6th Grade Open HouseArchived
DMS will host incoming 6th grade students and their parents on Monday, Aug 17th. We will begin at 6:30 SHARP, when each student and his/her parents should be in their first period clasroom. We will run a mini-schedule during which teachers will introduce themselves and give you a brief explanation of their classroom and content. Each class period will be 7 minutes long. When the bell rings, you have only 5 minutes to move to your next classroom. Spirit shirts and gym clothes will be available to purchase in the commons afterwards.
Chromebooks for All Students!Archived
We are excited to announce that each Middle School student will receive a new HP Chromebook 11 G3 in August 2015. In order for the Chromebook distribution process to run smoothly for our entire student population, we need to outline the steps to follow in order for students to be ready for class with their own personal Chromebooks when school starts.
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Parents/guardians of current middle school students are to sign and return the Student Chromebook Program Acknowledgement Form before school begins in August.
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Once you have returned the Student Chromebook Program Acknowledgement Form to our main office, a Chromebook will be reserved for distribution during the first few days of school.
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The introduction of Chromebooks will alter not only the way in which students continue their learning, but also the way in which we structure fees. The $85.00/year use fee for the Chromebook will replace the rental of some of the textbooks next school year.
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We will continue to issue some personal textbooks for various classes while other textbooks will be retained as class sets only. Therefore, we will still be using traditional textbooks as we introduce more widespread digital learning through Chromebooks.
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We will keep track of each student’s Chromebook serial number so that we can reissue the same device to each user the following school year. Students will use the same Chromebook for three years.
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As a parent/guardian, you will be responsible if the Chromebook is damaged or stolen.
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P-H-M will provide an optional insurance program in the fall for parents wishing to participate. The insurance program will cover accidental damage and repairs and cost approximately $20.00 per year. Insurance information will be provided when your student receives their Chromebook.
We look forward to using Chromebooks next fall. Please make sure that you have your Acknowledgement form on file with our school office by May 4, 2015 so that your student will receive his/her Chromebook when school starts in August 2015. We appreciate your support as we embark on our digital initiative.
Virtual Tour of Discovery
Full Transcript
Speaker: Brandon King (Tour Guide)
Hello and welcome to the virtual tour of Discovery Middle School. My name is Brandon and I’ll be your tour guide. Whether you’re coming from North Point, Mary Frank, Horizon, or somewhere else, I hope this tour will be informative and interesting.
You will most likely arrive at school on the buses in the back parking lot, walk through the main bus door and into the commons, where you’ll begin navigating your first experience at Discovery.
This is the commons. Here, nearly every place in the school connects together. To the left of the large display on the wall is the cafeteria, but most people just call it the cafetorium.
This large room doubles as a cafeteria and an auditorium, hence the name. This is where you will eat lunch. For 6th graders, lunch will occur after third period. For 7th graders, after fourth period. And for 8th graders, after second period.
Each period, you will attend a different class for 55 minutes, then have 5 minutes to travel to your next class. There are 6 periods in a day. This is the lunch line. Here you can buy lunch if you decide not to bring it from home.
If you went to a PHM elementary school, any funds you currently have in your lunch account will be transferred to Discovery. Contact the main office to add money to your lunch account. Now let’s get back to the tour. The commons also connects to the gymnasiums, the music rooms, and the various offices, but we’ll get back to that later.
For now, let’s head up the stairs to the left of the bus door to reach the hallway that serves as the hub for upstairs activity. Remember, whether you’re going up or down the stairs, always take the right side to help with the flow of traffic.
In this upstairs area we’ve just reached, you can access the health labs and the sixth and seventh grade hallways. You can turn left to access the seventh grade hallway and turn right to access the sixth grade hallway. Don’t worry, we’ll show you how to get to the eighth grade hallway later. We’ll use images of the sixth grade hallway as an example since the three grade hallways are set up mostly the same.
All the hallways are shaped like a half circle. This is a locker. There are three metal hooks on the walls for hanging backpacks and coats, as well as a metal shelf towards the top. You will leave your backpack and most of your textbooks in your locker during the day, and you can pick up needed textbooks from your locker during the five-minute passing periods that you use to get from class to class.
Cell phones and other electronic devices should be placed in your locker during the day and turned off. Some teachers will ask you to BYOD, or Bring Your Own Device, on certain days. This is the only time where such electronic devices will be allowed outside of lockers during the day. Don’t worry if you don’t have a device. Teachers who ask you to BYOD will have a plan for those students who don’t have devices.
Many new students worry about getting their locker open. This is relatively a non-issue at Discovery. Many people are able to easily open their locker within the first week. If you do happen to be unable to open your locker during the day, just find the nearest teacher. Many teachers have keys that can unlock your locker. Those teachers who don’t have keys can direct you to a teacher that does.
Now let’s head to the top of the main stairs where we found the central upstairs area. From here we can access the IMC, meaning Instructional Materials Center, or library. This is where you can check out books to read. You may take them home and read on your own time, or you can read IMC books during our daily read time. This is a time before first period where you can read a book from home or from the IMC for 30 minutes. You will have read time with your first period teacher, so report to his or her classroom first thing in the morning.
Also connecting to the library is Computer Lab A. You can head out the back door of the library and turn left to get there. This is where your Media Explorations class will be. We’ll talk more about that in just a minute when we get to rotations.
The final place of interest upstairs is the health labs. Depending on your grade, you’ll have health class with different frequencies. For sixth grade, health is a rotation. For seventh and eighth grade, health alternates every two weeks with gym.
No matter what grade you’re in, you’ll have two periods of the day that are not taken up by core subjects (math, language arts, science, and social studies). Sixth graders will have one music class that alternates every day between gym and rotations. The only class choice in sixth grade is which music class: Band, Orchestra, Choir, or Piano Lab.
Seventh and eighth graders have one elective (either rotations or music) and one period that alternates between gym and health. Rotations classes change every nine weeks and may include Media Explorations, FACS (Family and Consumer Sciences), World Languages, Health, and Art.
The tour continues through the music and gym areas, locker rooms, two gyms, guidance office, main office, health office, eighth grade hallway, and rotations hallway (including Computer Lab D, FACS, and the World Languages/Art room). The video concludes with a summary and credits.
Full detailed narration is available in the video.
Baker’s Dozen brings home a first place in competitionArchived
Team 1920, Baker's Dozen, which is comprised of students from Discovery Middle School and Horizon Elementary School, placed first for Robot Strategy and Innovation at the International FIRST LEGO League Tourney this past weekend in Arkansas. The tean also earned a fourth place Robot Award (out of 72 teams) for points scored. Congratulations to the team on this outstanding accomplishment.
Discovery is again named an Indiana Four Star SchoolArchived
Congratulations to the students, staff and parents at seven P-H-M schools for earning Four Star School status, as announced by the Indiana Department of Education on April 28. These Four Star Schools have distinguished themselves in the area of student achievement, scoring in the top quartile on statewide assessments in 2013-2014.
In addition to Discovery Middle School, the six other P-H-M Four Star Schools are:
· Horizon Elementary School – Principal Tressa Decker
· Mary Frank Elementary School – Principal Debra Hildreth
· Northpoint Elementary School – Principal Diane Wirth
· Prairie Vista Elementary School – Principal Keely Twibell
· Grissom Middle School – Principal Nathan Boyd
· Penn High School – Principal Steve Hope
Penn-Harris-Madison had seven Four Star Schools last year as well!
Four Star School status is one way to recognize excellent instruction that leads to outstanding results.
2015-2016 CalendarArchived
The 2015-2016 school year starts on Wednesday, August 19.
2015-2016 School Year Calendar
Important Dates for 2015-2016:
First day of school – Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Labor Day Recess/No School – Monday, September 7
Fall Recess Days – Friday, October 23 and Monday, October 26
Thanksgiving Day Recess/No School – Thursday, November 26 and Friday, November 27
Winter Recess Days/No School – Monday, December 21-Friday, January 1, 2016
School Resumes from Winter Recess – Monday, January 4
Martin Luther King Jr. Recess Day/No School – Monday, January 18
Recess Day/No School – Friday, February 12
Presidents’ Day Recess Day/No School – Monday, February 15
Good Friday Recess Day/No School – Friday, March 25
Spring Break – Monday, April 4-Friday, April 8
Memorial Day Recess Day/No School – Monday, May 30
Last Day of School for Students – Wednesday, June 1.
Information on individual school events is available from the school Google Calendar or school newsletter on their websites, or on the district “Calendar of Events."
School Location
Alexandria
For accessing our library resources at DMS please use the link below.
GPS bus tracking system now available on Smart phonesArchived
P-H-M's new GPS bus tracking system (powered by Synovia) has been well received since its introduction in the fall. Parents can create an account to use a computer and now a Smart phones can be used to track the progress of the approaching school bus for pick-up (morning) and drop-off (afternoon). You can register for the service by creating an account through this link: http://parent.silverlining.synovia.com
At the Synovia website, you will then be prompted to enter the following information:
- PHM's account number is 76205
- Your child's last name
- Your child's Student ID#
Contact Us
10050 Brummitt Road
Granger, IN 46530
Phone: 574-674-6010
Fax: 574-679-4214
Elizabeth Cunha, Principal
Troy Kauffman, Assistant Principal
Kevin McMillen, Assistant Principal
Melissa Horvath, Treasurer
Jennifer Tebell, Secretary
Laurie Ruoff, Office Aide
P-H-M District Contacts
Click here for a list of school staff and Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation contacts.