DVUSD News - Around Our Schools January 25, 2010

From: "DVUSD News" <no-reply@dvusd.org>
Subject: DVUSD News - Around Our Schools January 25, 2010
Date: January 28th 2010

Around Our Schools - January 25, 2010

Deer Valley Elementary Schools
Diamond Canyon
Diamond Canyon will be hosting the following February events: Daddy/Daughter Dance in Multipurpose Gym - Friday, February 5 at 7 p.m. PTSA Meeting in the Media Center- Thursday, February 11 at 9 a.m. 2nd Annual Diamond Canyon Expo Sponsored by DC PTSA- Saturday February 27at 10:00 am - 2:00 pm

Copper Creek
Copper Creek students and staff were allowed to wear their hats all day on Friday, January 22 if they donated $1.00. The school collected $658.79 which will be donated to the Red Cross for Haiti survivors.

Highland Lakes
Earlier this month, Highland Lakes held their annual spelling bee. Listed below are the winners and runner-ups.

Elementary School:
Winner - Stephan Cattermole (4th grade) Runner-up Justin Koehler (6th grade)

Middle School:
Winner (for the fourth year in a row) - Michael Haarmann (7th grade) Runner-up- Alexa Walters (7th grade)

Stephan and Michael will be representing Highland Lakes at the district spelling bee on Wednesday, January 27.

Las Brisas
Las Brisas hosted its PTSA Cultural Arts Family Art Night earlier this month. This year�s theme was �Beauty is ��. Winners of the Cultural Arts Contest were announced at that time. Entries included Literature, Visual Arts, Musical Composition, Film/Video Production, Dance Choreography, and Photography. First place entries will move on to the State Competition later this year.

Legend Springs
Legend Springs first graders will be visiting the Phoenix Cookie Company on Thursday, January 28.

Legend Springs students in grades 3-6 participated in the Character Counts/Prevention Assembly entitled, "Bully No More" by Greg Carter. The students learned about bullying and how to stop it from happening to others. The assembly was coordinated by 6th grade prevention team member Emily Neveux.

Legend Springs Wild About Reading School Book Club for students in grades 4-6 had over 33 students participate in the monthly book discussing the �Lightning Thief� by Rick Riordan. Legend Springs offers before and after school times for its once a month book talk.

New River
New River fourth graders Paige Slezak and Zachery Kukovsky were selected by there teachers as TERRIFIC KIDS for the second quarter. Each child received a savings bond and certificate from the New River Kiwanis Club.

New River�s fourth graders had the opportunity to visit the Arizona State Capital this month. The children learned about the history of Arizona and were able to visit where laws are made including sitting at the desks of lawmakers.

The New River kindergarten classes had a special visit recently from Sharing Tails, an organization that shared information about fish native to Arizona. The children had the opportunity to learn about all the different fish and see pictures of the 35 species of fish native to Arizona.

New River recognized the January Pride Award winners for their hard work and dedication. The winners are: Scott Pestka, business partner; Victoria Kearney, certified staff member; Ray Silwinski, classified employee, and Jenna Wild, volunteer.

Paseo Hills
Paseo Hills will be hosting a Family Writing Night on Tuesday, February 2 from 5:30-7 p.m.

Paseo Hills has been awarded a $9,381.00 grant from the Qwest Foundation for Education to fund the Dark Skies Awareness and GLOBE at Night Project which was submitted by seventh grade teacher Alison Campbell. This school-wide project will engage all students in lessons about protecting dark skies and will include a problem-based investigation that involves students with data collecting and contributing to international data.

Students will be able to analyze real-world information to form conclusions about light pollution thereby building their own environmental awareness. Students will collaborate in tasks to solve current light pollution challenges, analyze the school�s light usage, and its contribution to pollution. All students will be trained in how to use a GPS and Sky Quality Meter to obtain data and participate in Earth Hour.

Sierra Verde
Sierra Verde is inviting its parents to attend Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Parent Night on Monday, February 1 from 6-7 p.m. Parents will have the opportunity to explore technology components through active participation including SMART board tools and Glogster.

Sunset Ridge
Sunset Ridge 8th grade students had the opportunity to hear Mr. Stephen Lerman, a Holocaust survivor, speak about his family and his experience of living in concentration camps during the Holocaust. The opportunity to hear first-hand from a real survivor was an experience the students, parents, and teachers will never forget.

Deer Valley Middle Schools

Desert Sky
Desert Sky 7th grader Kassidy Staren has been selected as a member of the Phoenix Youth Orchestra.

Desert Sky 8th grade jazz band students Zake Dominguez, Jair Gallardo, and Cole Holland were selected to perform in the DVUSD Honor Jazz Band.

Desert Sky 7th grade student Hiro Rives was recently highlighted on Fox 10 news for his invention ideas. Hiro said it was fun being on TV but more than that, he wants to help the community with his invention ideas. Hiro has been thinking about inventions since he was little. His latest thought, �The Blue Tooth Helper�, occurred to him while attending a car show with his dad. �The Blue Tooth Helper� would help blind people cross the street by playing a lower pitch when a soundless, hybrid car is nearing; the pitch will get higher the closer the car gets, and lower again when it leaves. His other ideas also include a car that runs on water, consisting of a special heating plate under the water tank that gauges heat from a pre-charged battery and a cure for Cancer using C02, M-5 waves. Hiro plans on attending Stanford University and attaining an engineering degree and a medical degree.

The Desert Sky art room is participating in Artsonia, a very safe website for art teachers to display student projects. When a child has art class, a letter will be sent home explaining how parents can register their child and where they can view their privacy policy. Each student will be assigned a screen name and absolutely no last names will be visible anywhere on the site.

Parents can share their child�s screen name with family and purchase their child�s work on items such as mugs, coasters, magnets, cutting boards etc. Fifteen percent of all purchases go back to the Desert Sky art room.

Deer Valley High Schools

Boulder Creek High School
Boulder Creek social studies teachers Nicole Duquette and Natasha Pacheco were both accepted to attend the National Endowment for the Humanities Picturing America History Conference in Chicago on April 16-17. These conferences will support teachers in the development of lessons using images from the National Endowment for the Humanities� Picturing America program. A limited number of teachers in the nation were approved to attend the conference which will feature presentations by distinguished scholars and sharing of resources in workshop formats. The teachers will use the Newberry Library�s collections as well as a visit to the Art Institute of Chicago and a walking tour of Chicago�s Loop to model ways for teachers to use local resources in their own communities.

Deer Valley High School
Deer Valley High School DECA students earned numerous medals at the DECA Western Area Conference this month. DECA (formerly the Distributive Education Clubs of America, and also known as Delta Epsilon Chi on the college level) is an organization for students pursuing careers in marketing, management, and entrepreneurship. The following students will also be competing at the state conference in March: Chris Caldwell - Quiz Bowl finalist; Top 10 test; 3rd place overall (Sports and Entertainment Team) Brittany Lucero - 3rd place test, 3rd place overall (Sports and Entertainment Team) Melissa Madrid - Top 10 Role Play (Hospitality Team) Sophia Magana - Top 10 Role Play (Hospitality Team) Jessika Kemp - Top 10 Test; 3rd place presentation; 3rd place overall (Entrepreneurship Written) Brandon Schechter - Top 10 test; 3rd place role play; top 10 overall (Business Law and Ethics Team) JJ Nantz - 3rd place role play; top 10 overall (Business Law and Ethics Team) Alex Ryan - Top 10 test; 3rd place role play; 3rd place overall (Advertising Campaign Written) Makayla Moosman - Top 10 test; 3rd place role play; 3rd place overall (Quick Serve Restaurant) Joey Terrinoni - 2nd place role play; top 10 overall (Quick Serve Restaurant) Chris Grosjean - Top 10 test; Top 10 Role play; 3rd place overall (Automotive Services Marketing) Michael Markos - 2nd place role play; 2nd place overall (Business Services Marketing) Shauntene Hanna - Top 10 role play (Hotel and Lodging Management) Jackie Rodriguez - Top 10 Role play; Top 10 overall (Principles of Marketing) Grecia Beltran - Top 10 Role play; Top 10 overall (Principles of Marketing) Nicky Blanchard - Top 10 Role play; Top 10 overall (Principles of Marketing)

Marty Manning from the KEZ Morning Show was on site at the Deer Valley High School CTE Nursing Wing this month and interviewed CTE instructor Sue Edwards and several nursing students on a live broadcast showcasing the CTE signature program.