Rattler News
Fall - Winter 2019
Mike Davis
Principal
Administrative Assistant
Marilyn Daniels
480-635-2025 ext. 403
Jim Louzek
Assistant Principal & Athletic Director
Administrative Athletic Assistant
Laurie McBride
480-635-2025 ext. 402
Ryan Salazar
Dean of Students
480-635-2025 ext. 407
Receptionist
Sonya Richardson
Contact DRJHS
Message from Principal Mike Davis
Hello Rattlers,
Second quarter is well underway now and students are realizing that their grades did not reset for second quarter. Semester long grades are part of the transition from elementary school to high school. We hope to provide students with knowledge of their path to high school, but also show them that a rough start can be overcome with hard work, and that sustaining the grade they want to achieve is a long and worthy accomplishment.
Our focus this year is student growth. We know grades are important, but the individual growth of every student is important to us. As I discuss with the teachers the importance of second chances, please do the same with your child(ren). It is never too late to take a positive step in the right direction. We want our students to take responsibility and control over their academics, but we also know that is a skill we want to help encourage and grow. We want the students to ask their teachers for help or clarification, we want them to discuss options, suggest a plan to increase a grade or score, and to attend tutoring. All these interactions provide students with confidence to become an advocate for themselves. This is not a request to remove parents from the communication loop at all. We still want to keep communication open between families, but we do want to get the students to grow and realize the control they have in their academic journey.
As AZ MERIT results and state awarded school grades become a popular conversation in November I want us all to remember the hard work the staff, students, and our families put into a full academic year should not be forgotten. As a staff, the data from last spring has already been analyzed and we have begun working on improving our students proficiency and growth. We will continue to talk about a “Productive Struggle” with our students and encouraging them to give their best effort on assessments and to not give up on difficult questions. When a student has exhausted their knowledge base on a problem, we want them to then provide their best educated guess. We also teach test taking strategies to give our students the best possible chance to score their best.
As a reminder, we invested in high quality student planners that all students were provided for free as the year began. A replacement can be purchased in the front office for $5. We are noticing many students are not using them in a way that it is beneficial to the student or their families. We encourage you to speak to your child(ren) about the planner and how you would like them to use it. Our teachers would be more than happy to share with you all how to maximize the effectiveness of the planner.
Each student has been given a student ID card. We use these ID’s for lunch accounts, entrance to school activities, and
to identify students on campus. If your child(ren) does not have one, they should purchase a new ID for $5 as soon as possible in the front office.
Mr. Mike Davis
Principal
!!CONGRATULATIONS!!
Mrs. Herron received a $5000 Fiesta Bowl Grant for classroom supplies of her choice.
~Mrs. Vucko
Mrs. Vucko has won an SRP Touchdowns for Teachers $500 Grant in partnership with the Arizona Cardinals.
Congratulations Mrs. Herron and Mrs. Vucko!!
ATHLETICS
Registration for 2019-2020 sports is now available! Please visit www.registermyathlete.com
to register your student. Please register your student for all sports you think they might be interested in participating in.
Desert Ridge Junior High offers the following sports:
Winter Sports: November-February
7th Grade Girls Softball
8th Grade Girls Softball
7th Grade Boys Basketball
8th Grade Boys Basketball
7th and 8th Grade Wrestling
Cross Country
Chess
Cheer
Spring Sports: February-April
7th Grade Girls Basketball
8th Grade Girls Basketball
7th Grade Boys Baseball
8th Grade Boys Baseball
Track
Dance
Cheer
Complete Registration on Register My Athlete (www.registermyathlete.com)
Completed an AIA physical form (printed off from Register my athlete website)
Athletic Fee paid after you make the team $35 for Dance and Chess; $75.00 for all remaining sports.
Minimum 2.0 GPA, No F’s or Falling Grades in any subject.
Please follow the attached instructions to register your student. Your student must be marked "Complete for Tryouts" in order to try out for any sport.
If you have any questions, please contact the DRJHS Athletic Office at (480) 635-2025 x402 (laurie.mcbride@gilbertschools.net)
For Winter Sports schedule, follow link below
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0Xje26Yb3bLLWt1MTVWczhBTDhmazRKSU00bF8yaXh5VmRF/view?usp=sharing
Thank you,
Jim Louzek
Athletic Director
ATTENDANCE
Students receiving 6+ excused/unexcused tardies in 1st hour will be assigned PRIDE hour. PRIDE hour will be assigned for each tardy after 6.
Attendance Line
480-635-2025 ext. 550
Karen Mitchell
Attendance Specialist/Registrar
480-635-2025 ext 406
Kimberly Weamer
Attendance Technician
480-635-2025 ext. 416
BAND
8th Grade Recruitment Marching Night - Friday, November 1th - 5:30 pm at the DRHS band room
Band Winter Concert - Tuesday, December 10th @ 7:00 pm in the DRHS AuditoriumBrian Mabry
DRJHS Band Director
COUNSELING
We are looking for speakers from a variety of career fields to empower our students to be college and career ready. Students are excited to hear about the demands and outlook within your career field, the training and education needed to prepare to succeed in the field, but also to speak about your own college experiences. Career guest speakers are an important part of our college and career education and allow students an opportunity to broaden their horizons and keep options open as they begin to make decisions that will affect their own choices and planning.
If you're interested in being a guest speaker in our AVID classes, please contact Rosie Gorton, DRJHS AVID Site Coordinator at 480-635-2025 ext. 409 or Rosie.Gorton@gilbertschools.net
8th Grade Counselor - Rosie Gorton (ext. 409)
7th Grade Counselor - Cornelius Turner (ext. 408)
DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP
Help Make Friends and Interact Safely Online
Check out these 4 tips
1.Give them the right words.
Kids learn about appropriate verbal and physical communication from watching you. But online conversations can be invisible. Occasionally, narrate as you’re writing texts or social media comments when your kids are in earshot.
2. Learn about their worlds.
Tweens and teens have unique communication styles--especially online. As much as possible keep an eye on what they’re saying and doing online to understand the norm in their worlds. Don’t police everything they say, but keep an ear out for aggressive trash-talking, hate speech, rude images, or anything hurtful. If you see stuff that crosses the line, speak up. Kids need to understand that their words have consequences.
3. Empathize with the pressure to overshare.
Tweens and teens might feel pushed into sharing an inappropriate photo for different reasons: a dare, fear of damaging a relationship, or just because “everyone else is doing it.” But this one is non-negotiable. Tell them that you understand how bad it can feel to disappoint a friend. Then help them imagine how much worse it would feel if a private picture were shared with their whole school.
4. Develop their instincts.
Help kids learn to trust their guts so they can identify creepy, risky, or otherwise unsafe online situations. Playact a few scenarios. What if someone asks to take a conversation private? What if someone asks for your phone number? What if someone invites you to a private chat room? Be aware that some kids (even “good” kids) will explore iffy stuff online out of curiosity. But the minute they feel uncomfortable, they need to shut things down.
ANNUAL WASHINGTON DC TRIP
WASHINGTON D.C.
MAY 26, 2020 - MAY 30, 2020
The Capitol, WhiteHouse, George Washington's home at Mt. Vernon, National Cathedral,
Arlington National Cemetery, Washington Monument, Smithsonian
Museums, Lincoln Memorial, Korean and Vietnam War Memorials,
and many more monuments and memorials, the battlefield at Gettysburg-Pennsylvania,
Fort McHenry in Baltimore where the National Anthem was written.
All of these are places you will get to visit if you join us on our trip to D.C.
There are a few seats left. If you are interested or have any questions, please contact Mr.
Livingston at 635-2025 ext. 204 or register at Worldstrides.org. Group # 173368
Tuesday, May 26, 2020, 12:00 AM
Washington D.C., DC, USA
LIBRARY BOOK FAIR
DRJHS will be having our Book Fair on December 3 -6. Come get your holiday shopping started! The Fair will be open from 8:00 till 3:30 each day!
Tuesday, Dec 3, 2019, 08:00 AM
Desert Ridge Junior High School, East Madero Avenue, Mesa, AZ, USA
Library News
Scholastic Book Club
https://clubs.scholastic.com/homedef?src=NEWRCOSIGNIN
Mrs. Gloria Whitlow
DRJHS Librarian
HEALTH OFFICE
PLEASE FEED ME BREAKFAST
Many visits to the Health Office are related to Hunger.
Students complain of feeling fatigue - nausea - headache - difficulty concentrating - stomach ache - feeling dizzy - hungry - feeling faint
A healthy diet supports growth and development and reduces the risk of chronic disease.
It should include fruits, vegetables, protein, dairy, grains, and oils with limited saturated and trans fats, added sugars and sodium
The CDC 2015-2020 guideline recommends 2,200 calories/day to support a healthy body weight of an active boy, and 2,000 for an active girl.
Repeat studies report that skipping breakfast leads to weight gain by overeating later in the day
No breakfast leads to poor school performance, low energy, poor concentration, and poor memory
Parents of girls, please ensure that your daughter has a change of bottoms and underwear in her bag for emergencies. Please confirm you've completed the online health history and given permission for Ibuprofen to be administered in the health office as needed.
Barb Naleski, RN
p 480-635-2025 ext. 410
f 480-635-2044
Heather Pluhar
Health Office Assistant
480-635-2025 ext. 413
PTRO
Sign up here:
https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/5080d48aeab23a31-gratitude
Learn more here:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10215974819347470&id=1357334355&sfnsn=mo&d=n&vh=i
Annual United Food Bank Canned Food Drive
Desert Ridge Jr. High is getting ready to kick-off our annual United Food Bank Canned Food Drive. Each year we seem to find a way to top the last year. The previous four years DRJHS has donated 56,800, 59,311, 60,314, and last year 66,706 pounds of food. The food drive will kick-off November 12th and the food donation will end on November 21st.
Our teachers will be setting goals and challenging the students and our families to donate specific items on set days based on the community needs. The United Food Bank provides statistics we will share with our students and our families throughout the month of November. Many of our teachers spend money from their own pockets to purchase incentives for students, and some are willing to put themselves through physical challenges such as dodgeball battles and pies to the face.
We cannot do this alone. We encourage our Desert Ridge families to reach out to us if you have community connections. Some companies will host drives at their work and then bring it to DRJHS as a donation from their employees. Others will donate pallets of rice bags or water bottles to our cause. Money donations are accepted as well. If you would like to donate food, water, or money to our school please contact the front office at 480-635-2025 ext 401.
We welcome ideas and donations for incentives for our students. The sky is the limit, so gift cards to popular teen hangouts are valuable incentives like Dutch Bros, Dunkin' Donuts, and movie tickets.