News from Panther Headquarters
October 2017
From the desk of the Principal...
Hello Panther Families –
It is once again my pleasure to share pertinent information about HIJH to our Panther families. At HIJH, we have embraced the idea that in order to get the most out of their learning experiences, students need to "Own their Learning.” This means that in order to maximize their growth throughout the year, students need to know and understand where they are in their learning journey, know where they are going (end results), and know the path it takes to get where they are going. This requires setting long-term and short-term goals, collecting assessment data, and selecting artifacts of their work from all classes. All of this is placed in individual student portfolios in each of their classes. To that end, we will be engaged in Student-Led Conferences this school year that will take place within the window of November 14 through November 16 from 3:00-7:00. We have delayed these conferences until later in the school year in order for students to establish more robust portfolios that will help drive their conversations during the conferences. A Homeroom teacher or an SLT teacher will contact parents/guardians with time and date options through an electronic form such as PTC Fast or Sign-up Genius. Families will have an opportunity to let their child lead them through his or her learning experiences this year in 20-minute sessions. They are to select one or two content areas of choices to share goals and artifacts, share one HSE21 (21st Century) life skill goal, and establish a 3rd goal with their parents/guardians to work on throughout the rest of the school year. Teachers will be on hand as facilitators of the process, but the students themselves lead the conferences. This conference is not the time to discuss classroom specifics or address concerns with the teacher. Parents can set up teacher meetings at any time throughout the year for those purposes. The research on Student-Led Conferencing is overwhelming that giving the student the opportunity to understand and articulate their growth and achievement as a learner is powerful tool, and the National Middle School Association, The National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform, and National Association of School Principals endorse them, among others. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with parents to support student achievement and appreciate your support throughout the year.
Respectfully,
Tim A. Mankin
Global Read Aloud "GRA"
Upcoming Important Dates
October 2nd-6th Camp Tecumseh
October 3 Dine to Donate at Puccini's at Geist - 4 to close
October 6 First Grading Period Ends
October 9 Fundraiser Pick up - 3-7 pm
October 10 Choir Dress Rehearsal - 2:45-4 pm
October 10 Band Concert - 7 pm at HSE High School
October 11 Choir Concert - 7 pm in Panther Hall
October 12 Creating Positive Relationships (CPR) - 6:30 pm in Panther Hall
- Parents Meeting only for 5th and 6th graders
October 13 PTO Meeting - 9:30 am
October 16-20 - Fall Break
October 25 Orchestra Concert - 7 pm in Panther Hall
October 27 Thrill the School - 5/6 Grades Only
October 28 Dine to Donate - Jack's Donuts
Early Dismissals and Returning to School
Book Fees and IPad Rental
Skyward has be updated with all book/Ipad fees for 17-18 school year. Fees can be paid on line through efunds,(be sure to click book rental fees), check or money order, NO CASH please. If paying by check, please put your child’s ID number in the memo line. This will ensure the amount is applied to the correct student.
Please allow up to two weeks for Skyward to show paid. Receipts will not be sent home.
If you have any questions, please contact Doty Gaertner, Treasurer at 594-4120.
Counselor's Corner
HIJH Student Services does everything in our power to help students and families in need, including academic, career exploration, and social/emotional needs. The latter is sometimes more difficult for HIJH to resolve with the means available.
School counselors often receive information from outside resources which may benefit the needs of our families. We, the counselors, compile a list of available resources in the event that families ask for such information. When we exhaust the means available through the HIJH Student Services Department, we continue to try to help in any way we can.
Although we do not recommend any one service in particular, we can offer this compilation of community resources at your request. If you choose to seek outside services and would like to view information made available to HIJH, please contact us at your convenience. Please remember, all requests are kept confidential.
Resources may include: food pantries, clothing distributers, prevention programs, and grief and loss counseling/therapy. We are here to serve you!
Planning for the Future. Getting one’s thoughts in order is a good start for planning the future. Simply sitting down with your child and asking, “What do you think you want to do with your life?” is a great way to start planning. Promote conversations that focus on where your child wants to be academically and what their career interests might be at this time. Take a half hour every other week to research some of the careers of interest discussed, as well as colleges, universities, and vocational school that support such careers. Simply open the door to future planning; you may be amazed at what you find!
This year we again welcome, Meg Wezet, our HIJH Counseling Intern. She will be talking with all students about college and career readiness over the next two months. Students will be provided a magazine titled Learn More. This magazine talks about college and career readiness, where some parts of the magazine will be discussed. Please feel free to talk with your students about the magazine.
TESTING DATES TO NOTE. Mark your calendars to ensure your child is in attendance these testing periods.
ISTEP+ Part 1 - February 26 - March 9, 2018
ISTEP+ Part 2 - April 16 - May 4, 2018
It is extremely important that your child be in attendance and on time during these testing days. Please assist us by ensuring that your child is well rested and eats a healthy breakfast. Also, it would be advantageous to reschedule any appointments you have scheduled during these days. Thank you in advance for your assistance with this testing process.
Address & Bus Changes. Anyone requesting new bus transportation for their child, due to a move to a new home, MUST provide proof of residency to the attending school to make this change. Residency documents needed are posted on the corporation website under “For Parents” and “Enrolling Your Child”, Step 3, Residency Documents. Once documents are provided to the school, new bus information will be provided to you and will be available on Skyward within a 24-hour timeframe.
Click here for the Northwestern University's Midwest Academic Talent Search (NUMATS).
Click here Twenty-First Century Scholars.
Messages from the Nurse
Camp T Nurse Information: The time has come for the 7th grade class to journey to Camp Tecumseh! This is a yearly ½ week trip taken by our 7th grade students. Tamera Terew, one of our school nurses, will be away at Camp with them the week of (Oct 2nd-Oct 6th). Erika Allen, our 10a-2p nurse, will be at school that week along with a daily FT Registered Nurse from our sub pool. Please be aware to EMAIL Ms. Allen this week as WIFI can be tricky at camp! (eallen@hse.k12.in.us) or call clinic as needed.
Flu Shots: CDC recommends a yearly flu vaccine for everyone 6 months of age and older as the first and most important step in protecting against this serious disease. Please consider vaccinating you and your child. As a reminder, if your child is sick (see Illness Policy below), please keep them home from school as nurses we are unable to diagnose the flu or any illnesses. It is not in our scope of practice.
***EMERGENCY MEDICATIONS*** If your student is carrying emergency medication on them while at school (Epi Pen or Inhaler) we MUST have a doctor's note on file. Please have your child's doctor fax a note to us 317-594-4129 or use the form found here: Certification to Self-Medicate . More paperwork click here: HEALTH FORMS. Please note student are not permitted to carry medications with them to take as needed; they must be stored in the clinic.
HSE Illness Policy: All students must be free of fever without the use of medication to get the fever down (fever is defined as 100 degrees or more), vomiting and/or diarrhea for 24 hours before returning to school. Thank you for helping to keep our students healthy by following HSE Illness Policy (it can be found in the online Handbook.
Picking up students from school: Per HSE policy, students are not allowed to text home during the day, including to ask to be picked up if feeling ill. Each student must go through the nurse first. Please remind your student to visit the clinic first before contacting you. They are always allowed to call home from the clinic.
Free Math Tutoring
HIJH Sports Information
Click here to learn about all of the HIJH Athletic Info. Please read page 2 carefully as some dates/times have changed recently!
The Athletic Department needs parent volunteers to work the ticket tables at our home winter sporting events! Sign up here: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080548adaa23a02-20172018. Thanks for your support of Southeastern Athletics!
HIJH Math Bowl-5/6 Grade
Fitness Enrichment Activities for 5/6 Grade
Thrill the School-5/6 Grade
The Related Arts Department would like to invite your 5th and 6th grade students to the "Thrill the School" event on Friday, October 27th from 2:45-4:00 pm. Click here for more event and ticket information.
Creating Positive Relationships (CPR) Parent Seminar-5th Grade
CPR will be hosting a Parent Seminar for 5th grade families on Thursday, October 12 from 6:30-7:30 PM at HIJH in the LGI Room. At this meeting, you will learn strategies to begin parenting conversations at home that will help your child navigate the changes that occur physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially during puberty.
While this event is specifically designated for 5th grade families, all families are welcome including those who may have missed this informational meeting the previous year. Because CPR is not taught in grade 5, this parent information session is offered to support conversations at home. CPR will be taught in grades 6, 7, and 8 during the PE/Wellness classes. Again, this Parent Seminar is specifically designed for 5th grade families to help facilitate conversations at home. For more detailed information about each lesson, please listed to this parent webinar: https://www.cpr4teens.org/parents/webinar-info/. Many questions will be answered at the parent session and specific content is covered in the webinar. We would be happy to answer any further questions you might have after the meeting. Please contact Shannyn Miller smmiller@hse.k12.in.us for support with your questions.
Attention all parents of 8th Graders
Attention all 8th grade parents: The deadline to register for the 8th grade Washington DC trip has passed and the planning for the trip has begun! Our next step will be a roommate selection meeting which is scheduled for HIJH students on Friday December 1st at 7am in the main gym. For other general trip information please go to www.dctrip.info or contact Eric Brown (ebrown@hse.k12.in.us)
National Junior Art Honor Society-8th Grade
A National Junior Art Honor Society has been formed at HIJH for current 8th graders in semester or full year Art. Applications will still be accepted by Ms. Gammons—please see her in room 304 for more information. Our next meeting will be at 7:00am on Wednesday, October 25 in room 304. In related news, we are looking for art-related service projects outside of school; anyone with ideas, possibilities, proposals, etc. for service activities should contact Ms. Gammons at kgammons@hse.k12.in.us, anytime. 7th graders will be eligible to apply in May 2018.
Fundraiser Product Pick-Up Date
Please mark your calendars for Monday, October 9! All students who sold products for our school-wide fundraiser must pick up their merchandise between 3:00-7:00 p.m. in the Auxillary Gym on this date. Enter the building through door #3 (the main entrance will not be open during this time).
Hurricane Help!
HIJH Goodwill Clothing Drive
PTO News
PTO Website. Checkout our PTO website (www.hijhpto.wordpress.com) for the 2017-18 PTO calendar, PTO meeting schedule, past meeting minutes, newsletters, and more.
October PTO Meeting. The next PTO meeting will be Friday, October 13 at 9:30 AM at the school. All parents are invited to join us.
Red Apple Fundraiser. VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!!! We need help distributing fundraiser orders on Monday, October 9 and Thursday, October 12. Click here to sign up:
Panther Rewards. HIJH families who link their Kroger card number to our school, earn our school money! Whenever you use your Kroger card, a portion of the sale goes to our school. It’s an easy way to support the PTO (and you keep your fuel points)! Simply go to www.kroger.com/communityrewards and create an account or sign in. Find Hamilton Southeastern Intermediate Junior H.S. PTO and link your card to our account.
Box Tops for Education and Tyson Label collections will be monthly. Popsicles will be given to students who turn in 15. Classroom competitions will be in October and February. (We will not be collecting Labels for Education this year.)
The AmazonSmile Foundaton donates .5% of the purchase price from your eligible purchases to our PTO. Go to www.smile.amazon.com to choose our school (under Hsjh Pto Inc) and to make purchases.
Book Fair. HIJH fall book fair will be November 6-10th. Volunteer sign-ups will go out soon. Make sure you have a completed background check on file to volunteer.
Dine to Donate. Puccini’s (Geist) - We will have a Dine to Donate at Puccini’s on Tuesday, October 3 from 4 PM-close. Click here for the flyer. You must show the flyer for us to earn money.
Jack’s Donuts (Fishers) – We will have a Dine to Donate at Jack’s Donuts on Saturday, October 28 from 5 AM-10 PM. Each student in the grade with the highest attendance will receive a coupon for a free donut. Mention HIJH when ordering.
Winter Sports Ticket Sales Parents of Students Playing Winter Sports - Please contact Denise Retzner (dretzner@yahoo.com) if you are willing to volunteer with tickets sales. We need volunteers to work one or two evenings (about 2 ½ hours) taking ticket money at one of our winter events. Last year we saved over $1000 using volunteers instead of hiring someone to work. The money we save goes back into the sports programs. Go Panthers!
Pacers Night Fundraiser. We have partnered with the Indiana Pacers to participate in an exciting FUNdraiser. Sell tickets to select Pacers games, win some neat Pacers prizes, and help raise money for our school! Click here to find out more about this fundraiser.
Middle Years
HIJH Connect
October Multicultural Holidays
Click here to find out about October Multicultural Holidays.
NEWS AROUND THE DISTRICT
Permitted use of school newsletters as required by the Equal Access Act is not an endorsement of this group or this group’s beliefs by Hamilton Southeastern Schools or the Board of School Trustees.
Hamilton Southeastern Intermediate/Junior High
Ph: 317-594-4120
Attendance: 317-594-4126
Guidance: 317-594-4124
Fax: 317-594-4129
hse.k12.in.us/hij/home.aspx
Twitter: @HIJPanthers
Athletics Twitter: @HIJathletics