The second graders enjoyed the demonstrations and activities set up and taught by our Upper School volunteer chemistry students. This is a highlight every year for both groups.
1819 Chem Day from The Buzz on Vimeo.
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Annual Chemistry Day Enjoyed by All Participants
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Making Service Part of the Daily Lesson Plan
A life lived in service of others is a life well lived. As a math teacher, I don’t often study history, but I was struck by how this message seems to be echoed by some of the most revered historical figures our world has ever seen. As Mahatma Gandhi describes it, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” Anne Frank urged the world to commit to helping others when she said, “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” Many other political, social, literary, and artistic figures have weighed in on the subject of service, from Barack Obama to Walt Whitman. These philosophies are a large part of why I became a teacher - I wanted to use my gifts and talents to serve others in big and small ways; to change not only the world at large but each student’s world. I try to instill a service-centered mindset in each of my students so that they too can go out and change the world.
As a DCDS community, we designate the month of April to be “Celebrating Service Month.” Through field trips to soup kitchens, food pantries, and under-resourced schools, as well as character education activities integrated into science, English, and math lessons, we as educators aim to inspire our students to become change-makers in their communities. As with any lesson worth learning, however, one homework assignment, one class discussion, or one field trip is not enough to ensure that our students incorporate service in their lives. It is our goal as a community that we ‘celebrate service’ throughout the year.
My students don’t learn their multiplication tables by hearing me tell them once or twice that four times four is sixteen or two times ten is twenty - and, if they did, they’d probably be on a fast track to Harvard. Instead, it takes flashcards at the dinner table every night - “What’s three times nine?” in between bites of spaghetti - and quizzes every other class for months on end before the mental computations become nearly effortless. Even then, our students need consistent practice to keep their brains from forgetting even the most straightforward multiplication tasks from their memory bank. In a parallel manner, it takes repeated exposure to make service to others natural.
It is imperative that we, as educators and parents, create regular opportunities to integrate service into our daily lessons-so that our students, in turn, can internalize this concept. Our “Celebrating Service Month” is an excellent opportunity to highlight the importance of doing good works in the community, but it is not a sufficient way for our students to truly embody living a life for others.
Although this idea might seem intuitive, it is a hard task to accomplish. You might ask, “How do we develop and foster this spirit of giving in our children?” It is something my husband and I consistently asked ourselves when we were raising our five beautiful kids. Finding the time to stress the importance of helping others was challenging to manage in between work, lacrosse practice, piano lessons, and the million other things we wanted to offer our children. We knew, though, that service was just as important as all of these other seemingly essential activities. So, we started small. “What are we going to do today to make a difference?” and “How did you help out at school?” were regular questions we asked our children before and after school. We planted what we hoped were “service seeds,” trying to encourage our kids to start incorporating helping others into their everyday thoughts and actions.
As our kids grew older, we would point out events or articles in the local paper or on the news that provided opportunities to get involved. We would ask, “How can we help?” After a while, our children began to come to us with ways they thought they could have an impact on those in need. We would volunteer our time at several local non-profits, soup kitchens, and homeless shelters. But, our children would also find ways to serve in smaller, everyday ways, such as volunteering to assist with lunchroom clean up even when it wasn’t their assigned week to do so or by keeping all of the water bottles filled during sports practice. It was these small, random acts of kindness that demonstrated that the “service seeds” we had planted had taken root.
These techniques were relatively easy to carry over into my work in the classroom. It wasn’t long before I began to ask my students at the start of each class how they could have an impact in their world today. I have been amazed every year at the difference I have seen in my students’ capacity to not only work together but work for each other with each passing month. Assisting each other with projects and helping clean up tables for others become a natural part of my students’ daily routine over the school year. Although I cannot say for sure, I would like to think that these acts of kindness are the waves that result from a pebble dropped earlier in the year.
If there is one message I would like my students to come away with at the end of the year, it is this: “We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to mankind.” This quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. summarizes what we hope to teach not only the children but members of the community we work with every day. Although math, English, history, science, the arts, and any other subject are essential, they are not the ultimate measure of success. What matters just as much to me is the answer to the question, “What are we going to do today to make a difference?”
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Words in the Middle - Podcast
Laura Rosenberg, one of our 8th grade English teachers, has a new podcast called Words in the Middle. She explores the space where language meets pop culture through interviews with teachers and students, discussing trending words, phrases, and their origins. Now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Play. The first few episodes are scheduled to be released over the next few weeks.
Audio trailer below
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Two DCDS Quiz Bowl Teams Attend NAQT in Atlanta
Over Memorial Day weekend, two DCDS Quiz Bowl teams attended the National Academic Quiz Tournament (NAQT) in Atlanta, Georgia. Our young varsity A team, consisting of senior Hassan Siddiqui and sophomores Daniel Liu (captain), Maria Cheriyan, Zaid Siddiqui, and Adam Sun, performed excellently against very tough competition, compiling an 8-5 record and finishing 49th in the field of 336 teams.
In addition, Daniel Liu was one of ten players honored with a Sophomore Rising Star award, with an individual total score in the top 5% of all sophomore competitors.
The B team consisted of senior Michelle Matejka (captain), junior Hans Liu, and sophomores Connor Shi, Ajay Sumanth, and Trey Timban. All of our players made outstanding progress over the course of the year, and we're looking forward to a lot of success in the 2019-2020 season!
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Middle School Track Meet Results
The results are in, and our team did awesome at the annual Gordy Richardson Oakland County Middle School Track Meet yesterday! Held at Clarkston High School, our team competed against 60 schools in our county.
The boy's team ranked 23rd overall and our girl's team ranked 24th. Many of our 24 students advanced from the preliminaries to the finals, and the following athletes placed in the top 8 for their event:
- Olivia Grenadier, Chloe Holter, Christian Sanders, and Alexa Thomas placed 8th with their 4 X 100m relay team with a time of 54.69
- Lexi Clark placed 3rd overall in long jump (14' 7.5")
- Christian Sanders placed 6th in the 55m hurdles with a personal record of 9.61
- Dylan Davis placed 6th in the 55m hurdles with a personal record of 9.27
- Jacob Maibach placed 4th overall in long jump (17' 7.25")
Congratulations to all our Middle School athletes who competed in this event!
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Students Recognized by National Council of Teachers of English
Eighth graders Himani Yarlagadda and Valerie Yang were both recognized as Promising Young Writers by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). Both students received the highest awards, Certificates of Recognition.
The Promising Young Writers Program represents NCTE’s commitment to early and continuing work in the development of writing. The school-based writing program was established in 1985 to stimulate and recognize writing talents and to emphasize the importance of writing skills among eighth-grade students. Schools in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, American schools abroad, and the Virgin Islands are eligible to nominate students.
This year, schools nominated 157 students. Of that number, 77 received the highest award, Certificates of Recognition, and 80 received Certificates of Participation. Each student submitted two pieces of writing. Two independent judges evaluated each submission holistically on content, purpose, audience, tone, word choice, organization, development, and style.
The Promising Young Writers Program represents NCTE’s commitment to early and continuing work in the development of writing. The school-based writing program was established in 1985 to stimulate and recognize writing talents and to emphasize the importance of writing skills among eighth-grade students. Schools in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, American schools abroad, and the Virgin Islands are eligible to nominate students.
This year, schools nominated 157 students. Of that number, 77 received the highest award, Certificates of Recognition, and 80 received Certificates of Participation. Each student submitted two pieces of writing. Two independent judges evaluated each submission holistically on content, purpose, audience, tone, word choice, organization, development, and style.
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Fifth Installation of the Lower School Update: On-site Reporting with Ms. Tina Mangalick
Please consider helping our DCDS community achieve success with VIVID! Gifts of all sizes help us meet our goals.
If you'd like to honor your child or family's legacy with a naming opportunity, please contact Tina Mangalick at tmangalick@dcds.edu or (248) 430-1064. Opportunities are still available for both our Middle and Lower school campuses.
To give to VIVID, please go to www.dcds.edu/vivid
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Junior Receives National Scholastic Gold Medal Award at Carnegie Hall
Grace Endrud '20, her mother, and her teacher, Susan Lucas, attended the National Scholastic Art & Writing Award ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York. Grace received her Gold Medal for her photography the Rodeo Circuit.
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7 Ways to Avoid Summer Slump
Summer is a time for relaxation, fun, and family time and it’s quickly approaching. Some parents worry about the summer slump and want to know how to avoid it. Psychology Today reports that ”Children do forget skills and knowledge learned in the previous school year. But if parents and educators encourage kids to stay engaged in learning throughout the summer, children may not only maintain but improve their knowledge.” Kids can keep learning throughout the summer while having a blast! Below are seven ideas to avoid the summer slump in enjoyable and active ways.
Read!
We know that the more kids read, the better they become at reading. Reading for 20 minutes a day is a good goal to have and it doesn’t matter if it’s done independently or if you read to your child - both have outstanding benefits. Additionally, check out your local library for their summer reading programs. Many incentivize reading in fun ways and some even give out free books to kids at the start of their program!
Create
Make play-doh or slime (yes, I know it’s a mess, but it’s entertaining!), paint or color with some mindful coloring pages. Or get outside and plant seeds and grow a garden. Here’s a beginner’s guide for home gardens.
Grocery Shop Together
Kids can learn a lot from helping with groceries. Involve your children in making a list, setting a budget, calculating sales and coupons, or even calculating the entire grocery bill. Change things up and explore a farmer’s market! Have kids count money to give to the cashier. Counting money reinforces math skills and helps them understand the value of a dollar.
Cook or Bake Together
Cooking provides life lessons that will serve children well in life; in addition to creating tasty treats, kids will explore measurement and following the directions of a recipe. Check out some of these easy recipes that you and your kids could make:
- No-bake apple donuts recipe
- No-bake M&M energy bites recipe
- Apple pie bites recipe
- Nutella and banana “sushi” recipe
Keep a Journal and Write, Write, Write!
Start this habit by allowing your child to pick out their own journal along with creative pens, pencils, or markers. This will allow them to feel a little more invested in the writing process. Next, have your child write about their daily activities or have them write from prompts like this or even these visual prompts. The journal can include words and pictures, paintings, or collages with pictures cut out from favorite magazines.
Get Outside
Michigan has some of the best summers - take advantage of the weather and get outside. Check out this local blogger’s tips for places to go around Southeast Michigan. Do some family crafts that will get your kids moving outside like creating pool noodle baseball, running a kids’ car wash, or even hosting a lemonade stand (this also helps reinforce those math skills!).
Plan a Trip
Let kids help pick a destination to visit and have them be a part of the planning process: research the location you’ll visit, plan out stops along the way, or use this guide to plan a trip with Google Maps. Having your children help plan the vacation will create even stronger memories for you and your family.
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Middle School HOSA Participants Shine at National Competition
Three Middle School students participated in the National HOSA conference last week in Orlando, Florida. The students represented themselves very well among the 11,000 other competitors! Besides doing well in the competition, they had the opportunity to hear the Surgeon General speak as well as attend several other health related symposiums.
Congratulations to the following:
Trinity Chenn '24 - 1st place in Prepared Speaking (National Champion!!)
Himani Yarlagadda '23 - 6th place in Medical Reading
Vikram Goddla '24 - 9th place in Medical Terminology
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Upper School Research Team Receives First Prize at International Conference
An Upper School research team of Sydney Holter '20, Aicha Chemani '20, and Calihan Bearden '21 was awarded first prize overall in the School category of the International Conference on Global Responsibility in Terrassa, Spain for their research paper and presentation on "How Issues of Colorism and Gender Impact Safety and Security for Young Women. Research teams were evaluated on their year-long research project, representative paper, and conference presentation. Congratulations to these young women on their outstanding work.
Congratulations also go to L'Meese Greaney the faculty advisor and Jacquelin Riley for her tireless effort to bring these global connections to our school through the Global Initiatives program.
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Rocket Launch Party Honoring Lunar Landing!
Families enjoyed a summer evening celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Lunar Landing with a Rocket Launch Party. The event was in conjunction with the Global Rocket Launch through the US Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville. Rockets were being launched in many states and countries around the world. Students going on a virtual expedition with Madame Marcangelo. Enjoying bomb pops and jumping on Stomp Rockets. #GlobalRocketLaunch
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Mrs. Gabrys Shares Fun Summer Science Experiments on Fox 2 Detroit!
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Middle School Student Composer Premiers His Third Music Composition at School Concert
Richard Shao '23 is a member of the Middle School Chamber Ensemble and a student composer. Recently, his third composition, "March of the Monkeys, was performed by the DCDS Wind Ensemble at the spring music assembly. Shao was not only the composer of this piece but also the conductor. The audience was both appreciative and entertained with the music and his directing.
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Professional Artists Inspire Lower School Student-Artists
Lower School students have had another inspiring couple of weeks with two additional artist visits. Mr. Rashaun Rucker shared his photographs, prints and drawings with the students. Mr. Rucker is an award winning Detroit artist with over 40 awards to his name. He recently retired after 16 years at the Detroit Free Press and is currently pursuing a career in art. His dream has always been to be an art teacher. Mr. Rucker draws a minimum of two hours a day and contributes much of his art success to his art teachers in North Carolina where he grew up. Mr. Rucker will have a one person show on October 25, 2019 at M Contemporary, an art gallery in Ferndale.
As part of the visiting artist series, another art class featured Jessica Sjobring who paints pictures of animals. She brought in her award-winning animal themed paintings to share with the students. She encouraged student to "draw what they see, not what they know." Ms. Sjobring is also the mother of one of our students in the Lower School.
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Junior Receives National Scholastic Gold Medal Award at Carnegie Hall
Grace Endrud '20, her mother, and her teacher, Susan Lucas, attended the National Scholastic Art & Writing Award ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York. Grace received her Gold Medal for her photography the Rodeo Circuit.
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Middle School Student Composer Premiers His Third Music Composition at School Concert
Richard Shao '23 is a member of the Middle School Chamber Ensemble and a student composer. Recently, his third composition, "March of the Monkeys, was performed by the DCDS Wind Ensemble at the spring music assembly. Shao was not only the composer of this piece but also the conductor. The audience was both appreciative and entertained with the music and his directing.
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Professional Artists Inspire Lower School Student-Artists
Lower School students have had another inspiring couple of weeks with two additional artist visits. Mr. Rashaun Rucker shared his photographs, prints and drawings with the students. Mr. Rucker is an award winning Detroit artist with over 40 awards to his name. He recently retired after 16 years at the Detroit Free Press and is currently pursuing a career in art. His dream has always been to be an art teacher. Mr. Rucker draws a minimum of two hours a day and contributes much of his art success to his art teachers in North Carolina where he grew up. Mr. Rucker will have a one person show on October 25, 2019 at M Contemporary, an art gallery in Ferndale.
As part of the visiting artist series, another art class featured Jessica Sjobring who paints pictures of animals. She brought in her award-winning animal themed paintings to share with the students. She encouraged student to "draw what they see, not what they know." Ms. Sjobring is also the mother of one of our students in the Lower School.
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Junior Receives National Scholastic Gold Medal Award at Carnegie Hall
Grace Endrud '20, her mother, and her teacher, Susan Lucas, attended the National Scholastic Art & Writing Award ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York. Grace received her Gold Medal for her photography the Rodeo Circuit.
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English Teacher Interviewed on Detroit Today
Middle School English teacher, Laura Rosenberg, began a podcast at the end of the 2018-19 school year called Words in the Middle. In this podcast she explores the etymology of popular slang. Beside inviting guests on her show, she interviews students for their interpretation of the latest slang words. Her podcast captured the attention of the local radio show, and she was interviewed on July 12, 2019 on Detroit Today (WDET 101.9 fm).
Listen to her interview - https://wdet.org/posts/2019/07/12/88398-tea-stan-and-mood-new-podcast-digs-into-etymology-of-slang/
Her podcast can be found on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher.
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