Cardinal Call
Dodge City Middle School
October Newsletter
Email: dcms@443mail.org
Website: https://usd443.org/DCMS
Location: Dodge City Middle School, 6th Avenue, Dodge City, KS, USA
Phone: (620) 471-2100
Facebook: facebook.com/dodgecitymiddleschool
Twitter: @DodgeCityMiddle
Principal's News!
Teen Vaping: What to Watch For
Today, teens are vaping and using e-cigarettes that do
not have the familiar tobacco smell and may not have
any odor at all. Here are some signs that may be side
effects of vaping:
1. Finding Unusual or Unfamiliar Items:
Disposable or refillable pods that contain the e-juice (or vape juice) may
be the most commonly-found item. However, many vaping devices may
look like benign objects in disguise. JUUL achieved phenomenal success
in part by designing its devices to resemble USB drives that can be
hidden and charged in plain sight. Other manufacturers are now
designing vape devices that resemble watches, pens, markers and
other common objects.
2. Behavioral Changes, Mood Swings, Agitation:
Mood swings, agitation, impulsivity, secretiveness, memory
loss, inability to concentrate and anxiety are some of the key
changes you may see. This may be due to the effect of nicotine
substantially diminishing the prefrontal cortex of a young brain,
which largely governs emotional control, decision making and
impulse regulation.
3. Shortness of Breath:
If a child is an athlete and starts having trouble breathing
during practices or games, it could be due to vaping.
4. Poor Performance:
If a child’s academic or athletic performance starts to
decline, it could be due to nicotine-induced changes in the
brain. Students who get caught vaping at school may be
suspended or kicked off the team.
5. Increased thirst and nose bleeds:
Some types of e-liquids contain chemicals that dry out
the mouth and nasal passages. This can heighten thirst
and prompt more frequent nose bleeds.
6. Mouth Sores, Abnormal Coughing, Throat-Clearing:
Vaping inflames mouth cells and oral tissue, which could
lead to lesions, gum disease, tooth loss and other forms of
oral decay. It can also irritate the throat, causing vapers to
frequently cough or clear their throat.
7. Strange/Sweet Odors:
One of the appeals of vaping is the “fun” flavors like mint,
bubblegum, and chocolate. While certainly less pungent than
cigarette smoke, the trace odors of vaping are still noticeable.
The most popular flavors are sweet so you may notice an
unusually sweet smell, although it goes away quickly.
8. Vaping Lingo:
Vaping has developed its own culture, with popular videos on
YouTube and Twitter showing vape cloud tricks and slang.
Keep an ear out for overheard conversations with coded
phrases like “atty” for the device’s atomizer and “sauce” in
place of e-liquid or e-juice.
By The Vape Free Kansas Schools Task Force, November 2020.
DCMS Principals
Mrs. Wells - Head Principal (7th Grade Principal)
Mrs. Bogner - Assistant Principal (8th Grade Principal)
Mr. Still - Assistant Principal/Athletic Director (6th Grade Principal)
Teacher of the Year for Secondary Education nominee
Cardboard Haunted House Contest
Cost: Free! There will be NO cost to enter the contest
Who: All DCMS students are invited to participate
What: This contest is asking participants to create their own original handmade haunted house using cardboard for the structure. *Non-edible decorations may be used to embellish the house and base.
When: Houses may be entered into the contest starting Monday, October 3. The deadline for the contest is Friday, October 21. The houses will be on display in the library until Friday, November 4 when they will need to be picked up.
Guidelines and Regulations: PLEASE READ
- All entries must be on a base and cannot be larger than 18"X18".
- The structure (house) cannot be more than 24" tall.
- Edible items cannot be used on your house.
- The main construction of the house must be cardboard, Premade houses are not permitted for the contest.
- Please place your name on the underside of the base.
- Prizes will be awarded to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners.
- Entry forms can be picked up in the library when you turn your haunted house in.
Good luck and have fun!
DCMS Spirit Shirts are now on sale!
Shirts may be purchased at the DCMS Front Office during office hours.
Shirt sizes available: Youth Large to Adult 3XL.
Limited shirts Available!
Make checks payable to: DCMS
Tips from the Counselors
What’s to Come in October:
DID YOU KNOW?
Children of parents who talk to their teens regularly about drugs are 42% less likely to use drugs than those who don’t; yet, only a quarter of teens report having these conversations. Red Ribbon Week is the oldest and largest drug prevention campaign in the nation, this your opportunity to get the ongoing conversation started.
In the Classroom:
Counselors, Mrs. Jacobs and Mrs. Rich, will be in and out of classrooms this month focusing on bullying prevention, specifically EMPATHY. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Ask your child about the lessons, and engage in conversation with what they have been learning, as well as how they plan to empathize.
Nurse's Corner
Nurse
- To ensure your vision remains comfortable and your eyes continue to support your needs, follow these everyday teen eye care tips:
- Eat nutrient-rich foods
- A healthy, balanced diet with variety and a vast selection of fruits, nuts, vegetables, and foods rich in antioxidants and essential fatty acids is necessary for healthy eyes.
- Avoid junk food
- A diet high in fat and junk/processed food can cause deposits that constrict blood flow in the arteries. Our eyes are sensitive to this because the blood vessels that feed the eyes are already small in size and suffer from additional constriction.
- Exercise to improve blood circulation
- When blood circulation increases, oxygen levels in the eyes are improved, and more toxins are removed.
- Get appropriate amounts of sleep.
- Good sleep benefits everything from mood to overall health. Despite your busy schedule as a teen, it’s vital to prioritize adequate and consistent sleep each night, as this will support eye health.
- Wash your hands
- Clean hands are vital for overall eye health – especially if you’re a contact lens wearer. Touching your eyes with dirty hands can transfer dirt, germs, and bacteria onto your eye’s surface – allowing you to catch anything from the common cold to bacterial conjunctivitis (pink eye).
- Be cautious and safe with makeup and hairspray.
- It’s always best practice to ensure your eyes are safe when applying makeup and hairspray.
- Put contact lenses in after you use your hairspray.
- Put contact lenses in before applying makeup to avoid contaminating the lenses with residue from makeup on your fingers.
- Use caution when applying lotions, powders, and gels with bits of glitter in them. Avoid applying too close to the eyes; always wash the glitter off your hands immediately.
- Be mindful when using digital devices.
- It’s common for teens to look at a digital screen for hours on end – whether on the computer, phone, TV, etc. – for anything from homework to relaxation. Unfortunately, too much digital screen use can take a toll on the eyes and cause them to feel dry and gritty. When digital screen use is a must, consider these safe use habits:
- Adjust the lighting on your screen to minimize glare.
- Blink frequently.
- Take a break every 20 minutes to focus on an object 20 feet away for 20 seconds.
- Keep your computer screen within 20″-24″ of your eyes.
- Use blue-light blocking glasses.
- Wear protective eyewear when necessary
- If you wear glasses or contacts, consider wearing sport-specific eyewear to defend against eye injuries while simultaneously helping performance by improving visual clarity.
- Using power tools or simply going outside, use appropriate protective eyewear, such as safety goggles/glasses and UV-protected sunglasses.
- Get an annual eye exam from an optometrist.
- The best care and protection for your vision are through an optometrist's regular, professional eye exams. Annual exams can help you care for your eyes and detect any issues you may be unaware of – like a family history of eye disease.
Olympians/Spartans
As we settle into a new school year and new school, our students are excited to have some freedoms that they may not have had at elementary such as walking to classes, using the restroom as needed, not as a class, and sitting with friends in lunch. We have all been trying to teach them that with freedom, they must have self-control, or they could lose this freedom. They must control their bodies- hands and feet to themselves, their volume, and they must make good choices because someone is always watching.
Students who make good choices will be recognized throughout the school year in the following ways:
Student of the Month
Each month every 6th-grade teacher will choose a student for any of the following reasons; someone who has been working hard in class and has shown growth and improvement in the content area, someone who is responsible and a good role model for their peers. We will have a short assembly at the end of the month, and students will receive a certificate, medal, and a non-uniform day bracelet. Parents of the recipients will get a notification from their child’s teacher so they can attend. During this assembly, we will also recognize the Citizenship award winner, given to a student who is unanimously chosen by the teachers and demonstrates leadership, good character, and great effort in all areas.
Student Caught-Ya Positive Referral Program:
A positive referral is when a teacher or staff member catches (Catches =Caught-Ya -get it) a student doing anything positive (hold a door, help a classmate, raise a grade, improve behavior, receive a great test score, etc.). That teacher can fill out a positive referral for this student. We aim to recognize our students for going above and beyond without being asked. We want to reward the positives happening at DCMS! Students caught doing any positive act will receive the Caught-Ya form from any teacher or staff member and will be given a non-uniform day bracelet at the end of the week for the following Monday! A copy of the good deed goes home with the student so they can share it with their family, and they will be recognized in the Caught-Ya slideshows shown around DCMS and on the DCMS Facebook Page and Caught-Ya's, which IT Advisory makes.
Odyssey & Voyagers
In the month of October, Odyssey students will be challenged with many learning opportunities. In Mr. Varner’s science class students be learning more about the Periodic Table of Elements, changing states of matter, chemical reactions, and balancing chemical equations. This information is the basic foundation of what high school chemistry students learn.
English-Language arts teachers Mrs. Moore and Mrs. Rodriguez will teach Unit 5 “Facing Adversity,” as well as start progress monitoring and MTSS rotations.
In Ms. Camacho’s Connect class students will be exploring what a digital footprint is and creating word art to describe what the students want their digital footprint to portray. Since October is bullying awareness month we will also be doing various activities such as discussing bullying and cyber bullying. We will create posters and or videos for this unit to be displayed in the classroom and possibly the hallways.
Ms. Figueroa’s math classes will be working with Proportional Reasoning with percents.
Mr. Torres Arredondo’s PE classes students will be working on our “Throwing and Catching” unit
Miss Johnston’s geography lessons will move from the study of physical geography (landforms, weather, climate, etc.) to the study of human geography. We will learn about elements of culture such as language, religion, and arts. We will also explore the idea of population – where do people choose to live on our planet and why.
All-Stars & Defenders
The All-Star team is proud to announce the following students as September Students of the Month: Miranda Sanchez, Lyla Calderon, Anahy Morales, Jocelyn Chay, Remegio Reynoso, Yadiel Feliciano, Marcos Padilla, and Arturo Lopez Armenta. We appreciate their hard work. If you see them, make sure to congratulate them.
P.E. students have been completing fitness testing which includes the pacer,push-up test and curl ups.
Math has been working hard at solving linear equations.
Social studies has been learning about the 13 Colonies and Early colonization.
ELA has been focusing on sentence structure, active and passive voice, and reading literature that focuses on the theme “Rites of Passage”.
Science has been learning all about cells and how to use a microscope.
Connect students are creating a slide show presentation about their dream vacation.
Explores
October Calendar Dates
Events subject to change. Please contact the Dodge City Middle School office with questions at 620-471-2100.
- October 12th 2:30pm-pep assembly
- No school October 21st
- STUCO carnival on October 28th
View the Dodge City Middle School calendar by clicking here.
Calendar Subscription
Subscribing to the DCMS calendar pulls the events from this calendar and displays them in your Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, iPhone, iPad, Android, or other device. You will need to click here in order to subscribe.
Red & White Days October Calendar
Key: Red filled boxes = red day
White filled boxes = white day
Gray filled boxes = no school
6th Grade Team Red Day/White Day Schedule
Spartans (Red Day = P.E.) (White Day = Connect)
Olympians (Red Day = Connect) (White Day = P.E.)
7th Grade Team Red Day/White Day Schedule
Odyssey (Red Day = P.E.) (White Day = Connect)
Voyagers (Red Day = Connect) (White Day = P.E.)
8th Grade Team Red Day/White Day Schedule
All Stars (Red Day = P.E.) (White Day = Connect)
Defenders (Red Day= Connect) (White Day = P.E.)
Handbooks
Skyward Family Access
Please communicate with the Dodge City Middle School Office Staff 620-471-2100 if you have any changes in any contact information and we will get this updated in Skyward.
DCMS Cardinal Athletics
FOOTBALL GAMES
10/6- vs Horace Good -4:30PM10/13- vs Great Bend -4:30 PM
VOLLEYBALL GAMES:
10/3- vs @CMS -4:00 PM
10/4- 7/8th Grade @Ulysses/Hugoton -4:00 PM
10/8- 8/7th Grade MSWAC @Doge City -10:00 AM
Cross Country Meets:
10/4- Home @DC Demon Lake -4:00 PM
10/8- Liberal @Arklalon Park -10:00 AM
Basketball GAMES:
10/24- vs @GC Kenneth Henderson -3:30 PM
10/27- Home @Liberal Seymour Rogers -4:00 PM
STUCO
Hello citizens of DCMS! I am here to tell you what the student council has planned for the month of October. On the 13th the Aloha Bowl and pep rally will be the first occasions ready to take action. Stuco will be selling white shirts with a red design and they will be a-ok to wear to school as a uniform. The cost for the shirt will be $12 for any size with no tax. Oh! Afterwards from the 23rd-31st is Red Ribbon Week! We will be having a food drive, from the 23rd to the 28th for the Manna House. You will receive FREE tickets for the DCMS Red Ribbon Carnival for canned foods donated. The Spirit week themes will be: Pj( Pajamas), Fancy, Surfer/hawaiian/tourist, Twin, and Senior Citizen. As for the great finale, DMCS STUCO will be hosting our 1st annual Red Ribbon Week Carnival!!! It will take place on the 28th from 5pm-8pm. There will be raffles to win AMAZING prizes, games to play, face painting and more. Although that’s not the best part, we will be pieing our administrators and some of the teachers! So don’t forget about this enormous event! 28th of October, 5pm-8pm 1st annual Red Ribbon Carnival! Keep an eye out for our flyers and announcements for more information.
Reporter/Historian
STUCO Member
Juana V.
October 28- STUCO Carnival
Professional qualifications
If you have questions regarding your students state assessment scores, please contact the school principal where your child is attending school.