Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Teacher Spotlight: Miss Bentley

This week we met with Ms. Bentley, a Preschool teacher.  She went to Davenport High School.  While at West, Ms. Bentley played softball and was a cheerleader.  After graduating at West, she went to college at St. Ambrose.  At St. Ambrose, she majored in Early Childhood Special Education.  Ms. Bentley decided that she wanted to become a teacher in Elementary School and she never changed her mind.  After graduating from college, she started teaching Preschool in Durant in August of 2007.  Since Ms. Bentley started teaching, she has coached High School Cheerleading.  Kory enjoys teaching at Durant, shopping, running at the gym, and hanging out with friends.  As a teacher, she has gone on field trips to the Festival of Trees, the Pumpkin Patch, and going on walking trips around town.  She has never really been mad at her class, but she has been frustrated with the behavior of older students around the Preschoolers. 
We also asked Ms. Bentley how she likes the new technology.  She likes that you can do new and different things on the IPads.  Her students are very excited, although it is still very challenging for them.  She has used them in a couple of different ways.  Students that don’t sleep at nap time have used them to keep themselves quietly occupied.  Because there are only five IPads in the Preschool, the problem of sharing occurs.  The new technology has forced her to incorporate new things into the classroom.  The IPads have also been by the special needs children so that they can participate in the same activity the other children are doing in a way that meets their needs.  When asked if they use the technology a lot, her response was, “We use them at least once a week.”  Overall Ms. Bentley has really enjoyed the new technology.   

Friday, September 30, 2011

Teacher Spotlight: Mr. Schmidt

Mr. Schmidt is a second grade teacher here at Durant Elementary.  He started teaching as a substitute for multiple schools such as, North Scott, Davenport West, and Durant.  The second-grade teacher started teaching full time here at Durant in the 2005-06 school year.  So far, Mr. Schmidt has taught grades first thru fourth.  He went to college at St. Ambrose majoring in Elementary Education.  Before going to St. Ambrose, he graduated from Durant High School.  At Durant, he participated in football, baseball, basketball, and track.  Brent decided that he wanted to become a teacher in his freshman year in college.  His most exciting field trip as a teacher was going to the IMAX in a trip based on the Grand Canyon.  When asked if he enjoyed teaching at Durant, his response was, “Yes, definitely!”  “Since I have started teaching, I have never really thought about pursuing other careers,” Schmidt says.   As a teacher at Durant, he has been a coach for three different sports: Jr. High Football, Jr. High Boys Track, and Jr. High Girls Basketball.  Mr. Schmidt’s hobbies outside of school include spending time with his family, boating on the river, and cleaning his car.  Him and his wife have two kids.  A boy named Aidan, who is going into Kindergarten, and a girl named Laila who is going into her second year of pre-school.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

IExploreSTEM FESTIVAL

Family Fun on Sept. 18th.


iExploreSTEM Festival with hands-on fun in science, technology, engineering and math.


Click on link to see the flyer about this event!
WWW.iExploreSTEM.org

Friday, May 20, 2011

Biz Town

                         BIZ TOWN

On March 29, 2011, the 5th and 6th grade classes ran the simulated city of Junior Achievement  Biztown in downtown Davenport.  Students completed curriculum which supported their understandings of  free enterprise, market, citizenship, work ethic,  job skills, and managing their own incomes prior to the visit. 
Each year we are able to attend this wonderful learning experience because of financial the support of  the  Durant Chamber of Commerce and school funds.  In addition, it would not be possible without  parent volunteers for the interviewing process and for getting the training to supervise a shop on the day of our visit.  We greatly appreciate their efforts to bring this program to our students.
Photos are of students engaged in their working day at Biztown and listening to speeches presented by shop owners.   If you know a 5th or 6th grade student, please ask them about jobs kills or free enterprise. Hopefully you will enjoy a lively conversation and can share your knowledge of the working world.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

8th Grade Promotion

                                                        8th GRADE PROMOTION
                                                      WHEN:   Friday May 27
                                                    TIME: 1:00pm 
                                           WHERE: High School Gym. 

Blue Knoll Dairy Farm

                                       DAIRY FARM


 First graders had a great time at the Leazer's Blue Knoll Dairy Farm. We got to meet four cows in the milking parlor and we got to see how they are hooked up to the milking machine and milked. We went into a barn to learn how the feed for the cows is mixed and we also saw how it is fed to them by a conveyor belt. It was very exciting to feed bottles to the calves and to pet a cow. We even got a little milk and cheese snack before we left! Thank you Leazers!

Friday, May 13, 2011

DC Parent Meeting

             8th grade Washington DC Parent Meeting

8th grade Washington DC Parent Meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 17th in the Cafeteria. The meeting will begin at 6:00 pm and a representative from Tri-State Travel will be on hand along with Mrs. Stineman to discuss the upcoming trip and to answer parent questions. Also, if you child has earned extra money from fundraising, we will be handing out checks, a parent must be present to pick up the check. Medication release forms will be completed on this day as well.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

K-4 Vocal Concert


                                     K-4 Vocal Concert
                                    Friday, May 13th a@
                                             1:30 p.m.

 The concert is called "Child of the World" which is a musical about making good choices.  

The students have been practicing very hard for their concert. Come and enjoy the music.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Safe Internet Games

                        CHECK IT OUT!!!

Check out these webpages that have games about safety. Your kids will enjoy the fun.


 Middle School:
http://teens.drugabuse.gov/havefun/index.php

Elementary School:

http://www.mcgruff.org/Games/

Monday, May 2, 2011

Wildcat Cafe



                                 "The Wildcat Cafe"

"Students work in a supervised job at Durant High School in
the Wildcat Cafe serving the teachers on a weekly basis. The
cafe serves delicious meals including a main dish, a side,
and a yummy dessert. The students that are employed at the
Wildcat Cafe work very hard throughout the week in order to
be prepared to serve the meals on Thursdays. The students
have to make a grocery shopping list and try to figure out
an approximate amount of money that they will need to shop
with. The students then go shopping and have to work at
staying within their budget while buying enough food to
serve the number of customers they have for the week. The
students then put in a lot of time and effort in making the
food by following directions and taking pride in the outcome
of the meals."

Thursday, April 28, 2011

ADVENTURELAND TICKETS

         ADVENTURELAND TICKETS

There's still time to purchase your Adventureland tickets for this
weekend or next. Tickets are on sale for $17 each in the Student
Services Center. This weekend and next (Saturday and Sunday)
Adventureland is sponsoring "Substance Free Weekends" for schools.
There will be door prizes, along with all of the fun rides and
attractions that Adventureland has to offer. Don't miss out!

SURVEY SAYS..................

Ms. Richard posted results from the 2009-2010 student survey.  The posters were hung throughout the middle school and high school located above the drinking fountains.  Check out the new  results (2010-2011) next year at the "watering holes"

Edmodo

Ms. White's 8th grade Language Arts class has been having fun using an education site called Edmodo. This site has the same format as Facebook in an educational setting. As our district prepares to go one-on-one with computers, we are checking out ways to utilize every aspect available. 

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Tales

     FOLK,FAIRY,AND FRACTURED FAIRY TALES

Miss Walton's class had a wonderful time reading folk tales, fairy tales, and fractured fairy tales. Students then picked their own
folk tale or fairy tale and wrote their own fractured version of the story that they chose. We sure have some very creative minds!!

Preschool Activity

                                      PRESCHOOL

Our preschool class has been talking about wind and air.
We used balloons to see if we could get the air in our lungs to inflate the balloon.  We also discussed how the air in the balloons is similar to our lungs inflating and deflating.
Last week we experimented with a reverse vacuum.  The children were able to explore different ways to connect clear tubing and pvc joints to make a small ball blow around and out the tubing. 
Let me know if you want names for the pictures. 

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Upcoming Event

                        "GARAGE SALE"
                   Elementary/MS Library 
                          Friday, May 6th
          Look for information to be sent home.

Farm Meal



All the third graders worked together to turn some of our "rural resources" into beef and noodles, apple crisp, ice
cream, biscuits, butter, corn and beans. The students agreed that their homemade lunch was delicious--and also enjoyed lively dinner music played by Zach on his violin.

DOCUMENT CAMERA


                  THANK YOU DURANT PTO

A BIG "THANK YOU" goes to the Durant PTO for helping complete the elementary classrooms that didn't have a "Document Camera" in them for the teacher to use. All staff now has one in their classroom.

Battle Of Books Finalists

CONGRATULATIONS!!
These students were the finalists that competed for the "Battle of Books" that was held in Calamus Wheatland on April 9, 2011.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

8th Grade Field Trip

The 8th graders will be travelling to Tipton High School on April 29th to see the play The Diary of Anne Frank.  The Tipton High School Drama Department is putting on this production.  What a fun way to wrap up the reading of Anne Frank's story!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

FINANCE PARK

The 8th graders participated in full day of learning at "Finance Park".  Thank you to Liberty Trust & Savings Bank for sponsoring this trip and also thank you to the community members and volunteers to make this a success.




Wednesday, April 6, 2011


 "Family Literacy Program"   Mrs. Feuerbachs' parenting class prepared and cooked our  "FROG" theme for our family literacy program supper. A fun night of activities was enjoyed by all families.


Monday, April 4, 2011

Technology and Career Classes

8th Graders are working on  their high school planning using www.ihaveaplan.gov during their technology and careers classes.

"KNOCKOUT"






8th Grade playing a friendly game of "KNOCKOUT".

Monday, March 28, 2011

New Parenting Class Coming to Durant

-This is a great program!
-I wish I’d taken this earlier!
-It made mornings so much easier!
-OUTSTANDING!
-I highly recommend this program to everyone with children!
-I learned so much and found other parents who experience the same things!
-This class gave me great tools to communicate and help my child learn responsibility – now they are working harder in school and at home.

These are comments from past participants of the BUILDING SUCCESSFUL YOUTH program.  If you are the parent of a Pk-8th grade student, sign up to attend this powerful workshop!
http://www.durant.k12.ia.us/files/news/2011%20durant%20success%20youth%20%20registration.pdf 

Adventureland

Take advantage of discounted tickets, grab your family and friends, and head to Adventureland for a fun day during the Substance Free Weekends!
http://www.durant.k12.ia.us/files/news/adventureland.pdf

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Bowling

Recently some 7th & 8th grade reading classes earned the reward of a field trip to the bowling alley!  Thank you to Jeff for providing this reward to the students.  We appreciate it!!!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

RECYCLED MATIERIALS



Mrs. Frett's 8th grade science class is making families out of recycled materials.

PI DAY (3.14.11)

       


     

Mrs. Ahrens' Math Class

On Monday March 14th (3.14) we celebrated PI day. 
We discussed facts about pi, read "Sir Cumference 
and the 1st Round Table" then we had a contest of who could memorize the most digit of pi.
   

                              

BULLY BUGS

Mrs. O'Donnell's guidance lesson.

MRS. JEHLE'S ART WORK


Tuesday, March 15, 2011

ROLLER SKATING

K-6 will be learning to roller skate on April 4-21st during their PE classes.

LIBRARY

         K-2 will be voting on the "Goldfinch Award"
Grades 4-6 will be getting ready for "Battle of the Books"
                                               

Monday, March 14, 2011

NEW COMPUTERS

The kindergarten classes are enjoying their new computers in their classrooms during their centers times.


ARCHERY


The middle school students have been learning how to do archery in their PE classes.