Last Monday morning, before the first bell, South Dearborn High School's seniors gathered outside to watch the sunrise together, a tradition that kicks off senior year.

It's a small moment, but it's the first of many the Class of 2027 will share this year. Here's to a safe, successful, and memorable senior year, Class of 2027! 🌅

Band and choir directors Mr. Pallada and Mr. Francis are working with South Dearborn Middle School students on the fundamentals — posture, embouchure (the way a musician positions their lips, teeth, tongue, and facial muscles to play a wind or brass instrument), scales, and musical articulation. It's the kind of practice that builds real control, rhythm, and confidence as musicians.

Come out and support the SDMS and SDHS bands and choirs at their performances this year:

August
- Saturday, August 29th — Music on the Front Porch, 2:00pm, Aurora Public Library — Choir

September
- Friday, September 18th — Home Football Game — Marching Knights
- Saturday, September 19th — Band Competition, Taylor HS (Cleves, OH) — Marching Knights
- Friday, September 25th — Homecoming Home Football Game — Marching Knights
- Saturday, September 26th — Band Competition, Batesville HS (Batesville, IN) — Marching Knights
- Wednesday, September 30th — Farmers Fair — Choir

October
- Saturday, October 3rd — Farmers Fair Parade — Marching Knights with 7th & 8th Grade Bands
- Saturday, October 3rd — ISSMA State Prelims, Whiteland HS (Whiteland, IN) — Marching Knights
- Friday, October 9th — Senior Knight Home Football Game — Marching Knights
- Saturday, October 10th — Band Competition, Mason HS (Mason, OH) — Marching Knights
- Friday, October 16th — Middle School Band Knight Home Football Game — Marching Knights with 6th, 7th & 8th Grade Bands
- Saturday, October 17th — ISSMA State Finals, Franklin Community HS (Indianapolis, IN) — Marching Knights
- Sunday, October 25th — Band Competition, East Central HS (St. Leon, IN) — Marching Knights

November
- Saturday, November 7th — MidStates Championships, Miamisburg HS (Miamisburg, OH) — Marching Knights
- Thursday, November 12th — Bands of America Grand Nationals, Lucas Oil Stadium (Indianapolis, IN) — Marching Knights
- Wednesday, November 18th — Fall Concert — Choir
- Friday, November 20th — HS Variety Show — Marching Knights & Opening Knight
- Saturday, November 21st — HS Variety Show — Marching Knights & Opening Knight

December
- Saturday, December 5th — Dillsboro Hometown Christmas — HS Bands
- Wednesday, December 9th — Music Department Winter Concert — All Bands and Choirs

What do jeweled lizards from Chile have to do with kindergarten? Ask a student in Mrs. Bartholomew's class at Aurora Elementary School, who teamed up with Mrs. Friedoff this week to turn them into an art lesson. After studying photos of them, students drew their own jeweled lizard!

Down the hall, Mrs. Lane's kindergartners tackled a different question: what is media, and how do we use it? Students are beginning to develop critically important media literacy skills that will allow them to make sense of the stories, photos, and videos they encounter.

These may be different starting points, but they share a common finish line: creativity, curiosity, and connection to the world around them.

This Saturday, August 29th, Sam and Kloey will represent South Dearborn High School at the Swiss Wine Festival, starting with the parade at 10:00am, then competing in the Swiss Ambassador Contest at 1:30pm.

Come out and cheer them on!

Congratulations to this week's "Future Knights Before the Bell" winners at Aurora Elementary School, the students with number 12, recognized for showing up on time and ready to learn!

It's a small habit that pays off all year. Keep it up!

What happened first? What happened next? Mrs. Peterson's and Mrs. Ingle's fifth-graders at Dillsboro Elementary School have been asking those questions all week, working in groups to put the events of a paragraph back in order.

It sounds simple, but sequencing is the backbone of understanding anything you read — and organizing anything you want to say.

Get the order down, and everything else gets clearer.

Ms. Heffelfinger's South Dearborn Middle School students are building a cheat code for big words: Greek and Latin roots.

Students are making posters, writing definitions, and using new vocabulary in sentences, all built around word parts that show up again and again, like "bio" or "tele."

Once you know "bio" means life, you can take a decent guess at "biography," "biology," or any word you've never seen before.

Mrs. Vermilion's English students at South Dearborn High School spent class this week making the case against Grendel — using nothing but the text itself as evidence.

As they work through excerpts of the 1,300 year-old epic poem "Beowulf," students are digging into what actually makes Grendel the villain of the story, backing up every claim with proof pulled straight from the story! 📖

South Dearborn Community School Corporation is having an asynchronous eLearning Day today! For more information, please visit the eLearning page: https://www.sdcsc.k12.in.us/page/elearning

South Dearborn Community School Corporation is having an asynchronous eLearning Day on Monday, August 24th! For more information, please visit the eLearning page: https://www.sdcsc.k12.in.us/page/elearning

Ms. Rayner's fourth-graders at Aurora Elementary School spent day one trying to guess their teacher's favorite food, worst habit, and everything in between with a game of teacher trivia.

Every wrong guess got a laugh. Every right one got a cheer. By the end, the class knew a lot more about Ms. Rayner — and felt a lot more comfortable raising their hands.

Turns out the fastest way to get a class talking is to make them guess!

Wednesday night, South Dearborn's middle school boys soccer team took on Connersville — but the game wasn't the only thing on their minds.

Before kickoff, South Dearborn Middle School presented Connersville with a plaque made for the schools of Fayette County, still working through the aftermath of severe flooding. Alongside it, our middle school and high school soccer teams contributed donations of needed items to help.

It was a good lesson for our boys: even in the middle of a rivalry, there's always room to look out for a community in need.

Thank you to the families who stepped up to make it happen!

What's the first project in an art class? For Mr. Baney's South Dearborn High School students, it wasn't a painting — it was picking a seat and learning how to take care of a shared space.

Respecting the supplies, keeping a clean work area, looking out for each other — these are the habits that make an art room feel less like a classroom and more like a studio.

Paraprofessionals make a real difference in a student's day — the extra support, the steady presence, the person who notices when a kid needs help. South Dearborn High School is hiring two of them right now.

Apply today through the link below:

https://skyward.sdcsc.k12.in.us/Business/web/rappljoblst484.w?hqrbgrtid=2180

Mrs. Petty's second-graders at Aurora Elementary School have found their groove — and their favorite job in the classroom might be "assistant teacher."

Between place value, journal writing, and partner reading to build fluency, the class has also started an author study on Mo Willems, complete with a character analysis of the Pigeon in his stories like "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus." Students are taking turns partner reading and discussing the story closely with Mrs. Petty.

A good routine and a good book go a long way in second grade. This class seems to have found both!

Aurora Elementary School's Future Knights Before the Bell program drew number 16 for this week's prize, rewarding the students who show up on time, ready to learn, day after day.

Being early sounds simple, but it's a habit, and these future Knights have got it down!

Being a fifth-grader at Dillsboro Elementary School comes with a little more responsibility, and Mrs. Peterson and Mrs. Ingle made sure their classes knew it from day one.

The two classes reviewed the expectations that come with being the oldest kids in the building: how to treat one another, how to behave at assemblies, why attendance matters, and how to get to and from school safely, whether that's the bus line or the bike rack.

By the time these Bulldogs head to South Dearborn Middle School next year, this stuff will be second nature!

Hobbies. Strengths. Goals. Future careers. Mrs. McCune's South Dearborn Middle School students spent part of the week putting all of it down on paper with an attitude and interest inventory.

It's less about getting the "right" answer and more about students learning what makes for better choices. These reflections come in handy the next time they're picking a club, an elective, or a direction for their future.

When your class project matches what's happening outside the window, the lesson gets real fast! That's where Ms. Gabbard's 7th and 8th-grade PLTW students at South Dearborn Middle School found themselves with their Natural Disaster Project, as flooding recently moved through our area.

Seventh-graders in Computer Science mapped the areas affected by flooding, work that feeds directly into the class's next unit on drones — using flight technology to survey disaster areas and help communities respond. Eighth-graders in Medical Detectives studied the gear first responders use during water rescues and how those rescuers stay safe while saving others.

Computer science, drones, medical science, teamwork — all pointed at a problem happening recently right here in South Dearborn!