DRAGON DIGEST
VOLUME 3 / ISSUE 6, OCTOBER 26, 2018
DESANA DAY OF GOOD DEEDS
D3 DAY T-SHIRT DESIGN CONTEST
It’s that time of year again…. Our annual t-shirt contest for our DeSana Day of Good Deeds! We are holding a contest for DeSana students to design a t-shirt for D3 Day, with original artwork, that reflects what D3 Day and serving in the community means to them. All students are encouraged to participate. The D3 Day Steering Committee will choose three finalists, and then the entire student body will vote for the winning design. The winning t-shirt design will be displayed front and center on over 1,000 t-shirts worn by students, staff and volunteers on D3 Day 2019!
If you have not already received a form from your Dragon Time teacher, please download a copy.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZGR8_VeVBV9OuFD2mY8tLHp7GZhLIyIr/view?usp=sharing
BECOME A D3 DAY FAMILY OR CORPORATE SPONSOR
Please consider becoming a D3 Day Family sponsor or if you own a business consider being a corporate sponsor. A $50 Family sponsorship will get your Family name on the back of our D3 Day t-shirts. Consider what your $50 will help purchase:
- $15= shipping cost for 1 goodie box for active duty Troops overseas (Goal: 50 boxes) (postage for Treat the Troop boxes- US government does not pay for this)
- $25= 203 diapers and wipes will make 385 diaper/wipe packs (Goal: 400 )(NFCC-North Fulton Community Charities)
- $50= fleece fabric for 10 blankets (Goal: 75) (Project Linus, Family Promise, Homeless shelters)
- $75= 22 entertainment bags with puzzles and games for children (Goal 400) (SAFFT, CHOA, Hugh Spalding, Northside Hospital)
- $100= 59 lunches for at risk or homeless children (Goal 432) (Bags of Love, homeless children)
If you own a business and would like to donate to D3 Day or would like to be a family sponsor, please contact Dawn Bourg or Jennifer Harris (dawn@bourgs.com jharris@campharris.org), all donations are tax deductible
COLLECTIONS FOR D3 DAY
What do we need this year? Collection boxes will be located in the atrium of the school.
- Magazines (particularly men's magazines) to send in the Treat the Troops boxes.
- One yard of new fleece for cat toys
- Old towels and blankets to donate to animal shelters
PTO
IMPRESSIONS CONTEST
Attention Dragons!!!! Do you enjoy . . .
Drawing
Painting
Writing Stories
Photography
Making Short Films
Creating Dance Routines
Composing Music
If the answer is YES, please enter the DeSana’s Impressions Contest!
Students in all grades are eligible to participate and may submit one or more works of art in the categories listed above.
This year’s theme is "Favorite Place!”
Click here for official contest rules and printable entry forms. If you are unable to print from home, stop by the front office for entry forms and rules.
All submissions will be judged first at the School Wide Level. Winners at the School Wide Level will move onto the County Level. **No winners this year at the State and National Level**
BOOK FAIR VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Our awesome media specialist, Tess MacMillan, is in need of a handful of volunteers at the Book Fair from Monday, October 29th through Monday, November 5th. If you are able to help, please sign up using the link below! We appreciate your time and assistance. Thank you!
ACADEMICS
FIRST PRIDE AWARDS OF THE 2018-2019 SCHOOL YEAR
On Monday, October 29th at 9:30 AM our DeSana faculty, staff and administration will host our PRIDE Award Celebration for the first quarter of this school year. Thirty-eight sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students, who were selected by their teachers, will be honored at this formal occasion for exemplifying the following wonderful attributes and characteristics:
Practices Random Acts of Kindness
Ready and Willing to Work Hard
Integrity Coupled with Responsible Behavior
Demonstrates Outstanding and Honest Efforts
Exceeds Expectations
Parents and family members of the honored students are invited to attend this celebration, and join with DeSana teachers and administrators in honoring our young Dragons as they each receive a PRIDE Award certificate, a Dragon PRIDE pin, and a personalized plaque, made expressly for our DeSana PRIDE Award recipients by our fabulous and very generous Business Partner, All-American Specialties. A huge shout out and thank you to Keith Williams of All-American Specialties for designing and donating the individualized plaques for each PRIDE Award honoree!
In addition, at each PRIDE Award Celebration, we invite a Forsyth County Schools or community business leader to come and share a few pearls of wisdom. We are very pleased to have Mr. Joe Cappadonia, FCS Director of Middle Schools, join us on the 29th to share a few words with our PRIDE Award honorees and their parents.
We look forward to honoring some extraordinary students for this first quarter of the school year as we toast the pride of DeSana!
UPCOMING DENMARK COMMUNITY PARENT INFORMATION MEETING --- Begin with the End in Mind: Navigating Transitions from Elementary to Middle to High School
Mark your calendars now for November 5th, from 6:30 – 7:30 at the Denmark HS auditorium, and join other parents in our Denmark Community for an informative session hosted by the Denmark Community Administration about successful transitions through the different levels of school in the K – 12 educational journey. Administrators from our Denmark community elementary and middle schools, and Denmark HS, will share information about what your kids have to look forward to at each school level and how to help them be successful and thrive as they begin their journey at each level. Whether you have a 2nd grade child, or a 7th grader, or a HS freshman, or one anywhere in between, it should be an informative evening for all! Childcare will be provided for students K-5.
We hope to see you on Monday, November 5th at 6:30 at Denmark HS!
DRAGON ACADEMY FOR THE 2018-2019 SCHOOL YEAR - - - AN OPPORTUNITY FOR ADDITIONAL LEARNING & ASSESSMENT TIME FOR STUDENTS!
Dragon Academy is an opportunity we will begin offering students on August 25th from 4:15 – 6:15 for completing, taking or re-taking formative and/or summative assessments (i.e. unit tests, projects, essays, quizzes. etc.). Dragon Academy will happen at least two times a month --- on Fridays ---beginning Friday, August 24th, with teachers and an administrator supervising each session. It is a fantastic opportunity for students to drastically improve both their learning and their grades. Students will be invited by their teachers . . . or they may invite themselves . . . to attend Dragon Academy if they are missing work or need to re-take an assessment to show better mastery of the standards or complete a project. Although students will have about two hours to complete their work, once they complete all that they came to accomplish, students will be able to call their parent to come pick them up. Snacks and drinks will be sold for a very reasonable cost so students may focus on their work, not on their gurgling stomachs! Any necessary school supplies will be provided for students to use to complete their work, as needed.
Please mark your calendars now for these Dragon Academy dates for the rest of the school year:
· October 26
· November 9 &16
· December 7 & 14
· January 25
· February 8 & 22
· March 15 & 29
· April 19 & 26
· May 3 & 10
ACTIVITIES
On Monday morning, November 12th, DeSana students and staff will host our second annual Veterans Day Celebration as we pay tribute to veterans and service men and women still serving in our armed forces today. We want to invite any and all veterans of past wars, and men and women still serving our country today, who are a part of our DeSana community to a special breakfast in their honor, to be followed by a school wide assembly at which we will pay tribute to their great sacrifice and love of country. It might be a father or a mother of one of our students . . . a brother or sister . . . a grandfather . . . a cousin . . . an uncle or an aunt . . . a neighbor down the street . . . or a member of our DeSana community that you know. Whoever they are, we would love to have them and their family members join us for the morning - - - a breakfast in their honor from 9:00 – 9:40 and then our school wide Veterans Day Celebrationfrom 10:00 – 11:00.
If you are a veteran or a service man or woman still serving our country today OR if you have a family relative who is a veteran or a service man or woman still serving in our armed forces ORif you know a veteran or a present day service man or woman who lives in our community, we would love for you to send us their name and either their mailing address or email address so that we may send them an invitation to our Veterans Day Celebration on Monday, November 12th. Please send this information to Therese Batson, one of our wonderful DeSana secretaries, at TBatson27@forsyth.k12.ga.us, and she will send them an invitation to join us, with the times and other important information.
We also want to create a Gallery of Honor for the day of our Veterans Day Celebration, filled with photos of our veterans and service men and women still serving in our armed forces. We could use your help with this as well! If you could bring to the school or send by your young Dragon a photo of the veteran(s) in your family and/or a photo of any service men or women in your family or neighborhood still serving today, we promise to take good care of the photo and will display it on November 12th for all or our students, staff and visitors to see throughout this day. Photos should be sent to Therese Batson, DeSana school secretary, no later than Friday, November 2nd by 4:30.
We are quite excited as we make plans for our second Veterans Day Celebration! Our first Celebration last year was such a wonderful event! A committee of volunteer DeSana staff members are working diligently to bring this day of tribute to life for the veterans and service men and women in our community, and for our young Dragons. We look forward to continuing this awesome new DeSana tradition for many more years to come!
7TH GRADE OVERNIGHT FIELD TRIP
The 7th grade Overnight Field trip is now open for students to sign up for. On Friday, May 2 and Saturday, May 3, 2019, 7th grade students from Desana will embark on a field trip to Zoo Atlanta, ending with an overnight experience at the Georgia Aquarium. Cost is $140 per student and there is a limit of 180 attendees. If your student is interested in attending, full payment or a deposit of $40 should be brought to Mrs. Strader on the 8th grade hallway, room 2207, in order to reserve your spot. Please make sure that all paperwork is complete upon submission and any checks are made payable to Desana Middle School. Click here for all the details and for a registration form.
If you have any questions, please email Mrs. Strader at jstrader@forsyth.k12.ga.us.
BOOK FAIR STARTS MONDAY!
The Scholastic Book Fair is coming to DeSana! Students will be visiting the fair next week with their classes, and Family Night is Tuesday, October 30th, when the fair will stay open until 7:00pm. Come out and bring the family!
You may also shop our fair ONLINE. All orders are shipped to the school free of charge. Click here to preview our fair and shop! Don't forget, if you don't want to send cash to school with your student, there is now a secure, cash-free way to shop the fair called eWallet. Parents simply create an account and authorize a spending limit on their credit card. Click here for more information on eWallet!
Thank you for supporting our media center by participating in our book fair, where students get excited about books!
For daily book fair updates, follow us on Instagram: desanamediacenter
DESANA GARDEN CLUB COLLECTING PLANT CONATINERS
PARENT 411 - HELPFUL LINKS FOR YOU
OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION
DESANA'S LOCAL SCHOOL COUNCIL (LSC)
The next DeSana LSC meeting will be held on Friday, November 2nd at 7:30 AM in the front office conference room. The LSC meets monthly (except for January) at 7:30 AM on the following dates:
· November 2, 2018
· December 7, 2018
· February 8, 2019
· March 1, 2019
· April 12, 2019
· May 3, 2019
Members of the DeSana LSC are:
· Barry Herrin Parent / Businessperson Rep
· Christopher Naffky Parent / Businessperson Rep & LSC Vice Chairperson
· Michael Smith - Parent Rep
· Victor Williams - Parent Rep & LSC Chairperson
· Jennifer Hester-Hall - PTO Rep
· Bridget Bryson - Teacher Rep
· Laureen Krawiec - Teacher Rep & LSC Secretary
· Stacy Dockter - Teacher Rep
· Terri North - Principal
YEARBOOKS!
2018-2019 DeSana Yearbooks are on sale. Visit balfour.com and order yours today! The price is $40 and the price will go up to $45 on November 1st. Students may also see Mrs. West on the 7th grade hall with cash or check.
8th graders! Don’t miss out on the chance for an 8th grade ad. They are 1/8 of a page, cost $15, and are due by January 31, 2019. Directions are attached HERE.
THANKSGIVING FOOD DRIVE
We are starting our Thanksgiving food drive this week to donate food to The Place at Forsyth to help families in our community this upcoming holiday season. Each school in the county is donating a different food item to The Place and DeSana was selected to donate stuffing! We are focusing on stuffing, but if students bring in other non-perishable Thanksgiving food items like canned green beans, cornbread mix, canned cranberries, gravy, and other food, we will still accept those and donate them to The Place. Our collection ends on November 6th.
The homeroom that collects the most stuffing will win a Donut Party one day during homeroom during the second week of November!!
THANKS TO OUR AMAZING BUSINESS PARTNERS!
*ALL AMERICAN SPECIALTIES
*BROWNS BRIDGE CHURCH
*CHICK-FIL-A @ THE COLLECTION
*DUNKIN DONUTS
*DR. HOM PEDIATRIC DENTISTRY & ALPHARETTA COMPREHENSIVE DENTISTRY
*HI FIVE SPORTS
*MARVEL SOCCER
*MILTON DENTAL SPECIALISTS
*NORTH GEORGIA PROMOTIONS
*OMEGA LEARNING
*RBM OF ALPHARETTA
*RISPA
*VERTICAL CHURCH
Forsyth County Schools does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, disability, or gender in employment decisions or educational programs and activities.