Hillside Family Newsletter
I January 2017 I
Principal's Corner
With the dawning of a new year, tradition holds that we reflect on the past year, reaffirm our commitment to positive routines, and dedicate renewed energy to growth in areas of need. At Hillside, this year has been one of increased innovation with teachers exploring new technologies in the classroom, new instructional approaches, and new ways to measure and report student achievement. We remain dedicated to providing a welcoming, supportive environment and maintaining an unwavering focus on teaching and learning. Teachers have worked together this year to write new units of study and continue to reflect on effective instructional and assessment strategies. Through that work, they have prioritized meaningful student growth over simply “covering the content” and emphasized inquiry and student-centered approaches.
Our work ahead in 2017 will continue to prioritize teaching and learning as teachers write and pilot new MYP units, review existing ones and reflect on their delivery, and we analyze our assessments and levels of student achievement on them. We will always endeavor to accurately report student proficiency while nurturing both a growth-mindset and students’ confidence in their ability to acquire new, meaningful knowledge and skills.
This week, students will be examining the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in their Individuals and Societies classes, so it feels appropriate to close with Dr. King's words on our goal as a public, International Baccalaureate School : "The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically...Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.” We look forward to partnering with you in the new year as we reach for this goal.
William R. Jones, Principal
Student Events
Fifth Grade Basketball Night
Attention Fifth Graders: Hillside Middle School would like to extend an invitation to all incoming Hillside 6th Graders and a parent to the Hillside boys basketball games on Wednesday, January 11th. Entrance to the games will be complimentary and will include water and granola bars. We look forward to seeing you there!
Wednesday, January 11th
Hillside vs. Novi
7th Grade Boys begins at 4pm
8th Grade Boys begins at 5:15 pm
Students may attend one or both of the games.
Mathcounts Finishes Second in Competition on January 7th
HIllside competed in the Mathcounts Invitational competition in Canton on January 7th. Hillside won the 2nd place team award.
Daniel Tian won the 2nd place individual award.
Daniel Tian, Sambhav Gupta, and Andrew Xiong were among the top 10 competitors.
Hillside Mathcounts club reached Gold Level this year again. - one of the 2 schools in the nation: Gold & Silver Schools 2017 | MATHCOUNTS
We also have a Math Olympiad program this year which will continue to use the Hillside Forum for Math Olympiad Contests on 1/13, 2/17, 2/10 3-4pm.
Students really enjoy Math at Hillside. Thank you for your support.
Diane Xu
Swim and Dive Team Wins Highlander Relays
Girls' Basketball Try-outs 7th/8th Grade
All student athletes must have an MHSAA physical on file at the office.
Counselors' Corner
Counselors are meeting with the 8th grade students this week to help them set up their college board accounts and to interpret their PSAT test results.
Fall PSAT 8/9 Score Report
To create an account and review your scores online, visit studentscores.collegeboard.org.
To get personalized practice recommendations based on your PSAT 8/9 results (and to practice for the SAT) link your scores/your College Board account to Khan Academy.
• Visit Khanacademy.org/sat or satpractice.org. This will take you to Khan Academy to create an account.
• When prompted, agree to link your Khan Academy and College Board accounts.
• Send your test results: At College Board, sign in and hit “Send” to send your test results to Khan Academy.
PSAT 8/9 Summary Report
Page 1: The cover page with your name and school code.
Your access code is on this page but only used/needed if your name is not correct on your report.
Page 2: Your Reading and Writing score, your Total score, your Math score.
%tiles mean how well you did in comparison to others taking the test. If you lined up 100 people, where would you be in line? If you scored in the 75th % tile, you would be in front of 74 people and behind 25 people.
Page 3: Your score indicates what you are already able to do and skills/areas you need to improve.
Page 4: Indicates whether you got the problem correct or not and the level of difficulty of the question. A key is provided on this page to indicate the skill /area sub scores.
Students will also receive a paper copy of their test booklet from their 1st hr. B day teacher
**The Spring PSAT 8/9 test will be administered on Wednesday March 29th, 2017 at Hillside during the school day.
Understanding your PSAT Score
Practice SAT Link
Middle Years Programme (MYP)
Learning in Action
Hillside's 2nd Annual International Night
Come explore the cultures in our community! Get involved and be a part of this celebration! View the video from last year's International Night https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5rX0_lLs63KMnhaS1hRci12dUZoVEdhYUdzOFlWMjlKcElV/view?usp=sharing
(https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfqg65lOV9PBpr2ZgwFP4RGviUGS44GdpzImr_9kBxE4Of4xg/viewform) and sign up to get involved here!
Medical Detective Materials Request
Dear Hillside Families:
Our Medical Detective classes are staging a crime scene as a final piece to the Medical Detectives unit in April, this is a part of the PLTW curriculum. We are in need of the following items to create a crime scene that students in the class will investigate and analyze using the skills that have learned. Please bring donations to the office and label them “Medical Detectives”.
· STAGE BLOOD
· BODY MANNEQUINS
· RESUSCI-ANNIE (CPR Annie)
· WIGS
· STYROFOAM HEADS
· CRIME SCENE TAPE
· BROKEN SUNGLASSES
· LOVESEAT/COUCH
· LAMP
Dena Grantham
Life Management
Hillside Middle School