered. Also, we are concerned with your student’s safety and ask that your child have a ride by 5:00 pm after sports or any other extra curricular activity that they may be involved in. We appreciate the phone calls excusing your child’s absences, we would ask that you continue to call our absentee line at 464-5571; this really helps our attendance secretary Mrs. Randall, especially during the winter months when the flu season is high. Lastly, when dropping off your middle school students in the morning if you would please do so at the side of the building we refer to as the horseshoe, or out front on the street. This is very helpful for the buses to be able to move about. When the parents, students, and staff all work together in communicating our school days run fantastic. We appreciate all of your help in making our school run efficiently and effectively.

DPMS Parent Group 2009

Our Parent Group meetings for the remainder of the school year will be held on the following dates: January 19, March 16 and May 18 from 6:00 – 7:00 pm in the DPMS library. If you are a parent of a 6th, 7th or 8th grader attending DPMS or even a community member in Deer Park, you are invited to attend these meetings. Please contact Principal Brent Seedall at 464-5807 if you have any questions. We hope to see you at our last three Parent Group meetings.

News from the Classroom

Our annual Scholastic Book Fair opens Thursday, November 19th. It runs daily from 8:15 am until 3:15 pm through Monday, November 23rd, including Monday evening during conferences in the library. There will be a good selection of all genres of fiction, plus some recreational fun books such as cookbooks. Also included are posters, bookmarks, small gift items, and some software. The profits from the Book Fair are taken in free books for our library, one of our main sources of new books when budgets are tight. Students often buy not only exciting books for themselves, but also gifts for friends and family as well. We hope you will stop by and join us at our Book Fair!

8th grade Science students from Mrs. Cary’s class studied the weather recently. Their culminating project was to design and build a hurricane resistant house out of paper, straws, tape and glue. After a week of researching, designing and building, the houses were tested with wind created by a leaf blower. Students learned what shapes were the most aerodynamic and how best to secure windows, doors, and garage doors from being blown open. All houses withstood Category 3 force winds and most made it through Category 4 as well. However, only a few houses each class period survived the fury of Category 5 hurricane winds blowing from all directions. The 8th graders appreciated this “hands on” activity developed by Mrs. Cary.

As a tribute to our veterans, Mrs. Ruygrok's period one class wrote acrostics. The students tried to capture in brief phrases how much we appreciate these fine people who serve our country. Below are two samples.

V= Very brave
E= Especially strong
T= True heroes
E= Extra loyal to Nation
R= Really willing to follow orders
A= Awesome
N=Never afraid to serve their nation

By Jamie Erickson

V=Very awesome
E= Exhausted, but never gives up
T=True to our nation
E= Excited to serve for their nation
R= Responsible
A= Armed forces
N= November 11th

By Karisa Stark

Stepping Stone After School Program

Our Stepping Stone After School Program is off to an awesome start! We have over 100 students enrolled in our program so far this year and we are still taking applications on a case by case basis. Our first Family Night of the year was a huge success and families were able to meet our staff and receive a free box of food from the Second Harvest Food Bank. The Stepping Stone staff has been working with students in the areas of math, based on what they are going to learn in a few weeks in their math content class. Each Whitworth staff has his own group, so they are making important connections with the students daily. Next week at the Student Led Conferences, we will have a table in the foyer where we would like all Stepping Stone families to stop by and discuss progress made by your child in our program. We have a quick progress report that we would like to share with you at this time. Also, we need parents for our Parent Advisory Board. We will have a form for you to take home so we can schedule our first meeting. Thanks for sending us your children and supporting after school programs in Deer Park.

Gina Keller, Coordinator

Tips from the School Nurses

Thank you for all of your efforts in keeping sick kids at home and reporting their symptoms to the schools. We are keeping track of the absence rate and reasons for absences which helps us to determine if there has been an outbreak within the school system. Influenza symptoms are fever (100° or more), sore throat, cough, body aches, headaches, chills and fatigue. The illness may last up to seven days, but people are considered to be contagious as long as symptoms persist.

In order to prevent illness:

Wash your hands often – with soap and warm water, or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
Cover your nose and mouth – cough or sneeze into your sleeve/elbow, not into your hands. You may also use a tissue when you sneeze, cough or blow your nose. Quickly throw away used tissues then wash your hands.
Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs can be spread that way.
Avoid close contact with sick people – most germs are spread when a sick person coughs, sneezes or talks.
Don’t share – food, utensils, beverages, towels, lipstick, toys or anything else that might become contaminated with germs.
Stay at home - if you have a fever, cough and/or flu-like symptoms. Do not return to school until fever has been gone (less than 100°) for 24 hours and symptoms have subsided.