It’s been a wonderful year at Dan Mills, and we want to thank YOU for your part in that! Whether you volunteered, signed your Dragon up for the Dragon Dash, read with your child, attended Dragon Jubilee, thanked a teacher, bought a school t-shirt, baked some treats for the happy cart or bake sale, or won an auction item, you were an integral part of that success. Plans are already being made for a fantastic 2019-2020 school year. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your amazing support!
Sincerely,
The Dan Mills PTO Board
Items of note that the PTO was able to provide or support:
Library Redesign, Phase I
Picnic Tables for the front field
10 New computers for the Computer Lab
Over $4,500 in Professional Development for teachers
Over $10,000 allocated to teachers to use in their classrooms
Educational programs to support curriculum
Monthly Happy Cart for teachers
Over $12,000 in Classroom supplies, equipment, and literacy supplies
Mindfulness Supplies for teachers and classrooms
$3900 for field trips and achievement incentives (including the in-school Adventure Science Center event)
Here are just a few pictures from the school year:
We want to share some of the sentiments from the teachers because these kind words are meant for ALL of the Dan Mills parents:
“I’m very appreciative of the support shown toward my classroom from the Dan Mills PTO this school year! PTO provided us a classroom rug! This rug is the staple of our classroom and serves as our meeting place for morning meeting and mini lessons. Students enjoy getting cozy on the rug to read books.
With Dragon Dash funds, I was able to purchase six wobble stools. These stools help promote flexible seating in the classroom by giving students choice and a chance to “wiggle” while they work. Thank you Dan Mills PTO for your support! I greatly appreciate it!”
“I am so thankful for the intentionality and immense efforts our PTO gives toward helping our staff and students. Whether it’s a smiling friendly face, a happy cart of morning pick-me-ups, or financial support, the PTO’s investment in teachers and in our school at large have been so wonderful and impactful.
Thanks to funds from the PTO, my classroom received several new high-quality nonfiction texts (the National Geographic Kids series…which my students cannot get enough of). These nonfiction books supported our reading and writing units on understanding informational texts, navigating their various features, and creating our own nonfiction texts about animals we were passionate to study. Having so many mentor books for my students to research in and aspire to imitate has been huge. Now every single one of my students can have a rich text like this for him/herself, for reading and rereading. My students don’t just love books, but dive in eagerly to these nonfiction texts to grow their brains and uncover facts they delightedly share with others. There is such a pride and joy they experience in this—and for many students, these books present a thrilling challenge. Similarly, I feel great joy watching their reading opportunities flourish with the addition of these books to my classroom library. Thank you PTO! This is just one of the ways my students have benefitted from your work and generosity.”
“What an incredible PTO Dan Mills has! We want for nothing.... and we appreciate it more than you all could ever know. We are supported incessantly. The Post Its that were bought for me make it so much more positive for the kids (and me) to give and receive feedback as well as making Anchor Charts much more memorable for students. There are not enough nice words to say about our awesome parents. ”
“Thank you for your support of music education at Dan Mills! This year, through the Dragon Dash funds, all 3rd grade students received a Yamaha recorder! I was also able to attend a spectacular professional development, sponsored by the CMA Foundation and TNMEA (Tennessee Music Educators Association) and learned a wealth of knowledge/techniques that I could immediately bring back to the classroom. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!! I love you guys and am so thankful for you!!”
“I am so grateful for all of the activities provided to our students by our PTO. My class still talks about the Dragon Dash and how much fun it was. We are using new math materials and a light board that were provided to us by the PTO. I am so grateful to be a part of the Dan Mills family. We have the best PTO anywhere!”
“Thank you for all your support during the 2018-2019 school year. From lunches and teacher appreciation week, to monthly “happy cart” visits and purchasing items for our classroom, we can always count on you to help and support us. Thank you for all you do for our community school!”
“Ive been able to use my Dragon Dash funds to purchase new books for my classroom during school book fairs. As we walk around and take a sneak peek of the book fair, I like to notice which books they get excited about so that I can get them for our class. Once the kids see the books in class that they were hoping for they immediately want to find a cozy spot to read! I feel grateful for all of the support we have here at Dan Mills. Without you all, those magical moments wouldn’t always happen. On top of the phenomenal fundraising, the parent support is outstanding. Because of the support from volunteers, I was able to get a new phonics curriculum in my classroom which has helped so many of my students! Thank you for your constant support and hard work!”