Where everyday is a great day to be a Falcon! Dacula MS’s Highlight Reel Our students had a great time at Breakfast with Bussey on 1/14th! Congrats to those who were invited to the breakfast by their teachers and those of you who were named their team’s REAL Falcon for the second 9-weeks! Give a shout out to our REAL Falcons! Breakfast with Mrs. Bussey On Tuesday, Ms. Miller’s 4th period students had the opportunity to examine Earth from space via a NatGeo video conference with astronaut Terry Virts (https://terryvirts.com/about/). Col. Virts shared images including typhoons, sand dunes, ocean waves, and other atmospheric conditions that he took while aboard the space station. Students were able to ask him questions about living at the International Space Station. Talking to the International Space Station Mrs. Wall’s theater classes have been performing their version of Elf! for the DMS Language Arts classes. What a fun way to share their talents with our school! Elf! DMS Faculty and Staff spread some holiday cheer by coming dressed as their favorite holiday/winter characters on Friday, 12/13th. Holiday Cheer The DMS Honor Orchestra conducted a Holiday Music Performance at the High Museum of Arts Center, then enjoyed lunch afterwards at The Varsity. Bravo performers! Honors Orchestra Our Festive Falcon Faculty showed their holiday spirit by wearing their sparkly holiday accessories on 12/17th bringing good cheer to all. Holiday Cheer at DMS 7th Grade 8th Grade 6th Grade We are thankful for our Crochet Club students who came to the club every week and mastered to learn how to make hats, blankets and scarves. They also donated many small squares for preemie babies and learned about them from Mr.Tuthill. Wednesday, 12/11th was their last meeting. They have enough skills to keep going and let their creativity flow! Crochet Club Mr. Tuthill, one of our amazing 8th grade Georgia Studies teachers, believes that, through the use of empathy for others and collaboration, we can do great things and make a positive impact on the community around us. He was recently chosen as one of GCPS’s Promise staff members of the day! Mr. Tuthill - The Promise of Gwinnett Our Dacula Jr. Pearls volunteered at Mulberry Elementary School’s Holiday Hotcakes event on 12/7th. Thank you Mulberry for having our amazing Pearls out to help! Jr. Pearls at Mulberry Elementary The DMS PTSA put on an amazing Thanksgiving Duty Free Luncheon for faculty & staff on Friday, 11/22nd. What a great way to kick off the break! Thank you DMS PTSA! Congratulations to all of our grade level spelling bee winners who competed in the DMS finals on 11/20th. Seventh grader Chazon A. will be representing our school at the district spelling bee...great work Chazon! A BIG thank you to our judges (Mrs. Jones, Ms. Townsend, & Ms. Powers), Mrs. Day, & the media center staff for helping out and coordinating this event. 2019-2020 Spelling Bee The DMS Drama Club performed a collection of works from William Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe on 11/19th including The Tell-Tale Heart, The Masque of the Red Death, and Macbeth. Bravo on an amazing performance! An Evening with Shakespeare and Poe Thank you to our Principal for a Day, Ms. Hayley Howell, Director of Government Relations at Georgia Gwinnett College. We hope you had a wonderful day and enjoyed your visit! Principal for a Day The DMS Jr. Pearls recently had a “painting party” at their latest meeting. Thank you for Mrs. Powers, our Art teacher, for helping the girls with this fun activity! Jr. Pearls Painting Party Our Dacula MS Peer Leaders recently visited Arbor Terrace Retirement Home with their advisor, Mrs. Fischer, and spent the day doing crafts, playing games, and signing songs with the residents. Peer Leaders Congratulations to Commander Celisa Edwards, 7th Grade EXPLORE STEM Teacher, for not only being the DMS TOTY but also being chosen one of the GCPS TOTY Semifinalists! We're so proud of all you do for Dacula Middle and students & honored to have you as our representative! Dacula MS Teacher of the Year Students represented Dacula MS well at the FBLA Fall Leadership Conference at UGA in Athens on 11/13th. This is an amazing group of students and I am so very proud of them! FBLA Fall Leadership Conference A huge shout out to Diana Majors for placing FIRST in the Intro to Computer Science/Multimedia/Website Development competition. Diana competed in this event at the FBLA Fall Motivational Rally in October and received her award on 11/13th at the FBLA Fall Leadership Conference. First Place Award Thank you to all of the veterans who have served our country, but a special thank you to these brave men and women who also serve our DMS students on a daily basis! We appreciate you and honor you! Saluting Our Veterans! Mrs. LaMaster Mrs. Mumpfield Mr. Baldwin Ms. Pass Our Dacula Jr. Pearls volunteered at the Streetwise Mobile Food Pantry on 11/9th packaging food donations and helping those in need of assistance. Great job serving our community girls! Jr. Pearls at Streetwise Our DMS Crochet Club students made small crocheted squares to donate to the March of Dimes on 11/6th. Crochet Club Art Club spiced up our courtyard this with some chalk art. We have some super talented students here at DMS! Art Club Students and staff celebrated Red Ribbon Week on Thursday, 10/31st by dressing up as their favorite book characters. Looking good Waldo (Mrs. Bussey), Alvin & The Chipmunks, and Officer Giggle McDimples from Toy Story 4. Book Character Day Thank you to everyone who purchased a SpOoKy gram from these amazing FBLA members and a few others who aren’t pictured. We were able to raise $268 for Team Little Giant!! Thank you for supporting the March of Dimes! FBLA SpOoky Grams for March of Dimes The DMS Jr. Pearls volunteered at Alcova Elementary’s Fall Festival on 10/18th helping with games and activities. Way to go Pearls! Jr. Pearls at the Fair Teachers and staff from Alcovy Elementary, Dacula Elementary, Mulberry Elementary, and Dacula High School visited DMS and toured our classrooms to see all of the amazing work going on with and for students and to learn about our focus on Balanced Literacy/Balanced Numeracy. With our cluster's initiative on Transformational Learning, we all had a great day of discussion, planning, and coming together to help our students be their very best! Dacula Cluster Site Visit Teachers and staff from Alcovy Elementary, Dacula Elementary, Mulberry Elementary, and Dacula High School visited DMS and toured our classrooms to see all of the amazing work going on with and for students and to learn about our focus on Balanced Literacy/Balanced Numeracy. With our cluster's initiative on Transformational Learning, we all had a great day of discussion, planning, and coming together to help our students be their very best! Dacula Cluster Site Visit Congratulations to everyone in our STEM department!! DMS was presented with the STEM Silver Award on 10/17th at the GCPS Board Meeting in recognition of the instructional transformation evident in classrooms through rigorous, relevant STEM teaching and learning! GCPS STEM Silver Award Our students had a great time at Breakfast with Bussey on 10/15th! Congrats to those who were invited to the breakfast by your teachers and those of you who were named your team’s REAL Falcon for the first 9-weeks! Give a shout out to our REAL Falcons! Breakfast with Bussey This group of dedicated leaders started their Fall Break at the Georgia FBLA Fall Motivational Rally in Perry, GA at the GA National Fair! FBLA Fall Motivational Conference Builders Club cleaned up Old Auburn Rd for the DMS Builders Club Adopt-a-Road at their meeting on 10/9th. Great work team! Roadside Cleanup Crochet Club kids are making a lot of progress!!! We are so proud! Crochet Club in Action Thank you to everyone who was able to come out for our FBLA Homecoming Tailgate on Friday, 9/27th! Fun, Food, Fellowship, and Football were had by all! Such a fun way to help Dacula High School celebrate it’s homecoming victory over Rockdale County, 35-0...GO FALCONS! #onefamilyonedacula FBLA Tailgate Party Builders Club is the largest service organization for middle school and junior high students, with more than 40,000 members worldwide. Builders Club is a “student-led” community service organization that operates under school regulations and draws its members from the student body. Congrats to our DMS Builders Club President, Karena Ramnarayan!! Builders’ Club 8th grade students visited the Media Center to learn about plot and theme with Breakout EDU kits. They had a fun time using their knowledge to break out! Thanks to Dacula Middle PTSA for the grant monies for the kits. Breakout EDU Mrs. Edinburgh, one of our AMAZING 6th grade Language Arts teachers, encourages students to take advantage of every opportunity and resource offered to them so that they can become better writers, communicators, and thinkers. She is a teacher at Dacula Middle School and was one of Gwinnett County’s Promise Staff Members of the Day! Mrs. Edinburgh - Promise of Gwinnett Mrs. Greer, Media Specialist, Mrs. Blagg, Media Clerk, and Assistant Principal, Mrs. Mondesir held a celebration of Summer Reading. Students who participated in the DMS Take 5 Summer Reading or the Gwinnett County Public Library's Summer Reading were invited. We celebrated reading, recommended books, ate, and best of all, everyone received a free book! Keep reading! Summer Reading Celebration Our FBLA students took some snacks to Dacula Fire Station 16 this morning to thank them for their service and honor them on Patriot’s Day! Honoring First Responders Crochet Club started on 9/11th. The students had so much fun! Thank you Ms. Watkins and Ms. Andrews for coming out to help at our first meeting. DMS Crochet Club Cmdr. Celisa Edwards 7th Grade Explore Congratulations to our DMS 2019-2020 Teacher of the Year... Congratulations to our 2019-2020 Dacula Middle School Teacher of the Year, Celisa Edwards!! Shout out to our two amazing finalists as well: Catrina Rustin and Chelsea Castellanos!! We are very proud of all of you! Go Falcons!! Goodies were enjoyed by all DMS staff on Friday, 8/30th. Everyone enjoyed the special delivery courtesy of FBLA! FBLA Staff Deliveries Our 8th grade students had the privilege of listening to Mr. Que Crane on Thursday, 8/29/2019. The former South Gwinnett High School student told his inspiring story about overcoming adversity throughout his life and after being paralyzed during a football game in September 2007. Thank you for visiting DMS Que! Que Crane Visit Our 6th, 7th and 8th grade Explore teams read and studied the book Think Different by Karen Blumenthal. She came visited DMS on 8/28th She spoke to these students about how the research process and writing work together. Author Visit - Karen Blumenthal Congratulations to our three Teacher of the Year finalists: Mrs. Rustin, Mrs. Castellanos, and Mrs. Edwards. All of your hard work and dedication to our students and to DMS is always appreciated! Teacher of the Year Finalists Mrs. Rustin, 6th Grade Math Mrs. Castellanos, 6th Grade Math Mrs. Edwards, 7th Explore Thank you to the PTSA team, staff, volunteers, vendors and parents who all made the dance possible for the students! There were over 400 students in attendance and they had an amazing time! PTSA Back to School Dance More Back to School Dance Fun! We’re excited you’re at Dacula Middle School! Welcome to the 2019-2020 school year! Thank you, thank you, thank you to all the Dads that came out to cheer our students on their first day back to school! Thank you New Branch Community Church for bringing doughnuts for our students and for the gifts for our teachers! We appreciate your support and we are lucky to have you!!! First Day Doughnuts