Weekly Announcments

MAP FALL TESTING SESSION – Our Map testing session begins on Monday, September 23. Parent cooperation in making sure our students are in school on time is greatly appreciated. 

 

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WEDNESDAY IN SEPTEMBER – There will be no school for students on Wednesday, September 25. Teachers will receive in-service sessions with Ms. Judi Fenton.

 

DONATIONS NEEDED: “Ya Tengo Donde Escribir” is an organization aiming to help children from public schools that cannot afford notebooks. In order to help, the organization makes notebooks out of cereal boxes and pages from used notebooks. They are now collecting cereal boxes until November 20th, and we encourage our students and teachers to bring cereal boxes from their homes. At the end of the contest, the grade that brought the most boxes will be awarded a pizza party or ice cream party! Please help us help those in need!

 

BAKE SALE - The Community Service Club will be hosting a bake sale on Thursday, September 26 to raise funds for the annual Christmas party for the orphans from Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos.  Many delicious treats will be available at break and lunch time!  Thanks, in advance, for your support!

 

FLU SEASON: The flu season has arrived, and we feel it is important that parents be aware and on the lookout for flu symptoms. We want to give you some suggestions and guidelines for keeping your child and your family healthy.

 

1.    One of the first ways of controlling exposure to the flu is to avoid crowds and close contact with others.

2.    If your child is sick with flu symptoms (fever, cough, sore throat, vomiting, diarrhea, difficulty breathing), please keep your child home until s/he is symptom free for 24 hours.

3.    We have placed antiseptic handwash and Lysol disinfecting spray in each classroom and office. It is advisable for students to also have their own antiseptic handwash and to use it frequently.

4.    Teachers are reminding their students to wash their hands frequently, cover coughs or sneezes, not share drinking bottles, food, straws, etc., and to use the antiseptic handwash.

 

Flu Symptoms:  Fever, body aches including headache, fatigue, runny nose, cough and congestion.

 

What to do if your child has these symptoms:  Contact your doctor; keep your child home until s/he has been symptom free (including having no fever) for at least 24 hours.

 

By following the above precautions, we are hopeful that we can contain and prevent widespread cases of the flu.

 

 

Weekly Announcements

MIDTERM REPORTS were issued last Thursday, September 12. We encourage parents to go over them and discuss them with your child(ren), sign them and send them back to school. If you would like a conference, and one was not requested, please call the school to set up an appointment.

 

DPTO – The Discovery Parent-Teacher Organization (DPTO) works to help the school fundraiser for projects and provide fun activities for our students, parents, and teachers! Anyone interested in joining and help to organize events is more than welcome to join us, as we meet every Tuesday at 7:30 a.m. in the school Cafeteria. We would like to remind all parents of the agreement made by the General Assembly in May 2013, to have all parents donate L. 200 per child to help finance the events and activities organized during the year. You can pay the fee in the Finance Office to Ms. Belgica Varela, or your homeroom teacher. You will receive a receipt from the school. Parents who still have not done so, please fill out our survey athttp://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Q6QY2VF

 

MAP FALL TESTING SESSION – Our Map testing session will begin on Monday, September 23. The specific times and dates for our grades will be published in our blogs. Parent cooperation in making sure our students are in school on time is greatly appreciated. 

 

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WEDNESDAY IN SEPTEMBER – There will be no school for students on Wednesday, September 25. Teachers will receive in-service sessions with Ms. Judi Fenton.

 

(Only for Grades 9-11) INFORMATIVE MEETING WITH PARENTS GRADES 9 – 11: We are inviting grades 9-11 parents to attend a meeting with the school’s Counselor, Ms. Marilis Zambrana, and Ms. Gloria Palacios, Secondary Assistant Principal to discuss college admissions and other pertinent information. The meeting will take place Thursday, September 19 @ 8:15 (school Library).

 

 

Weekly Announcements

DPTO - Parents, please take a minute and fill out the short survey for the Discovery School Parent-Teacher Organization.  As you are part of the DPTO, the executive team wants your feedback and ideas on events and focus for the year.  Both parents are encouraged to fill out the survey. The link to fill out the survey is http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Q6QY2VF

FROM THE FINANCE OFFICE – Parents who are not using an automatic debit system with a credit card to pay tution are asked to stop by the Finance Office to obtain their payment cards as soon as posible.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPEMENT IN SEPTEMBER – On September 23, Ms. Judi Fenton is returning to Discovery to follow up on her visit and Professional Development sessions with teachers last year. A schedule will be provided once it is finalized with her. There will be no school on Wednesday, September 25, so teachers can participate in an all-day training.

INFORMATIVE MEETING WITH PARENTS GRADES 9 – 11: We are inviting grades 9-11 parents to attend a meeting with the school’s Counselor, Ms. Marilis Zambrana, and Ms. Gloria Palacios, Secondary Assistant Principal to discuss college admissions and other pertinent information. The meeting will take place Thursday, September 19 @ 8:15 (school Library).

Ecofriendly Lunch Day Games

On Thursday, our students celebrated Ecofriendly Lunch Day by packing waste-free lunches.  The environmental science also hosted games at snack and lunch to help our students remember to reduce their waste.  Here are some pictures of the fun we had!

Ecofriendly Lunch Day

Ecofriendly Lunch Day

Thursday, August 29th

Pack a waste free lunch!

Join in the fun activities to help us learn ways to reduce waste!

Activities will be held during elementary snack and lunch recess!
For more information on waste free lunches, visit http://www.wastefreelunches.org/,

To help our students learn more about waste free lunches and overall waste reduction at school, our 10th grade environmental science students visited the elementary classes on Tuesday, August 27th with fun lesson and activities.

COMMUNITY SERVICE CLUB

 For more than 10 years, Discovery teachers and parents have been visiting a group of children from Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos' orphanage.  Now, we would like to open this opportunity for our secondary students to be involved.   To celebrate Children's Day, we will visit the orphanage on Sunday, September 1st.  The club will then continue with monthly visits to the orphanage throughout the school year.  The first organizational meeting for the club will be held at lunch on Thursday, August 29th in Mrs. Agurcia's classroom.  Any interested secondary student is invited to attend.  Parents may email Mrs. Agurcia (cagurcia@discoveryschool.edu.hn) for more information.

Week of August 19-23

GENERAL ASSEMBLY – Discovery School parents are invited to attend the General Assembly that will take place this Saturday, August 24 from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. in the School Cafeteria. Important matters such as a suggested revision to our school calendar, budget information, an update on the status of the Concrete Plant, Board committees and school-wide implications of MAP data will be addressed. YOUR ATTENDANCE IS CRUCIAL—we need a quorum of 1/3 of our parents (55 parents) for the meeting to be considered a legal meeting of our school Association. Please mark your calendars and plan on attending.  **Believe and Achieve Sports will be at the school to work with the children while the parents are attending the meeting. **Coffee and juice will be provided.

CHOIR AUDITIONS – The Choir auditions will take place on Wednesday, August 21 and Thursday, August 22 during Snack Recess (9:45-10:10) in the music room.   Students from grades 1-12 who did not audition last year are invited to audition. The students may sing a song of their preference acapella. Students and parents are asked to commit to the whole year’s participation in Choir. Our Choir has been invited and has accepted the invitation to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York City next summer, and practices will be geared to prepare the students for that prestigious event. A schedule of practices will be provided this week. If you have questions, you can contact either Ms. Pamela (pcruz@discoveryschool.edu.hn) or Ms. Norma (nlopez@discoveryschool.edu.hn) for more information.

MATH REINFORCEMENT:  IXL ACCOUNTS (for grades Kinder through 5 only) – Last year our teachers piloted the IXL Math enrichment with our students. Because it was so successful and well received by parents and students, the school has acquired a

subscription to IXL for all students in Grades KG-5. This is an individualized on-line program that reinforces math skills across the curriculum and is aligned to our Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) assessment that we administer to all students in Grades KG-10 three times during the school year. Teachers will post information in their weekly blogs indicating what areas and how much time students should work on IXL during the week. Parents are encouraged to support their children by checking the weekly blogs and having their child complete the practices assigned by each teacher. If you are unclear about any aspect of the IXL, please contact your child’s teacher or the Area Administrator (Nora for KG – Grade 1 nsierra@discoveryschool.edu.hn and Cristiana for Grades 2-5 cbanegas@discoveryschool.edu.hn.

SCHOOL CAFETERIA – for information on the school cafeteria menu and services please visit discoverycafeteria.blogspot.com 

AFTER-SCHOOL SPORTS PROGRAM – Our first session of After-School Activities with Believe and Achieve Sports starts Monday. The sessions will run from 3:15 - 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday, and 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon on Saturday for students from Kindergarten up. During the sessions, students will rotate through different sports, including soccer, basketball, frisbies, golf, American football, and others. Focus is on helping students learn skills, practice teamwork, and have fun, regardless of their current knowledge or skills!

·         TRANSPORTATION:  The school will follow the practice we have followed over the past several years and provide transportation for the students at the end of the Tuesday and Wednesday sessions in the main part of Tegucigalpa. We will not provide transportation to the outlying areas, such as El Hatillo, Santa Lucia, and the airport. As in the past, there will not be a nanny on the bus; however, the driver will make sure all students are buckled up. We will not provide transportation to any area on Saturday.

·         TRANSPORTATION FEE:  Parents are asked to pay Lmp.100 per month for the bus services if their children are planning to use it on Tuesday and Wednesday, and Lmp.60 per month if they are planning to use it for only one of those days. That can be given to Carolina (Receptionist) or anyone in the Finance Office.

·         SIGN-UP FOR SPORTS PROGRAM:  Sign-up for the sports program is with Mr. Eric Hamm directly. His phone number is 9599-2959. As this is a new program, we may need to make adjustments as we go along, and we will keep you informed of any changes. One thing that we will be considering is the traffic at 5:00 p.m. and how long it takes us to get the students home after the activities.

The school welcomes any suggestions parents may have. If you have not had a chance to sign up yet, please contact Ms. Paola Mena, Administrative Assistant, atdsoffice@discoveryschool.edu.hn, 2231-7790 or 9950-66924 to let us know of your interest.

·         At the current time we are not planning to offer other activities during the first quarter, with the exception of Choir. After we have assessed the Sports program, we will make a decision if we will offer other activities starting in the second quarter. Choir teachers will provide parents with a schedule of practices this week, but we will attempt to schedule the Choir practices so they don’t interfere with the Sports.