Herkimer
Journal
General Herkimer School
November 7, 2016
Grade 5 is selling
SMENCILS
everyday in the 1st grade hall.
Issue 2
DOJO & General Herkimer’s Vision
By Joseph Gentile & Angelo Podagrosi
Every morning, Mrs. D’Ambrosio
reads our school mission as well as
our school’s vision. Angelo and I
decided we would interview students
to see what our monthly vision as
well as the monthly character trait
for the DOJO student of the month
awards means to them. The DOJO
award is separate and different than an Honor Roll award.
The focus of this article will center around “curiosity” and
“perseverance” as well as the first two visions. The first two
visions were: “Become lifelong learners” and “Ensure
personal best character at home and in school”
8th Superintendent’s
Conference Day — NO
SCHOOL for students
9th Family Portrait Night @
5pm
10th Tomato Pie Sale
11th Veteran’s Day
No School
13th Scholastic Book Fair all
week
15th NOON Dismissal
Parent-Teacher conferences
21st Picture Make-Up Day
22nd PJ Day & 15 minute
early release
23rd to 25th Thanksgiving
Break —Return on Monday,
28th
Before we begin, it is important that parents and students
realize that DOJO points are used as part of our PBIS
monthly awards assembly. Teachers pick ONE top student
who demonstrates the monthly character trait on a
consistent basis. These are the students who earned the
most DOJO points for that month. Teachers may also select
5 other students who get an honorable mention during the
assembly. Every student in our building received a chain for
charms to put on the chain. Every student will receive a
birthday charm. Students of the month are given a star
charm. The honorable mention top 5 are also given a charm.
Students earn DOJO points daily based on the vision
statements as well as the traits of the month. Everything
from hallway behavior to participation earns you points. The
following students’ feelings on how they view being a curious
student as well as demonstrating perseverance, will be
informative to students and parents.
Nate Holmes, a 5th grader in Mr. Vinci’s class said, “he likes
to wonder about things and never gives up on learning.”
continued on next page —->>
(DOJO article continued from page 1)
Surayyah Monteiro, 5th grader in Mr. S.
Rogowski’s class replied, “ I ask a lot of
questions and like learning all the time.”
Sixth grader, Caroline Nguyen, from Mrs.
Giruzzi’s class said, “I feel it is important to be
interested in learning and never want to stop
learning.”
Ryan Trevisani, 6th grader in Ms. Kohlbrener’s
class feels “asking important questions when
needed and kids must be eager to learn
something everyday.”
Brycen Brooks, 5th grader in Mr. G. Rogowski’s
room thinks “curiosity is having a strong
interest in a subject and always try to learn
something you don’t already know.”
Perseverance
By Brook Gulla
Positive behavior
Enthusiastic attitudes
Respect
Strive to be peaceful contributors to society
Expand vocabulary skills
Victory in being hardworking
Envision good things in your future
Rigorous work daily
Ask for help and never give up
No to careless mistakes
Continue to improve daily
End bad behavior/bullying
All the other
students we spoke to
definitely know life
long learners are
busy every day
either asking
questions or
working hard.
GH Holds a Parade of Many Costumes
By Erimar Batista
All the students were lined up and down the hallways to view the variety of our
“Fall Parade” on Friday, October 28th. The K—2nd grade students led by Mrs. D.
and their teachers marched out front and through-out our building bringing
smiles to all. Parents were also invited to join in the fun.
There were so many costumes such as vampires, witches, Minnie Mouse, wolves,
and many more. It was so much fun to watch all the little kids coming down the hall.
Thank you Mrs. D’Ambrosio for bringing fun to our school!
Our Grade 6 Autobiography Projects
By Daron Davis
Our class had a really fun and informative project due in October about
each of our lives.
The topic Mrs. Gribanoff gave us was to create our life using a timeline. We also had to include photos, family information, and a really
good explanation of our life’s events.
You may have seen our projects hanging outside our room in the 6th
grade hallway. I have included a few of my classmates with their
autobiography project.
This was a fascinating project because we got to learn about each
other. I was very excited to see the projects hanging in the hallway
and see all my classmates’ life events.
GH’s Track Meet
Joanne Shenandoah Returns to GH
By Ilvana Kendic
By Anijah Buckingham
General Herkimer wants to
send a big shout out to Mr.
Guidera, our PE teacher here
at our school. Our track team
under his guidance and
supervision did a fantastic job!
We were very lucky to see Joanne,
her sister, and her husband on
November 3rd. She came back to
thank us for the fundraiser we held
to help raise money for her liver
transplant. She said “the card lifted
her spirit.” She also entertained us
with her beautiful songs which all
center around nature.
Our track team competed with
all the elementary schools in
Utica with the following
results: Fifth grade boys came
in 2nd, fifth grade girls—2nd
place, the 6th grade boys came in 2nd and
girls came in 1st. WAY to go GH students on
the track team!
I was lucky to be a part of our GH track
time. We had a great time and I think our
school did a great job because we had a great
leader, Mr. Guidera. I hope to be on the
track team in 6th grade.
Mrs. D. thanked
Erimar Batista &
Dianndra Frazier
for helping raise
the money through
our “Helping
Hands” program at
GH.
She wanted to know if we were in choir, then we
sang a song with her called “Common Ground” and
she might use it in a recording.
Her husband, Doug, is a wonderful story teller and
shared how both hockey and lacrosse come from his
culture of Native American. He told all the students
how these sports are good to use up any angry
energy we might have instead of fighting.
We were very thankful that Joanne is feeling better
and that she and her family returned to visit us.
Meet Mrs. Roefaro
By Erimar Batista & Ilvana Kendic
General Herkimer is very lucky to have Mrs. Roefaro working at
our school. She is a kindergarten teacher and it’s her eighth
year teaching.
Mrs. Roefaro has a two year old son Gabriel and has been
married for three years to her husband Mario. She is from Utica
but lives in New Hartford. When she is not working at our
school she coaches gymnastics.
GH welcomes
Mrs. Roefaro
She decided to come to General Herkimer because she worked
here eight years ago and really enjoyed it. Also because she
wanted to be a kindergarten teacher. Her favorite part of her job
is watching the academic growth of students through-out the
years. She is very excited about working at General Herkimer
school.
Fire Prevention Assembly
By Aniya Brown
On October 12, 2016 GH had a wonderful,
informative assembly for K—2. Since I wasn’t at
the assembly, I had the opportunity to be a roving
reporter.
First I spoke to Mrs. Fernalld to get some basic information about
the assembly. She said, “The firemen came and they said you have
to change your batteries in your smoke detectors yearly.” The
firemen also said don’t ever hide during a fire. The best thing to do
is get out of the burning house. There was also a puppet show with
dogs and a special appearance by Sparky the dog
Connor Donohoe, told me he really liked the muppets and the dogs.
Niziyah Lathan told me she enjoyed when the firemen got dressed
up and Sparky.
As you can see, the younger grades really got to learn about keeping
safe in case of a fire in a fun way.