Terrier Tattler - Volusia County Schools

DeLand Middle School
Terrier Tattler
Home of the Terriers
Issue 3
January, 2014
Teachers want parent communication.
If you are concerned
about your child’s
behavior or grades,
you can call the
school to leave a
message for your
child’s teachers.
You can also check
the county website
to find the teachers’
email addresses.
IMPORTANT DATES
Mid-Term Distribution: February 11
Report Card Distribution: March 19
RACING TO READ!
The green flag is waving – start your engines!! Racing to Read
School Phone
Number
(386) 822-5678
Extensions:
Practice your reading and go to the races! The program is simple and
fun! All you have to do is read after school or on the weekends! You student was given a bookmark and a separate instruction sheet. Each time
they read for the required amount of time, they have a parent check off
one of the racing tires. After they have completed 20 racing tires and arrived at the finish line, a parent needs to sign the bookmark. Then they
give the bookmark to their reading teacher. We will order a certificate
from the Speedway that will entitle you student for one of the following:
6th grade
23030
7th grade
23030
8th grade
23030
ESE
23039
One (1) general admission to the Supercross, March 8th (5 & under
free)
Early Birds
23076
Two (2) Speedway Tour admissions
Attendance 23032
Clinic
23298
One (1) general admission to NextEra Energy Resources 250, February 21st (12 & under free)
T E R R I E R T A T T LE R
SIXTH GRADE HOUSE
Hello, Terrier Family. As you know, bullying is an increasing issue in our schools, communities, and families. We must work as a team to insure that our students are leading
healthy, productive social lives. Please notify teachers, administrator, counselors, and staff
of any concerns you may have. The definition of bullying is as followed:
Bullying is defined as physical and psychological suffering of one or more students or employees.
The term bullying shall include “cyber-bullying” as defined in School Board Policy 208, Code of
Conduct and Discipline.
It is also defined as unwanted and or repeated written, verbal, or physical behavior, including
threatening, insulting, or dehumanizing gestures by a student or an adult that is severe or pervasive enough to create an intimidating, hostile, or offensive educational environment.
Helpful Tips: (cyberbullying)
Discuss what is and isn't appropriate to post.
Remind them that all personal information can be viewed by the public. Posts
on friends' walls, personal photos, and funny stories can all be cut,
pasted, and sent around.
It's normal for them to discover their individuality, but make sure they don't
use secrecy as an excuse for inappropriate behavior.
Tell them to think before they post things. At this age, they try all sorts of activities, many of which should not be made public. Remind them that anything they post
can be altered by someone else.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding your child’s academic or social progress, please
contact me at 822-5678 ext. 23041 or [email protected].
Natasha R. Horne
6th Grade Counselor
PTA CORNER
The PTA meets the second Tuesday of each month in the media center at 3:45. PTA
sponsors many fundraisers and activities throughout the year, and we encourage all parents to
join us in supporting our school.
Friday night, Dec. 13th, PTA sponsored a dance for our students, each student was asked
to bring an unwrapped toy as admission to the dance. We collected over 200 toys for the Baby
DJ program. Thanks DeLand Middle students for helping to make a child’s holidays bright.
T E R R I E R T A T T LE R
SEVENTH GRADE HOUSE
Happy New Year!! We hope you enjoyed your holiday time! Now it’s back to the joy
of learning!!
The start of a new quarter is a great time to reorganize. Put new spiral notebooks in
your folders (or paper in your binders) and clean out the old papers. A great New
Year’s Resolution is to learn to use your planner. (if you are not already doing so).
Remember, you can pick up a weekly planner on the counter in Student Services
whenever you need one. (Or take it home and make your own copies to save yourself the trip to the Student Services office.) Use your planner to write down any incomplete assignment that you need to finish at home, homework, upcoming tests to
study for, projects, or anything else that you need to remember to do.
This is a very important habit to form in order to have success in Middle
School, High School, College and Adulthood!
EIGHTH GRADE HOUSE
The application process for high school Career Academies is now open for the 2014
-15 school year. Applications were available at the High School Showcase December 12 and can now be accessed from the Volusia County Schools Career & Technical Education website at www.career-connection.org. Completed career academy
applications will be due January 22, 2014 and should be sent directly to the school
housing the academy.
DeLand High School will hold an Open House for the Communications, Construction and Engineering Academies on Tuesday, December 17 and Tuesday, January
14, beginning at 6:30 pm in Building 18. Parking is available in the faculty lot located on Plymouth Avenue. Interested students and families are invited to participate in either night. This is a time to learn about academy programs, see the labs
and equipment, talk with other students, and apply for our programs.
T E R R I E R T A T T LE R
FFA UPDATE
The DeLand Middle FFA Opening & Closing Ceremonies team placed first in the sub-district
Future Farmers of America competition on December 17th, 2013, at Pierson-Taylor Middle/High
School. The team will advance to the district competition on January 31 st, 2014, at Creekside
Middle School. Team members include: Austin Efird, Zach Bodnar, Macy Mullen, Izabella
Smith, Shawna Clay, Colin Ibison, and Cameron Eskew. Congratulations team on an excellent
job! Good luck at districts!!
Upcoming FFA Events
January 11th – State Fair Sheep Tag-In & Practice Livestock Contest @ UF
January 15th – FFA Meeting 3-4 PM
January 18th – State Horse Judging Competition @ UF
January 20th – District 6 Leadership Workshop @ Deltona High School (See Mrs. Owen for details)
January 25th – South Florida Fair Livestock Judging Contest
January 29th – FFA Meeting 3-4 PM
January 31st – District Competition @ Creekside Middle
T E R R I E R T A T T LE R
DISTRICT-WIDE SCHOOL DRESS CODE
For the 2013-2014 school year, the School Board of Volusia County will continue enforcing
the district-wide dress code which applies to every student in a Volusia County public
school.
The dress code establishes minimal guidelines for the appearance and dress of students.
Basic requirements follow; however, the complete guidelines can be found in Policy 217,
which is posted on the district’s Web site at http://myvolusiaschools.org:

HEAD: No caps, visors, hoods, bandanas, or other head gear, except with administrative permission (cold or inclement weather). Sunglasses are permitted.

UPPER GARMENTS: All garments must cover shoulder to shoulder. All garments
must be long enough to clearly overlap the beltline or stay tucked. No halter tops, tank
tops, spaghetti straps or muscle shirts. No rips/tears, skintight items or see-through
materials.

LOWER GARMENTS: Undergarments and the buttocks must remain entirely covered even when seated. Dresses, skirts and shorts must be at least mid-thigh or below
in length. No rips/tears or skintight items.

FOOTWEAR: Shoes must be safe and appropriate. No slippers or shoes with
wheels are permitted on campus. Cleats may be worn for appropriate extracurricular
sports in proper areas.

ACCESSORIES: Clothing, jewelry and accessories must not convey inappropriate
messages.

Garments that are distracting or inappropriate are prohibited, including those with seethrough materials, skintight items or clothing with rips and tears.
Other things to know:

Students may wear special clothing related to a school sponsored activity or program, as
permitted by the principal (such as ROTC uniforms, t-shirts on spirit days, sport jerseys,
etc.)

All schools have the option of adopting a standard dress code (uniform) when developed
and agreed upon in collaboration with School Advisory Committee.

The dress appearance of any student shall not be extreme, to the point of creating a disturbance, or be hazardous to the student and/or others, or school property, whether or
not the specific case is outlined in the requirements.
T E R R I E R T A T T LE R
MRS. ACKER’S CLASS
Parents,
Do you want to know what your student is doing in class each day? Ask them to show you! All students have
access to Edmodo. What is Edmodo? It is a place for students to connect with other students in the class
and their teacher. This is a good way for you and your student to stay connected. Students are able to get
class notes, see what their homework assignment was for the day and submit work. Please let me know if
you have any problems.
8th Grade Students
This is just a reminder that it is important for your student to be completing work in a timely manner. Remember that any assignment that is turned in one week past the due date will not be accepted. Your student also
has ten days to remediate a test as well. Please contact me if you have any questions.
6th Grade Students
Each Friday in class, we will have tutoring. If a student needs help in their math class, needs to complete
missing work or remediation work, they can bring it to my class on Fridays. I am working with all of the teachers to make use of this time with your student. They may also complete any missing work for my class at this
time also. If they do not have any work to complete, they will practice the material from their regular math
class. Please contact me if you have any questions.
ALL COUNTY BAND
Attention 6th Grade students:
This is a reminder that you need the Tdap Booster Immunization to get your schedule and enter 7 th
grade in accordance with Florida law.
Get your Tdap Booster today and beat the summer rush!
Please make sure that we have your updated shot record at the
school.
Immunizations are free for school aged children from the Health Department. 822-6215.
T E R R I E R T A T T LE R
SCIENCE OLYMPIAD
Deland Middle School’s first Science Olympiad team has been working hard with their
coach, Mrs. French, on preparing for the regional competition on February 1st. Good
luck to all team members!
ALL COUNTY BAND
"Congratulations to the following students
who made the Volusia County All County
Band! These students competed with hundreds of other students from the county to
be placed into this musical group.
Dominic Addonizio on trumpet
Grace Cairns on clarinet
Cayman Forbes on clarinet
Rachel Hertz on flute
Thank you to all who participated!
You make Deland Middle School proud!
ELKS HOOP SHOOT
The following students have qualified and
will be representing DMS for the Elks Hoop Shoot
contest, November 23, 2013 at Deland Middle
School gym. We are proud of you! Good luck!
10-11 year old girls
Kayla Kamp
10-11 year old boys
Jamie Ross
12-13 year old girls
Jazmyne Gelfand
Jaron Vankleeck
Asani Williams
12-13 year old boys
Parker Hickox
Tyler Walker
Limuel Yarn
COACH BROCKLEHURST
Coach Brocklehurst’s 8th grade classes are
finishing up a strength/balance and tumbling
unit. Students did a fantastic job climbing the
rope, jumping on the mini-trampoline and
climbing the peg board. Seven boys, Michael Anderson, Kyle Campbell, Christian
Camacho, Leonel Rodriguez, Ari Vida, Lucas
Jenison, and Grant Weltman completed the
peg board from bottom to top to bottom –
which takes significant strength and is a huge
accomplishment.
Congratulations – you’re amazing!!
T E R R I E R T A T T LE R
MS. WILKINSON’S CLASS
Dear Parents,
It is a pleasure to teach and get to know your children in my 7th-grade language arts classes. For
the second quarter, we studied SpringBoard Unit 2 which is about advertising elements, techniques
and claims . In addition to this, students have worked very hard to acquire six new vocabulary words
each week. For creative writing, I hold contests for each “Picture This” writing prompt. During the
second quarter students had two Picture This writing prompts. The prompts for Picture This # 2 and #
3, along with the names of the winners by class period, are as follows:
Picture This #2: I Was So Scared!
Picture This #3: It Was the Best Present Ever!
2nd period = Chris Santiago
2nd period = Kristine Wolff
3rd period = Elizabeth Littler
3rd period = Cienna Reyes
4th period = Chandler Calkins
4th period = Randon Roth
5th period = Kayla Pinard
5th period = Carmen Sanchez
6th period = Anthony Boffa
6th period = Destiny Gauthier
7th = Madeline Fedigan
7th period = Kendall Clements
Congratulations to these students who earned candy and received extra credit for their efforts! Their
writings are currently posted on the Wall of Fame in our classroom!
If your child needs extra help completing language arts class work in my class, I am available after school for tutoring on Tuesdays and Thursdays until 5:oo. I can also make arrangements to be available for tutoring during lunch, if students are unable to attend tutoring
after school. If you have any questions, suggestions or concerns, please email me at: [email protected].
T E R R I E R T A T T LE R
TERRIER RECYCLING TEAM
Well, the Terrier Recycling Team (TRT) is at it again. This month through March 31, 2014, they will
be collecting pop tabs for the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Florida. We have placed
a huge fish tank in the front office for our collection. Please ask your
families, friends, and local businesses to help us out & donate today. If
anyone needs a pop tab container for your house or business they can
be obtained in room #907 (across from the flagpole). The TRT collected
over 600 lbs of recycling before the Thanksgiving break. Way to go
D.M.S. for being such conscientious recyclers.
Recycling Tip: Purchase greeting cards made from
recycled or tree-free materials. Americans send
two billion holiday cards each year, so just a 1 percent reduction could save 15,000 trees.
AVID
In AVID, we have been learning about setting goals. We have been working on following through
and creating patterns and habits that will allow us to see our goals become reality. Additionally, we have
been writing SMART goals (if you don’t know what that is, ask an AVID student!), and we have also been
working on Goal, Plan, Action prompts to see our dreams become reality.
AVID is more than just an elective; it is a community. It is a
group of students around the nation who want more for themselves. AVID students are self-driven and goal-oriented individuals striving to improve and reach their goals of graduating from
high school and going to the college or university of their choosing. No dream is too big for AVID students!
For more info about the AVID program ask any AVID student. You can spot them on campus with
their big binders and air of confidence. You can also see Mr. Morris, the AVID coordinator, in room in 302.
Online Payment For School Activities
Credit and Debit cards accepted
Would it be easier for you to make a
school fees and field trip payments anytime from the comfort of your own home?
Please visit our new
payment site where
you can now pay
your student’s
school fees by debit
or credit card online
using a web
browser from any
location, 24 hours a