Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Dunwoody News Tidbits- Veterans Day and everything else I could find of interest.

To commemorate Veterans’ Day, here are some overjoyed "children" greeting their returning soldiers. These reunion videos—for me, at least—shed a tiny beam of light on how emotionally draining being a military family can be. They’ll also make you want a dog.  Click here and then find a soldier to thank for his or her service.

Correction to a post from yesterday, the State Legislators are coming to Chamblee United Methodist on Thursday evening not DUMC.

Here is some video of Dunwoody Village Parkway which was closed mid-day on Tuesday due to flooding.


The JCC is hosting the 18th Annual Book Festival November 10 - 22 with lots of great authors but unfortunately Batgirl and Aerosmith video vixen Alicia Silverstone was forced to cancel.  Seriously, the lineup is impressive, check it out.

Get gross at the Dunwoody Nature Center this Saturday, at 10 a.m. Prepare to get in touch with your yucky side as you go on a "scat" hunt. Discover the grosser side of those cute and charming butterflies. Come prepared to get a little dirty!

Dunwoody Community Council discusses a SLUP (Special Land Use Permit) application on Thursday for some site improvements at All Saints Catholic Church.

City of Dunwoody Sustainability Commission Meeting happens early Thursday morning and would welcome interested members of the community to join them.

The Dunwoody Crown Plaza Ravinia is the first and only Green Globe - certified hotel in the State as documented by Sustainable Pattie Baker.

Dunwoody High School Football Wildcats enter the first round of the playoffs at home (Chamblee @ 7 pm?) on Friday against the Elbert County Blue Devils.

DHS PTSO and School Council will hold an informational meeting on Monday, November 16th at 6:00 pm in the Cafeteria regarding the school schedule options for the 2010-2011 school year. The speaker will be Ms. Stacey Stepney, DCSS Director of High Schools.

Attention Peachtree 8th grade students & parents - Dunwoody High School is having an open house for prospective students this coming Sunday from 2 - 4.

Watch the video of Phillippe Cousteau
, conservationist, educator and Animal Planet's Chief Ocean Correspondent visit to Dunwoody Elementary.

Brian, a Dunwoody resident with too much time on his hands created these two humorous video clips featuring the City Council; Country Style & Disco Style which I figured I would share.  Enjoy, because we the council got a kick out of laughing at ourselves.


11 comments:

Paula Caldarella said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Paula Caldarella said...

Also, congratulations to the Dunwoody High School Cross Country Teams. The boys team were county champs, the ladies were 3rd.

Both teams finished 5th in the State Meet.

Congratulations to both teams for a great season!!!

http://dunwoody-neighbor.com/detail/153826.html?content_source=&category_id=&search_filter=&event_mode=&event_ts_from=&list_type=&order_by=&order_sort=&content_class=&sub_type=&town_id=&page=

themommy said...

John

The meeting at Dunwoody is not about school calendars, but rather about the current block schedule and what type of schedule will be used next year at DHS.

Please correct this.

thanks

John Heneghan said...

Mommy, I posted verbatim what came out of the DHS e-mail blast entitled, DHS School Schedule Options Meeting. Not seeing any confirming links on either the e-mail or the DHS web page I linked to what I saw on the DCSS page. If it is incorrect then I apologize but that is what I had at hand.

I will take your comment as the correction and if you would like to explain further please do so. Thanks.

Paula Caldarella said...

John, currently Dunwoody High School is on the block schedule which entails 4, 90 minute classes per day. Parents and teachers have tried for several years now to go back to a traditional 6 or 7 class schedule. DCSS has now apparently given schools more flexibility with their daily schedules. Hopefully, this is the beginning of the end of block scheduling at Dunwoody - though the students will be sad.

themommy said...

On Monday, November 16^th at 6 PM, the Dunwoody High School PTSO and School Council are hosting an informational meeting about various scheduling options for the 2010-2011 school year. This meeting will be held in the cafeteria. Our speaker will be Ms. Stacey Stepney, DCSS Director of High Schools. We invite all DHS stakeholders to attend.



It is imperative that a large number of parents show up. Currently, it appears that some within DCSS and Dunwoody High School believe that only a small handful of parents have concerns about the Block Schedule or any potential changes to type of schedule Dunwoody uses. Regardless of how you feel about the current schedule, please make every effort to attend. Even if your children are young, what happens at Dunwoody now may last for years.



If you are unable to attend, please consider emailing your questions, comments and/or concerns to:




Dr. Harris KEVIN_HARRIS@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us
Stacey Stepney stacy_e_stepney@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us

Jim Redovian JIM_REDOVIAN@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us
Pam Speaks PAM_SPEAKS@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us
Gloria Talley GLORIA_S_TALLEY@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us

Dr. Crawford Lewis CRAWFORD_LEWIS@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us



Please forward this to anyone you think might be interested.

Paula Caldarella said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Paula Caldarella said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Paula Caldarella said...

Currently, it appears that some within DCSS and Dunwoody High School believe that only a small handful of parents have concerns about the Block Schedule or any potential changes to type of schedule Dunwoody uses.

I can see Gloria Talley having that impression as it appears she will hear nothing against Block Scheduling, but I have heard enough complaints from parents and teachers that I cannot understand why any Dunwoody HS administors would believe it is only a "small" handful not happy with the block.

John Heneghan said...

Four classes a day, that is all they have? It sounds wrong to me.

Actually it sounds exactly like the way I passed statistics in college. I unknowingly took the stats course in a summer night session which was jammed into eight weeks. There is no way, to teach this course in an abbreviated time frame therefore the teacher tested and graded us the best he could. I passed the class but I know that the students in the regular session learned more because they had more nights of homework, more discussion on the homework and because of it they retained more material. Needless to say that though I passed the class I suffered in the follow up classes that required me to have those missed skills.

Is my analogy of the block schedule and the night course in line with the parents concerns?

Paula Caldarella said...

Yes, all students have 4 classes per day - and that includes electives. Basically, a year's worth of studies is attempting to be taught in one semester. As in the case of my child, a student could actually go a year without having a Math class. She had Math first semester last year and will not take Math until second semester this year. I find that unacceptable.


I'm not usually so slow, but I woke up in the middle of the night thinking that the announcement about this meeting was very vague as to what it was really about. Why? If Dr. Harris does not believe that most parents have issues with the block schedule, why not be more forthcoming with what the meeting is all about.

I'll be emailing people this weekend to further explain the meeting and asking for their attendance.