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Thursday, April 18, 2024
Durham’s Recycling Club and PTO are partners in the Urge to Purge Clothing Drive going on now through the end of April.
Durham is one of two CISD campuses that have a World Wear bin. World Wear collects clothing, blankets, sheets, backpacks, coats and shoes and ships them to third world countries. What cannot be salvaged is turned into industrial rags.
“It’s a great way to help others and keep items out of our landfills,” said Durham Humanities Teacher, Fran Lowen.
On Tuesday, April 14, to inspire global awareness of the needs of others, Durham students and staff were encouraged to donate shoes and go shoeless for the day.
If you would like to help Durham’s PTO and Recycling Club earn 12 cents for each pound collected, you can drop off your items in the World Wear bin behind the school.
Durham Intermediate Humanities classes hosted their biannual Shoes for Orphan Souls shoe drive this past October and November.
Students and staff collected over 300 pairs of shoes, along with 1,059 pairs of socks and 57 pairs of shoelaces. All collected items will be sent to children in need in the United States and 23 countries around the world.
Looking beyond our own needs and showing compassion toward others are top goals at Durham Intermediate School. All classes participated in a competition to earn points for the most shoes, socks and laces brought in each week.
At the end of the drive, the 5 and 6 grade class earning the most points won the Most CompasSHOEnate Class award and a popcorn party. Congratulations to Ms. Hinzman’s 5 grade and Mrs. Snow’s 6 grade classes!
Carroll ISD’s Durham Intermediate celebrated a week of Thinking Green during the school’s Earth Week events April 28- May 2.
The DIS Recycling Club sponsored a school wide shoe drive for those in need. Any shoes that were no longer wearable were recycled and in some cases, rubber from the shoes will go to resurface playgrounds. The campus community also collected shoes for Terracycle, a company that donates shoes to people in need. Students and staff went throughout their school day without shoes (after donating a pair) to better understand what it’s like for the many people around the globe who do not even own one pair. By the end of the week, the entire school collected 374 pairs of shoes.
Additional DIS Earth Week activities included staff members taking pledges to go electricity/ electronics free for one hour a day, and BYORB (Bring Your Own Refillable Bottle) Day to raise awareness of using refillable water bottles over disposable ones.
Carroll Middle School eighth grader Brice McKane and Durham Intermediate School sixth grader Bradley Lund will compete Friday, April 4 at the state level of the 2014 National Geographic Bee. The competition will be held at the Pat May Center in Beford. This is the second level of the National Geographic Bee competition, which is now in its 26th year.
McKane and Lund will join thousands of students nationwide in grades four to eight who won their school bee earlier this year and passed qualifying test to determine their state-level eligibility. The National Geographic Society has invited the top hundred scoring students in each state, the District of Columbia, the Department of Defense Dependents Schools, and U.S. territories, to compete at the state bees.
State winners will receive $100 and a trip to Washington, D.C., to compete in the national championship, to be held at the National Geographic Society headquarters May 19 to 21. The national winner will receive a $50,000 college scholarship, a lifetime membership in the Society, and a trip to the Galápagos Islands courtesy of Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic.
The National Geographic Channel and Nat Geo WILD will broadcast the final round of the 2014 National Geographic Bee on Thursday, May 22.
How does our understanding and perspective change based on interaction with others?
One way to answer this is to identify, question, and cross social boundaries. “Mix it Up at Lunch Day”, a national campaign launched by Teaching Tolerance, has identified the cafeteria as a place where social divisions are often visible in schools. On Friday, Feb. 14, Durham Intermediate School students moved out of their comfort zones and connected with someone new over lunch. All DIS students participated in various activities during lunch and enjoyed mixed fruit snacks purchased by the PTO.
“Mix It Up is a positive step that schools can take to help create learning environments where students see each other as individuals and not just as members of a separate group,” said Teaching Tolerance Director Maureen Costello. “When people step out of their cliques and get to know someone, they realize just how much they have in common.”
Libby Tseng pictured with Red Steagall
Carroll ISD fifth grader Libby Tseng recently competed in this year’s Red Steagall poetry contest. The annual event was held in the historic Fort Worth Stockyards on Saturday, Oct. 26.
Libby was selected as one of ten finalists in the Junior Division and received first place with her poem “Teachers are Better than Cows”. Libby will receive a college scholarship as part of her prize winnings. She is a student of Patty Christensen, fifth grade GT Language Arts teacher at Durham Intermediate School.
The Texas State Legislature named Red Steagall the Official Cowboy Poet of Texas. Click here for more information about the junior poetry event.
Libby’s poem is below:
TEACHERS ARE BETTER THAN COWS A Cowboy’s life is not for me That’s something I can plainly see Herding cattle in the blazing sun Is not my idea of having fun But if I were the one with the 10 gallon hat I might have a different view at that Sitting with kids and books inside Would make me long for a cattle drive Chuck wagon, lunch lines Home Rooms, branding time Each night sleeping beneath the stars Each spring taking a test called the STAARThese lives are as different as can be Which one is better depends on who’s me Since I’m only ten right now It makes sense I prefer my teacher to a cow.
Bear up for bid during 2012 auction
Students at Durham Intermediate School are getting ready to host the annual DIS Student Council Bear Auction. This year, students can place bids starting Oct. 30 through Nov. 5 on dozens of decorated and dressed up teddy bears with the proceeds going towards charity.
Bears auctioned during 2012 event
The DIS Student Council created the auction as a new service program designed to raise funds for those in need across the state. In 2011, the program’s first year, the DIS Student Council Bear Auction was a tremendous success raising $3,200. The donations were split evenly between Bastrop ISD and Smithville ISD Employee Relief Funds. Residents and employees of school districts were victims of devastating wildfires in the area. Last year, the auction raised over $4,5000. The money was given to Southlake non-profit Spokes 4 Hope to purchase 80 bicycles and helmets for children living in the Dallas- Fort Worth area.
Students participate in 2012 "Bike Build Day" at DIS
This is the third year for the auction and once again, the auction will benefit Spokes4Hope. All of the bears used in the auction were purchased by the Lauren and Tim Stone State Farm Agency on behalf of DIS at a cost of $5 each. Each student received a bear to dress and accessorize for the auction. The dressed bears will be displayed for all students to view and enjoy before and during the auction which will take place during the school day on Wednesday, Oct. 30. Students may bid on their own bears and any other bears they want to purchase.
On Tuesday, Nov. 5 from 4-6:30 p.m. DIS Student Council will host “Bike Build Day”. DIS students, staff and parents will work along side Spokes 4 Hope volunteers and Southlake Police and Fire employees to build 100 bicycles at the school.
Science students at Carroll ISD’s Durham Intermediate School are getting a special lesson this semester. The campus was recently named a “Master Gardener Site” due partly because of the successful garden on the north side of the school. Every Friday, three of Durham’s science lab classes participate in a Junior Master Gardener lesson. This is a pilot project that allows Master Gardeners to teach their knowledge and earn hours they need for continuing education certification.
The slideshow below is from a recent lesson in which the guest speaker was not only a Master Gardener but a cook with 40 years of kitchen experience who also helps volunteer to teach classes at Central Market. The students learned the importance of cleanliness in the kitchen, cross contamination and preserving produce. For example, the chef told students he learned from a farmer that storing potatoes in pantyhose can keep the vegetable fresh for up to a year!
Friday, May 25 Durham Intermediate School hosted this year’s Battle of the Books contest. Several teams of students put their brains to the test in a Jeopardy-style competition. The contest was held inside the DIS cafeteria and was hosted by campus Teacher of the Year and K-6 district Teacher of the Year, Lance Mangham.
The pictures below were taken during the morning competition.