Dansville Elementary School - Classes & Support Staff

Letter to Parents from the Elementary School Staff:

It is indeed a great privilege to work with your youngster, and we will definitely do all we can in providing a comprehensive educational program.  Each student comes into the classroom with his/her own attitude toward learning.  Also the level of performance, obviously, is quite varied in a group of 20 to 25 students.  Thus, our goal is to impact your young student in two ways.  We want to significantly improve the level of performance and to effect positively the student's attitude toward that performance on a day-to-day basis.  

You have the greatest privilege!  As a parent you are also the most important teacher your child will likely ever know.  It is very important for you to use time wisely and give attention to the opportunities to teach while the youngster is at an impressionable age.  We believe that a youngster learns through doing --- through practice.  Definitely attitude will be effected by the level of expectations you have on your child's performance.  Please keep in close touch with your son's and/or daughter's teacher.  Be prepared to review the work being done in school on a day-to-day basis.  Have fun quizzing with number facts, creating complete sentences with new words, sharing a good book together, etc.  You truly can make a big difference in the success level experienced by your youngster in school.  We firmly believe that part of becoming a "good" student is for him/her to accept ownership of "responsibility" ... it is your position to serve as a resource/guide; it is his/her position to seek help needed to complete assignments satisfactorily.  

The academic performance of basic skills and problem solving are our primary focus.  If a student has a good grasp of fundamental skills and has set reasonable expectations on his/her own performance by age 12, he/she is likely to have continued success in preparation toward a career.  Let's work together toward that "beginning."  

Sincerely,

The Elementary School Staff

Kindergarten

 Dansville Elementary School is pleased to have two dedicated kindergarten teachers on staff: Mrs. Michele Momberg (room 107) and Mrs. Stephanie McDaniel (room 105).  We consider ourselves fortunate to have two such fine people greeting and meeting with these "little people" every day. With our four sections of morning/afternoon kindergarten, they're keep busy and have responsibility for the progress of many of the community's youngest children.  

First Grade

Dansville's first grade teachers are Mrs. Loretta Rockwell (Room 103), Mrs. Caroline Rodocker (Room 106), and Mrs. Rhonda Toles (Room 104).  Attitudes about school and learning are fashioned during these earliest years and may last a lifetime.  Remember how everything about school seemed larger than life in first grade?  Walk through the doors and into the arms of the big brown teddy bear who guards Mrs. Rodocker's classroom and you'll see what we mean!      

 

Second Grade

Second grade students are in the capable hands of Mrs. Carrie Kodish (Room 109), Mrs. Judy Gorrell (Room 113), and Ms. Angela Munson (Room 111).  Students in these classes have begun to know their way around the halls of Dansville Schools and look forward to learning here each day.  The homesickness that was often a part of kindergarten and first grade has diminished, and the kids are making good progress.  

Third Grade

 By third grade, children have begun to settle in at the school and are mostly comfortable with the daily routine and efforts to shape a good foundation for learning.  Dansville is pleased to have Mrs. Shana Barnum (Room 115), Mrs. Melanie Whitener (Room 112), and Mrs. Kathy Olson (Room 117) to steady the process and to insure a strong transition into the final grades of the elementary school experience.

Fourth grade lessons begin to get more difficult.  Mrs. Kathy Driggs (Room 118), Mrs. Gail Bonneau (Room 114), and Mrs. Margo Clickner (Room 116) gracefully manage the gradual increase in both difficulty and speed with which content is presented and ultimately absorbed by each student.

 Fifth Grade

Three teachers manage the transition from elementary to middle school occurring by the fifth grade:  Mr. Rod Clickner (Room 122), Mrs.Sara Oesterle (Room 124), and Mr. Kevin Hatch (Room 120).  Some of the most important and exciting discoveries occur during this school year.  It is a time of change for many students, not only physically and emotionally, but spatially, too, as the end of the school year brings the graduation from elementary school and the start of the middle school years.  

ES Reading Center    

The Dansville Elementary Reading Center, under the direction of Mrs. Linda Woodrow (Room next to the ES Library), aims to create students who:                                                     

• Enjoy reading
• Read for pleasure            
• Read to learn
• Make reading part of their everyday lives
   

Elementary Special Education

Mrs. Courtney Schnelker, Speech and Language Teacher for all three of Dansville Schools and Mrs. Mary Warfle, Elementary Resource Teacher,  are responsible for elementary special education. David Sheathelm is Special Education Director for all of Dansville Schools, overseeing all of our special ed programs here.

Elementary School Library

 

Dansville Elementary School Library, under the direction of Kathy Supiran, is the primary resource center for the elementary school.  It's a place where your child can hear a story, find a good book, work with computers, or just find a quiet place to think.  Ah, the pleasures and powers of the well-stocked library!   

ES Music

Rebecca Wilson  and Kim Huston teach music for Dansville Elementary.  Do you remember songs you learned in elementary school?  Some of the words and music still stick with us even when we are adults!  Good things happen when learning is coupled with music.  There is play involved, drama, and actual thinking/logic exercises taking place when our children learn to sing or play a musical instrument.

ES Art

Art instructor is Rose Underwood.  Hooray for the ARTS!  They tend to be under-valued and under-funded in many institutions.  For the most part, this wonderful life-beauty activity is a priority in our school.  Just walk the hallways and see the many wonderful art works being done by your children to appreciate fully what skill and patience it must require to teach a child to use their artful gifts.  

ES Physical Education

Mr. Travis Gucky is the favorite of many children here.  If your child likes to play -- and whose doesn't! -- they'll love Mr. Gucky!  He's got all the good toys!  And he's appreciated by all the other teachers for his ability to help the kids release some of the pent up energy they seem to acquire while sitting still in the classroom throughout the day.  

ES Spanish

ˇSaludos!  This is the Dansville Elementary’s first year with a Spanish program for grades first through fifth.  Students have Spanish class 2 times a week where they are learning introductory Spanish such as the numbers, the calendar, colors, and other ways to describe the world around them.  Students are working hard to practice listening to, speaking, writing, and reading Spanish words.  They are practicing their skills through repetition, art projects, and much more!  Ms. Karolyn Schweitzer, our elementary and sixth grade Spanish teacher, has studied in Spain and is a graduate of MSU.  Please do not hesitate to call her (571) 623-6120 at ext. 223 with any questions. ˇAdiós!

ES Principal

Mr. Jim Menapace.  

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