Hillside Family Newsletter
I December 2016 I
Principal's Corner
Dear Hillside Families,
During this holiday time of thanksgiving and reflection, and as a new principal settling in to the year, I feel it an especially opportune time to comment on the Hillside family. From my first days, I have been and continue to be amazed by your kids and how mature, polite, and engaged they are in their education. Our students, your students, do really well in class and work proactively with their teachers when they struggle. In my classroom observations, the part I often enjoy the most is the student-to-student dialogue and their responses to my questions of “What are you learning about?” and “Why is it important?” I have not yet been able to stump a student.
I am also especially grateful for the supportive, innovative teaching staff that truly exemplify the best that public schools have to offer. They have welcomed me and continue to welcome your kids into their classrooms and challenge them every day.
William R. Jones, Principal
PTSA Carnival is Friday, December 2nd
We ask that students not return to school until 4:15 tomorrow evening. There will be a lot of set up going on until that time. Activities will not start until 4:30pm.
Wristbands are $10 for ages 5 and under and $20 for ages 6 and over.
Food tickets are 10 for $5.00
Tin can raffle tickets $1.00 each.
Raffle items include: Gift cards to: Amazon, Apple store, I-tunes, Abercrombie, Bath and Body Works, Brown Dog Creamery, Dicks Sporting Goods, Lulu Lemon, Hollister, Menchie’s, Yogurt Palooza, Airtime Trampoline, Starbucks and many more.
Friday evening 4:30-8:00:
Wristbands and tickets will be on sale inside the Hillside Main Entrance (by the flagpole).
Will call on Friday evening will start at 4:30pm inside the Hillside entrance by the auditorium (Use the doors to the west of the Hillside Main Entrance).
**Please note that these locations have been changed from the Parks and Rec entrance where it had been previous years.
Will call pick up will also be available for parent pick up in the Hillside Office from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm on Friday. Students may pick up presale orders AFTER school on Friday until 4 pm.**
**Please note: We cannot guarantee that students who ride the bus will be able to pick up their presale package and still make the bus on time due to the high volume of pick- ups expected. We will not release packages to students earlier in the day.
New this year! Mobile Video Gaming Truck, It’s back! - Mechanical Bull, Obstacle Course, Rock Wall, Selfie Booth, Air Brush Tattoo, Pie Eating Contest, Pop Walk, Bake Sale.
Spirit Wear will also be available for sale the night of the carnival. Makes a great Christmas gift for your student!
Lost and Found items will be on display in front of the Media Center. Please check to see if anything belongs to you!
WRISTBANDS ARE NEEDED FOR ALL ACTIVITIES EXCEPT FOOD.
TICKETS ARE NEEDED FOR ALL FOOD: PIZZA, POPCORN, SNO CONES
TIN CAN RAFFLE tickets sold separately. Not the same as food tickets.
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS:
PLATINUM SPONSOR: Jaghab Dentistry
GOLD SPONSOR: Excel Orthodontics
SILVER SPONSOR: Stiles Chiropractic
PTSA
Amazon Smile -The holidays are approaching and your supporters will be busy shopping for gifts, decorations, and more. By reminding them to shop at smile.amazon.com, Hillside Middle School PTSA can increase its AmazonSmile donations.
Use the message and link below in email, social media on your website to spread the word to your donors, staff, and volunteers. In the coming weeks we will email you with additional holiday banners starting with one for Black Friday / Cyber Monday.
#StartWithaSmile at smile.amazon.com/ch/38-2935348 for your holiday gifts and Amazon donates to Hillside Middle School PTSA.
Next PTSA Meetings
02/02/17 9:15am - 11:15am
05/04/17 9:15am - 11:15am
Counseling Information
PSAT
We are anticipating that PSAT 8/9 Scores will be arriving mid December. Counselors will meet with the students to help them to create their College Board account and interpret test results.Counseling Survey
Parents please take a moment and complete this brief Counseling Needs Assessment for Parents. This survey is anonymous and completely voluntary. The findings from this survey will be used to inform and enhance our programming to meet your interest and needs. Please indicate your level of interest in attending a parent educational workshop on the topics listed.
MYP Assessment Rubrics - An introduction
You may notice teachers increasing the use of MYP rubrics in their classrooms, as they begin learning about them. Each subject area (Arts, Individuals & Societies, Language and Literature, Math, etc.) has 4 criterion-based rubrics. MYP assessments aim to support and encourage student learning by providing feedback on the learning process. The rubrics can be used with daily work, formative assessment (check-ins for understanding), and/or summative assessment (end of unit tests, etc.).
MYP rubrics differ from traditional rubrics in a few ways:
- MYP assessment measures student performance against established criteria (see below) in four areas and reports that performance individually. Traditional rubrics mean average accumulated points over multiple areas into one score.
- Achievement levels range from 0 – 8. This doesn’t directly correlate to a grade E – A.
- Students’ levels are determined by the skills they can demonstrate and/or apply at that point in the unit. Students will always know what they need to do next to advance.
Hillside teachers will continue our ongoing efforts to ensure that scores reported to students and parents are consistent, accurate, and supportive of learning.
Click to view the Criterion A Rubrics for each subject area.
Impromptu Jazz Concert
Mousetrap Car
December Students of the Month
Athletics
12/08/16 versus Stevenson @ NHS pool 4pm
12/15/16 versus Novi @ NHS pool 4pm
Boys' Basketball 7th and 8th
12/05/16 versus Emerson @ Hillside 4pm/5:15pm
12/19/16 versus Novi @ Hillside 4pm/5:15pm
12/21/16 versus Mason @ Hillside 4pm/5:15pm
Intramural Girls' Basketball
Attention all 6th-8th grade girls who love to play basketball. Have some fun while tuning up your basketball skills! Basketball Intramurals will run on the following days in the Hillside gym: December 7th, December 12th, and January 24th. All times are 3:15-4:45. Please contact Coach Kingsbury if you have any questions. Students must have a current physical on file at Hillside Middle School.
Hillside Middle School Welcomes New Science Teacher
Academic Games
Twenty-eight teams competed in the Regional Tournament.Thirty students represented Hillside Middle School and they placed 4th in team average and 4th in top five scorers.
7th grader Dillan Lau and 8th grader Jeffrey Zhang won all 3 rounds of games and earned a perfect score of 20!
Table winners were:
6th graders: Emily Liao, Sabrina Loftus, Vansh Kapoor, Aaria Shah.
7th graders: Shanshan Ye, Bianca Brie , Ishaan Ghosh , Winston Wong , Sameer Torke , Ved Muthusamy , Zhane Yamin , Joshua Chacko , Dylan Shephard , Sambhav Gupta , Faraaz Shaik , Shreyas Akkaraju.
8th Graders: Hillary Luan, Pamela Calderon, Dylan Shephard, Faraaz Shaik.
Congratulations to the Academic Games Team for their great performance this month! We wish them the best in the December tournament.
Cyber Wizards Compete in Robotics Tourney
Team Name: Cyber Wizards
Hillside Students: Abhinav Sharma, Siddharth Tirumala Kanduri and Aditya Pundhir (all 7th graders)
The Cyber Wizards Team competed this past Saturday in a FLL Lego Robotic competition. The Cyber Wizard team is advancing to the State Regional competition in December. Go Team!