Donoho Focus Group Shows Support of World AIDS Day 2011

Donoho students and faculty showed their support of World AIDS Day 2011 by wearing red today. The theme for World AIDS Day 2011 was "Getting to Zero- Zero new HIV infections. Zero discrimination. Zero AIDS-related deaths." Thank you to the Donoho Focus Group for bringing awareness to this worthy cause!

Sixth Graders Use Technology for Book Projects

Sixth graders collaborate to create multimedia "Did You Know?" book projects featuring a variety of informational books and topics of their choice. Students used iMovie, GarageBand, and the Internet to combine audio, video, images, and text to publish final projects.

Fifth Grader Wins School Spelling Bee

C-O-N-G-R-A-T-U-L-A-T-I-O-N-S to Shelley Phillips for winning the 2011-2012 Donoho Lower School Spelling Bee! Shelley will advance to the Calhoun County Spelling Bee on February 1, 2012. Let's wish her lots of luck. Also, congratulations to all the 4th - 6th grade homeroom spelling bee winners who participated in this year's bee:

Sarah Green (4th grade)
Adam Stremmel (4th grade)
Shelley Phillips (5th grade)
Sarah Abdul Ghani (5th grade)
Grayson Marlowe (5th grade)
Jenna Stremmel (5th grade)
Sonia Kashyap (6th grade)
Tej Patel (6th grade)

Volleyball All-County Honors Announced

Congratulations to Sally Barber, Adele Fink, Grace Fink, Rachel Matson, Katie Swinford, Anna Turner and Peyton van Ekris for being named to the Anniston Star All-County Volleyball team for 1A-2A schools.
 
Rachel was selected as The Star’s 2011 Class 1A-2A Calhoun County Player of the Year by local coaches. Coach Janice Slay was selected as The Star’s 2011 Class 1A-2A Calhoun County Coach of the Year.
 
Grace, Katie and Peyton received first team honors, and Sally, Adele and Anna received honorable mention. 
 
We are so proud of you!

Student Qualifies for All-State Chorus

Congratulations to Katherine Westbrook who qualified for All-State Chorus! This is her third time to be selected for this honor and to represent The Donoho School. All-State Chorus is considered one of the highest honors that can be awarded to a high school choral student in the state of Alabama.
 
She will spend many hours in rehearsals with other students from all across the state who were selected for the High School All-State Treble Choir and under the direction of Sandra Snow, conductor of the Michigan State University Women's Chamber Ensemble.  Snow is an experienced clinician and has been chosen to conduct many honor choir and all-state groups in Texas, New Jersey, Washington, Alabama, Kansas, Missouri and many other states. 
 
The choir will rehearse on the Samford University campus March 8-10, 2012.  Their concert performance will be open to the public and will be performed at The Wright Center auditorium on Saturday afternoon, March 10. Friends, family, and school supporters are welcome and encouraged to attend. Way to go Katherine!

Middle School Quiz Bowl Wins Donoho Tournament

Congratulations to the MS Quiz Bowl team, winners of the 2nd Annual Donoho Quiz Bowl Tournament! The MS Quiz Bowl team competed in the 2nd Annual Donoho Quiz Bowl Tournament, Saturday, November 19. The tournament grew this year to include 13 schools with 18 teams competing, there were 9 schools on a waiting list. The Donoho team members are:  Wittney Brown, Libby Davis, Meghana Giri, Bella Howell, Derek James, Jake Kaplan, Mark Simmons, and Jake Walker. They were undefeated in the tournament. They won their pool play,  the semi-final round,  and took 1st place in the tournament.

Congratulations to Coach Shannon Felder and the Varsity Football team for being named "Team of the Week" by WHMA The Big 95 and Awards to Remember. The Falcons were presented their team of the week trophy this week during the school's pep rally for their 42-6 victory over Akron HS last week. Accepting the award on behalf of Coach Felder and the team were seniors Damien Christen, Teddre Williams, Alex Svensen, Jackson Hodges, Zach St. Clair, Matthew Overton, Tate Thomas, Alec McCormack, Pavan Mudiam and Walker Mason. Way to go Falcons!

First Graders Enjoy "Old Fashion Day"

Donoho first graders enjoyed an "Old Fashion Day" picnic as a culminating activity to their study of life in pioneer days. The children learned about daily life of pioneer children. They spent the day learning from the McGuffey Primer and playing games like the pioneer children would have played during lunch and recess. They had things such as fried chicken, ham, biscuits, fried apple pies, teacakes and lemonade in Mason jars. This along with learning to make syrup at Bennett Farms concludes a fun study of the life of Pioneer children. 

Second Graders Participate in Journey North

Second grade classes are participating in Journey North, a global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change. The students made paper symbolic Monarch butterflies that will travel to Mexico for the winter. In the spring, the butterflies will be sent back north to the students. Great job!

Volleyball Team Wins Class 1A State Championship

Donoho defeats Addison (19-25, 25-21, 20-25, 25-20, 17-15) in the finals of the Elite 8 volleyball tournament in Pelham. The Lady Falcons are the Class 1A State Champions!! CONGRATULATIONS LADY FALCONS! We are proud of you!

Four Students Named to 2011 Area 7 Area Tournament Team

Congratulations to Sally Barber, Grace Fink, Rachel Matson and Katie Swinford for being named to the 2011 Area 7 Tournament team for Varsity Volleyball. Way to go Lady Falcons!

One Student Named to 2011 Junior High All-County Team

Congratulations to Jordan Ray for being named to the 2011 Calhoun County All-Tournament team for Junior High Volleyball. Way to go!

Two Students Named to 2011 Calhoun County All-Tournament Team

Congratulations to Grace Fink and Rachel Matson for being named to the 2011 Calhoun County All-Tournament team for Varsity Volleyball. Way to go Lady Falcons!

"The Pitch - Episode 4", September 26, 2011

Two Students Named National Merit Semi-Finalists

The Donoho School is proud to announce that seniors Vinay Giri and Tate Thomas have been named National Merit Semi-finalists by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. The National Merit Scholarship Program is an annual academic competition for recognition and scholarships that is open to all United States high school students who meet published entry requirements. The program is conducted by National Merit Scholarship Corporation, a not-for-profit organization established in 1955 that operates without government assistance. Semifinalists named in each year's Merit Scholarship competition show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies. Those who meet requirements to advance to the Finalist level compete for National Merit Scholarships supported by independent sponsor organizations and by National Merit Scholarship Corporation's own funds.

About 1.5 million students in some 22,000 high schools entered the 2012 National Merit Scholarship program by taking the 2010 Preliminary SAT (PSAT). The 16,000 Semifinalists that were announced on September 14, 2011, are the highest-scoring entrants in each state and represent less that 1 percent of each state's high school seniors. They are the only participants who qualify to continue in the competition for National Merit Scholarships to be awarded in the spring of 2012. Most Semifinalists are currently twelfth graders who will enter college in the fall of 2012.

Congratulations Vinay and Tate!

"The Pitch - Episode 3", September 19, 2011

"The Pitch - Episode 2", September 8, 2011

"The Pitch - Episode 1", August 29, 2011

Donoho Alum Returns to Encourage Serving Others

Last Thursday during advisory period (part of our weekly community period) Donoho alum Vaughn Stewart '07 returned to campus to share his experiences in community service while a student at Donoho and at the University of Pennsylvania of which he is a recent graduate. He challenged students in grades 9, 10, and 11 to reach out and find creative ways to serve others in our community and discussed the importance of community service and serving others. This community of high school students would like to thank Vaughn for giving back and for his encouragement as we seek to do the same. We wish him the best of luck as he starts law school at NYU next week! 

Fall Campus Clean-Up Day

A big THANKS to all the student-athletes, parents, coaches and fans who came out today and participated in our fall campus clean-up. It was a great day to be a Falcon!