Principal’s Point of View HIGHLANDS MIDDLE SCHOOL / FEBRUARY 2011 / VOLUME 06

NEWS FROM THE HORNET’S NEST

Dear Parents:I hope all is well! We are already into the 3rd quarter of another outstanding year. I would like to thank you for being so supportive during the snowstorm and hope you enjoyed some quality time with your family. This month I would like to update you on some exciting things happening in our classrooms.

Academic Excellence Award – 2010 Illinois Honor RollWe have earned an Academic Excellence Award from the State Board of Education for 2010. To earn this award, a school must meet the following criteria:

- Schools must have made adequate yearly progress for two consecutive years;- 90% of our students must have met or exceeded state standards in both reading and mathematics for the three most

recent school years.Go to http://www.ilhonorroll.niu.edu to learn more about the award. This is a result of our partnership with you and your child. Thanks to our students and you for making this possible!

Challenged Based LearningWe are very proud to announce that three of our 7th grade teachers took a field trip January 23-25 to represent Highlands Middle School at an Apple Challenged Based Learning Conference. The conference took place in Dallas, Texas and was paid in full by Apple. We were one of 6 middle schools to be invited to participate in this project. There were schools from around the world!

Challenge Based Learning is an engaging multidisciplinary approach to teaching and learning that encourages students to leverage the technology they use in their daily lives to solve real-world problems. Challenge Based Learning is collaborative and hands- on, asking students to work with peers, teachers, and experts in their communities and around the world to ask good questions, develop deeper subject area knowledge, accept and solve challenges, take action, and share their experience. -Apple

The 7th grade team will be communicating with our students and parents to explain when the project will begin, what the ‘Big Idea’ will be and exactly what is expected of our students. Please take a few minutes to visit http://ali.apple.com/cbl/ to learn more about this engaging approach to teaching and learning. Please give me a call if you have any questions at 708-218-7811.

6th Grade Team visits Lincoln Junior High SchoolWe had the opportunity to visit Lincoln Junior High School in Schiller Park to observe how another district approaches different ideas to teaching and learning. We specifically were interested in learning about their approach to: co-teaching, scheduling of classes, and how they increase the overall achievement of all students. We learned and observed some great ideas that the 6th grade team and I are discussing to implement as soon as possible. Some of the bigger ideas will require some long-term planning. Again, please feel free to give me a call if you have any questions.

Partnering in 8th GradeHopefully, you have heard your 8th grade child talking about some of the exciting things taking place in 8th grade. They are experiencing partnering with their teachers more than ever. Partnering is simply students focusing on the part of the learning process they do best and teachers focusing on the part of the learning process they do best. It includes students making decisions about what they study, using technology, researching and finding information, answering questions and sharing their thoughts and opinions, answering questions that have more than one answer and creating presentations in text and multimedia. Make sure to ask your child what decisions they have made about their education lately!

Together we will not only prepare our children for the future, we will prepare them to lead the future!

Mr. Michael PapierskiPrincipal

HIGHLANDS MIDDLE SCHOOL2ND QUARTER HONOR ROLL

8th GradeHigh Honor Roll - Timothy Acker, Lindsey Allen (4.0), Jessica Bendyk, Nicholas Bonneville, Trevor Bouma, Madeline Brennan, Caitlin Bresnahan (4.0), Elyse Campion, Vincent Caruso (4.0), Daiga Cers (4.0), Sydney Cleveland (4.0), Louis Colonna, Abigail Conboy, Kelsey Corcoran, Daniel Farmer, Karli Fehrman, Kara Ferguson, Christopher Fonseca, Claudia Gaigalaite, Holly Garbis, Grace Gumbiner (4.0), Bailey Hernandez, Emma Hirt (4.0), Anna Hoffman (4.0), Chad Holland, Bryce Hughes, Phillip Janowiak, Olivia Jones, Katarina Kaplarevic, Kevin Karpinski, Madeleine Kirklys, Erika Koch-Weser, Ross Leavitt, Anne LeFevour, Stephanie Lerner (4.0), Andrew Lichtenauer, James Lilly, Emma Lopez, Melissa Marston, Tessa Metz, Eric Mueller, Kelli O’Laughlin, Emma Palmer, Ariah Palter (4.0), Georgianna Panopoulos, Rebecca Pennington, Lawrence Pettrone, Kelly Roemer, Michael Rundle (4.0), Timothy Sam (4.0), Julia Saunders (4.0), Jessica Sholler (4.0), Michele Siamis (4.0), Elizabeth Skolba, Ana Sprajcer, Dante Stefanini, Matthew Stevens, Jake Suva, Macy Tabachka (4.0), Shantiera Taylor (4.0), Isabella Tenorio-Bucci, Alexander Vasti, Emma Vuillemot, Mariah Walsh (4.0), Isabella Watts (4.0), Kevin Whelan (4.0), Conor Wiegmann, Oliver Wilp, Jack Wing, Jessica Wittenberg (4.0), Erin Yang (4.0), and Jack Zimmerman.

Honor Roll - Jack Bibeau, Carolyn Boo, Seth Briskey, Michael DeLise, Daniel Drozda, Olivia Giovannelli, Charlie Harrigan, Elizabeth Johnson, Matthew Jurusik, Kevin Kundid, Austin LaPenna, Casey Lawry, Joseph Leonard, Matthew Martorano, Jacob McMillan, Megan Moskowitz, Celeste Muniz, Dakota Murphy, Scott Murphy, Jacob Nelson, Madeline Nelson, Mark O’Connor, Daniel O’Malley, Dariel Ortiz, Maria Philippou, Ellen Rosicky, Zachary Russo, Britta Shockley, Justas Simonaitis, Alison Swanson, Nicholas Valdivia, Mark Van Wormer, Paige Williams, Jeffrey Wolf, and Kyle Yang.

7th GradeHigh Honor Roll - Jeannette Alexander (4.0), Sophia Allison, Anastar Alvarez (4.0), Daniel Benson (4.0), Jack Blahnik (4.0), Michelle Blahnik (4.0), Amy Borgstrom, Kayla Bradley (4.0), Claire Brom (4.0), Anna Chaloupka, Alexander Ciessau (4.0), Margretta Ciessau (4.0), Marisol Cowan, Lara Cuomo, Vicki Demakis (4.0), Kevin Foody, Rebecca Garbe, Noah Goetz, Cristian Gonzalez, Robert Harlow, Brandon Hayes, Nicholas Hojnar (4.0), Sara Jane Holland, Cayla Hultmark (4.0), Elizabeth Januska (4.0), Diana Kafkes (4.0), Philip Kim (4.0), Timothy Kogucki (4.0), Jarod Lindberg (4.0), Paige McMahon, Capri Pappas (4.0), Kiera Prinz, Jessica Pritz, Jared Rhiner, Kristen Roemer, Victoria Sam (4.0), Prashanth Sarma, Sanjiv Sarma, Madeline Schaeffer, Meghan Selip, Julia Staiano, Nicole Stevens (4.0), Alison Valentino (4.0), and Anastasia Velliotis (4.0).

Honor Roll - Maggie Bachleda-Zawacki, Ben Breitenbucher, Luke Brom, Michael Catrambone, Brennan Corcoran, Weston Credit, Nolan Delaney, Reed Doubek, Gabriela Esposito, Samantha Ferrer, Stephanie Findley, Michelle Flaws, Bria Holt, Max Holzhueter, Emily Johnson, Parrish Jonen, Ayah Kayali, Spencer Kinzie, Alexandria Kopicki, Luke Lopez, Katryna MacLean, Brittany McPhee, Avery Millard, Jason Miller, Christian Natiello, Kyle Norbut, Ryan Phillip, Dominic Raphael, and Brooke Ridlen.

6th GradeHigh Honor Roll - Lacey Allen, Jillian Almase, Emma Bastyr (4.0), Daniel Beck, Matthew Beck, Erich Brandt, Matthew Brandt (4.0), Grace Brannen (4.0), Bridget Brodlo, Patrick Caruso, Jennifer Carver (4.0), Connor Ciecko, Luke Coleman, Haylee Donovan (4.0), Benjamin Ezsias, Jacob Gleason, Juliana Halpin (4.0), Maranda Jackson, Marc Johnson (4.0), Dylan Jones, Joseph Kalata, Julia Karpinski, Jianna Keska, Armin Korsos, Joe Koszut (4.0),

Arden Kurhayez, Courtney Kurhayez, Quinn Madarang, Meghan McGarry (4.0), Meagan Mitchell (4.0), Kevin Moran, Caleb Moskowitz, Ali Nix, Timothy O’Malley, Jacqueline Osborn (4.0), Caroline Pavlecic, Sophia Pethokoukis, Reece Petrusha, Anna Podkowski, Shayna Prinz, Jessica Prost, Olivia Raphael, Lauren Reynolds, Mary Rokicki (4.0), Richard Scheer, Paul Skolba, Leah Slivovsky (4.0), Philip Smith (4.0), Arlis Strauss, Joanna Szpytma, Joshua Szyszka, Tory Trutenko, Cole Tuisl, Paul Velliotis (4.0), Dillon Wagner,

Hope Walsh, Max Williams (4.0), Myranda Williams, and Adam Zimmerman.

Honor Roll - Ericka Bruce, Emily Callam, Marisa Capizzano, Imants Cers, Lois Combs, Christopher Condon, Alicia DeGeatano, Margaret Dillane, Peter Eggerding, James Fonseca, Jacob Gross, Nicholas Grossi, Gabriela Hardman, John Hirstein, Nicole Kasza, Luke Kehle, Jakub Kundzicz, Zak Lavaty, Jacob Leonard,

Courtney Lewis, Zuri Lima, Kayle Lindberg, Grace Maldonado, Mark McCarthy, Rory McDermott, Mariana Orbegozo, Alex Pall, Riley Pehrson, Charles Sargent, Emily Titzer, Chandler Weyer,and Glenn Wilson.

HIGHLANDS MIDDLE SCHOOL2ND QUARTER HONOR ROLL (cont.)

B.U.G. AWARD…. Congratulations to the following students who brought their grades up by more than .5 this quarter:

8th grade: Abigail Conboy, Kevin Kundid, Ross Leavitt, Madeline Nelson, and Conor Slomka

7th grade: Christopher Breakey, Anna Chaloupka, Katryna MacLean and Jesus Ramirez

6th grade: Madeline Campbell, Jack Carey, Ryan Carlson, Gianna Castellano, Luke Coleman, James Fonseca, and Maranda Jackson

HIGHLANDS CLASSROOM HIGHLIGHTS

Spotlight on Sixth Grade

Math – Mrs. Novotny

Language Arts – Ms. O’Brien and Mrs. Scheiwe

The sixth graders have recently finished a novel study of the Newbery Honor book Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff. It is the moving story of a foster child and her deepest desire: to have a home and a family of her own. The story is told through a series of related episodes, her "pictures", rather than in ordinary chronological order.

Next, students will begin a study of Greek and Roman mythology that will coincide with their study of ancient Greece and Rome in social studies. They will research information about gods, goddesses, heroes, and monsters from Greek and Roman mythology, as well as the mythologies of other world cultures, in order to present a speech in character and in costume to their classmates and parent visitors. Watch for an invitation to attend class on the day of your child’s speech!

We are continuing to prepare for the Illinois Standards Achievement Tests in March. We will be reviewing the requirements for a short-response question and an extended-response question. Be sure your child has a calculator the day of the test that they are comfortable using.We will also be continuing our unit on fractions. Students will be learning about fraction, decimal and percent equivalents. They will be required to memorize the most frequent and commonly used fraction, decimal and percent equivalents. Math students have been working hard on a few projects. You can read their interesting facts, written in scientific notation, in the middle school hall. They will also be displaying their prime factorization projects in the middle of the month.

Social Studies – Mrs. Phillip

Veni, vidi, vici! Julius Caesar uttered these famous words, “I came, I saw, I conquered”, to describe his victorious military conquest of Asia Minor. This month we are studying ancient Rome and the impact that this great empire had on the ancient and modern world. We will look at the Roman government as it moved from a kingdom to a republic and then an empire. Along the way, many famous people were involved with the Roman Empire including Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar, Marc Anthony and even Cleopatra. We will be discovering the many contributions to modern life given to us by ancient Rome, including our calendar and the name of the month “August”.

In this unit, students will imagine a day as a Roman participating in the entertainment of their choice: a gladiator fight, a chariot race or a day at the Roman bath. We will also continue to incorporate technology in our lessons, including using blogs to share information and making our own podcasts. Join us as we will finally be moving into discoveries of the Common Era, or C.E. (also known as A.D.)

HIGHLANDS CLASSROOM HIGHLIGHTS

Spotlight on Sixth Grade (cont.)

HIGHLANDS CLASSROOM HIGHLIGHTS

Spotlight on Sixth Grade (cont.)

HIGHLANDS CLASSROOM HIGHLIGHTS

Spotlight on Seventh Grade

with Mrs. Clark and Mrs. Racolta

Exciting news! During the months of February and March, the 7th grade will be participating in the Apple ‘Challenge Based Learning’

Project! Our grand kickoff will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 7th. Ask your 7th grader for the scoop! More details to follow.

Currently, all classes are working on researching skills and learning how to gather and organize information. Our next unit in some language arts classes will focus on a study of poetry. Along with studying various elements of poetry, students will learn how to write and read poetry with an understanding of poetic devices and figurative language. Students will not only read and write poetry, but will also create keynote presentations about a poet to accompany our study of notable poets and their work.

In advanced language arts, students are working hard to complete their culminating research project in our nonfiction unit. During this unit, students have studied issues of intolerance in American’s history. Students are working in teams to create an iMovie/documentary to teach others in the class about a specific issue of intolerance that interests them. Mr. Stephen Cone, a Chicago filmmaker, spoke on January 31, and provided some helpful suggestions for our young Highlands filmmakers to consider. Thank you to the parents who volunteered to visit and help supervise during our filming schedule. Once the projects are submitted, we will have a community viewing! Our next literature unit will focus on the idea of utopia and the study of man’s search for a perfect world or community. In this unit, students will examine utopian ideas through novels, short stories, poetry, and music.

Math with Mrs. Curran

HIGHLANDS CLASSROOM HIGHLIGHTS

Spotlight on Seventh Grade (cont)

In all math classes, the students are practicing test taking strategies for multiple-choice questions for ISAT tests in March. We will also practice short response questions and extended response questions. Calculators are allowed on the tests. We have been discussing the operations with the calculator, so please make sure your child brings one to school every day. The calculator that I have been teaching with is the TI-30XIIS.

Students in Pre-Algebra have been working with variable expressions, order of operations, integers, patterns and graphing on the coordinate plane. Their test on this unit will be on Thursday, February 3. In Unit 2, your child will study basic algebraic properties and terms to help solve equations and inequalities. They will be writing and solving equations and inequalities. It is very important that they show their algebraic process and not just an answer.

Extra Credit for Pre-Algebra: Write a math word problem that will represent the following equation: a + 7 = 23. Turn the problem into Mrs. Curran by March 4th.

Students in Algebra 1 (Advanced) have just completed Unit 2: Rational Numbers. They will have their test on Unit 2 on Thursday, February 3rd. In Unit 3, your child will be expected to solve two-step equations, multi-step equations, ratios, proportions and similar figures, percent of change, and my favorite, the Pythagorean Theorem. While they may just want to give answers to equations, it is very important that they continue to show their work and process.

Extra-Credit for PAL: Tell whether the expression in each pair are equivalent. Prove it!: -2(m - 8) - 3[ 2 (m + 5)] and -2(4m + 7).

HIGHLANDS CLASSROOM HIGHLIGHTS

Spotlight on Seventh Grade

with Mr. Kissel

Science with Mr. A

During January, seventh grade Geography classes have taken a close look at consumption and immigration. We have looked at how people use resources in developed countries compared to developing countries. We identified regions with resources such as oil, coal and gold and discussed how those resources came to be where they are today. Students learned about the digital divide and how America’s highly skilled, well-educated, hard-working workforce has allowed us to lead the world in Gross Domestic Product. We also recognize the need for recycling as our garbage dumps fill up with goods that should be reused. We have most recently been studying immigration worldwide. We have identified push factors motivating people to emigrate and pull factors attracting people to countries in North America, Europe and Australia. We know about refugees, brain drain and migration streams with education being a major draw to countries like the USA. From here, we will move on to Latin America with an emphasis on Mexico.

This month in 7th grade science, our young scientists are learning about how plants and animals are dependent on each other for survival through the processes of respiration and photosynthesis.

We will also begin to explore DNA found inside cells and go deeper in the field of genetics. We will be learning how physical and genetic traits are passed down from generation to generation. Our scientists will be performing various labs and tests to see which traits are either dominant or recessive in their families and seeing how they compare with their classmates.

Later on, we will explore how genetic engineering has led to new discoveries in medicine and lead into our eventual field trip to the Museum of Science and Industry. Stay tuned for more details on this exciting trip!

The 8th Grade Team

Mrs. Babcock’s language arts classes will continue using novel units to review and reinforce a variety of literary terms and the elements of literature. In February, students will be focusing on creating oral presentations to demonstrate their understanding of how an author uses literary terms and the elements of literature to entertain the reader and advance the story line. These techniques will then be used to improve student writing, along with the writing skills of the Six Traits of Writing program. Students will continue preparing for the completion of the 8th grade research paper by learning the skills of note taking, outlining, and creating a bibliography. Students will also be reviewing the skills needed to prepare for the ISAT tests in March. As always throughout the month, students will be working on their vocabulary and grammar skills as a continuing process to prepare them for their future academic career.

During January, Mrs. Schweizer's Language Arts classes focused on theme and symbolism. We read several short stories, myths, and folktales to understand how the author presents the theme, or message about life. After our unit on theme, we moved onto poetry study.

Poetry is filled with its own wide vocabulary, but our focus was on rhythm, rhyme, repetition, alliteration, and assonance. We read from poetry books each day, discussed famous poems, and wrote several poems. The students realized that poetry is the art of painting pictures with words. In February, we plan to study the author's style, voice and tone before moving onto informational text.

The eighth graders continue to work on expanding their horizons with new and challenging personal reading books. Some students join together at lunch to discuss a specific book, while others present their books to the class in an imovie or other presentation. During third quarter, the students are encouraged to read a book about their research topics to gain more background knowledge.

The 8th Grade Team (cont.)

Social Studies - Mr. Steele

In SOCIAL STUDIES, the 8th graders will spend the month of February continuing to learn about the United States Constitution.

We are currently studying the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution, also known as the Bill of Rights. We are analyzing each of the rights/protections listed in these first 10 Amendments and discussing the ways in which these Amendments affect us in our daily lives. To help the students get a better understanding of these rights, we are doing an activity called the Bill of Rights in Art and Media. During this activity, students will analyze various images and try to figure out which Amendment(s) gives the people in the picture the right to do – or not do – the various activities they see taking place. Below is an example of one of the pictures the students will analyze. Can you figure out what right is protecting the people in the picture? Do you remember which Amendment gives us this right?

Based on the way we are moving through the material in the Constitution, it looks like the U.S. Constitution test and Illinois Constitution test will be sometime during the last two weeks of March. Please remind your son or daughter that there are several review sessions they can attend before the final test to help them prepare. Please support them at home as they are all working hard to prepare for this exam.

The 8th Grade Team (cont.)

Mathematics - Mrs. Funk During the month of February regular 8th grade classes will be completing their study of linear equations

and proportions. Students will start their third quarter projects and continue to prepare for the ISAT test by solving short and extended response problems.

During the month of February the advanced 8th grade class will complete the unit on exponential functions with emphasis on exponential properties, scientific notation, and growth and decay models. We will take a short two day break from the book and prepare for the ISAT test by solving short and extended response problems. Students will end the month with a study on polynomials and factoring. Letters discussing the results of the first semester exam and the Advanced Algebra placement process at Lyons Township High School were distributed to students in late January. Please let me know if you have not seen this information.

A great big thank you to the 55 Highlands students and families for participating in the St. Jude’s Math-A-Thon this year. You raised $5686.10 for the hospital. T-shirts, Great America passes and prizes should be arriving in late February or early March.

Science - Mr. ZemanIn an attempt to increase their understanding of the periodic table, the 8th grade science students will complete an activity called the “Alien Periodic Table.” The students will use all that will be covered regarding the real table to accurately place extraterrestrial named elements that are identical to Earth elements in the proper places on the table seen to the left. The students will be deep in thought and strategy while positioning element symbols in the same fashion that Dmitri Mendeleev had done in the early 1900s. This skill will be extremely helpful when the students move in to the next chemistry Learning Targets and the current ‘Atombook’ project.

Reading Workshop - Mrs. Sheers

Reading Workshop is a program designed to support students who need additional support in reading. It's a fluid program where students move in and out, as needed. For this reason, we've had quite a few "graduations" of successful readers back into the regular language arts class this month.

Our emphasis in Reading Workshop is, as always, that students integrate reading strategies into their thinking and reading habits. In addition, this month, we will be engaged in a skill review in all classes. Students will review literary elements, types of literature, and proofreading skills, as well as continue to read as much as possible.

Sixth graders have started a new novel, Richard Peck's award-winning classic, A Long Way from Chicago. This book has some of the most memorable characters in juvenile fiction. Even adults will find it amusing.

Seventh graders are reading a new Peck novel, A Season of Gifts. While also humorous, it depicts characters who act with genuine kindness and generosity.

Eighth graders are also reading humor. They are reading the Gary Paulsen's terribly funny book about adolescent boys, How Angel Peterson Got His Name.

Humor is a great way to help a reluctant reader want to read.

PERFORMANCE TEAM

Dans les classes de français

In February, all classes will learn some vocabulary to help them “fêter la Saint Valentin” the French way! The sixth grade French classes will also be working on presenting themselves, greetings, numbers and date vocabulary.

The seventh grade students are continuing their study of action words and how to express what they are doing. Please check out their family projects, currently hanging by the 7th grade classrooms. They were very creative!

The Eighth Grade French students did an amazing job on their Paris projects! The amount of work and research was very evident in the beautiful models produced by this class. Their work will continue to be on display in the Library/Resource Center until mid-February. Stop and take a look if you are in the building. Also this month, they will be working on some new verbs and a variety of other grammatical concepts. Our study of French foods starts as well, which will lead to the foods projects in March, April and May.

Las clases de español - sra. Rus6th grade

The 6th grade Spanish students are off to a great start. We are working on greetings and introducing oneself and doing “mini - dialogs”. At the same time we are working on mastering Spanish vowel sounds. The students will create a song of their own using the vowels. We will the continue with the rest of the alphabet.

7th grade Verbs, verbs and more verbs! The students are learning all about verbs. They are working on how to say what activities they like to do (verbs.) We will also go over what an infinitive is and how to conjugate. They will make their own keynote depicting the different verbs and how they are conjugated. We will also go over the vocabulary for weather.

8th grade The students have completed their restaurant skits. Now we are finishing up chapter 6 with direct objects and commands. Ms. Ven Diesal is coming in to make an appearance and discuss these commands. Chapter 7 is about talking about your daily routine. This will include learning about reflexive verbs and body parts.

PERFORMANCE TEAM (cont.)

Music with Mrs. O’Reilly

6th grade Intro. to Musical Theatre Studentspresent:

Come join us in the middle school gym on Thursday, February 10 at 7:30 p.m. and hear the classic Chinese story of Mulan told through singing, acting, and dancing. The sixth graders have been working hard learning all of the songs and routines, not to mention the lines!! Thank you to everyone for your communication and support for this production. I look forward to seeing you there!

7th and 8th grade MIE Keyboard Lab

The 7th and 8th grade students have been working with the technology of the Music in Education Keyboard Lab. We have been playing the C major scale and the A minor scale, as well as performing the C major scale in both bass and treble clef ; hands playing at the same time! The students will also write their own eight measure melody based on one of these two scales. The students will perform their melodies, and they can also use the “style” button on our keyboards to accompany themselves. This button performs different musical styles as a background beat. Examples include:rock, pop, latin, salsa, march and country. We will continue working on learning how to read the language of music and performing a variety of exercises and melodies.

PERFORMANCE TEAM (cont.)

February is a month filled with performances. On February 3rd, the 8th graders will be joining with other band members from the area to rehearse and perform with the LT Wind Ensemble. We will be at LT rehearsing the music with the high school band members from 8:30-1:30pm. The joint concert will be at 7:30pm that evening. I am very excited for them to have the opportunity to perform with the LT Wind Ensemble. It is also a great chance for them see what the LT band program has to offer and perform with high caliber musicians. We give our second concert of the year on Thursday, February 24th at 7:30pm in the Middle School Gym. This concert will include Wind Ensemble, Jazz Band, Symphonic Band and Beginning Band. We look forward to performing for you again!

Solo and Ensemble season has begun this year. We have many ensembles and soloists working hard for the performance. I am looking forward to hearing how they progress and prepare for this wonderful event.

Congratulations to the Highlands Pep Band. Thank you for all that participated on a regular basis. I am so proud of your Highlands spirit at the basketball games this year. I look forward to another season with you next year! Thanks also to the LT Brass Impact for joining us for a game again this year. Thanks for a great season Pep Band!

The Jazz Band will be participating in the Lyons Township Jazz Festival on February 23rd. We will receive comments and a clinic from Mr. Dahl and a prominent jazz musician from the Chicago area. We have also been invited to perform with the LT Jazz Ensembles that evening. I am pleased to give the Jazz Band another outside opportunity to perform and receive comments this year. Permission slips will be coming home soon. Please contact me if you have any questions.

PERFORMANCE TEAM (cont.)

Health with Mr. Yena

7th Grade

The 7th grade Health 2 Block 4 classes have started investigating the world of tobacco, and the various concepts associated with this highly addictive substance. The class has split into multiple groups to research different topics regarding tobacco. The topics include what is tobacco, what are the short and long term effects of tobacco use, how do our bodies become addicted to the substance, and how the media, celebrities, government influence the use of tobacco, and specific ways to quit using tobacco. While discovering information about tobacco, the students are gaining an understanding of how this substance negatively affect our bodies and can take over our lives.

The students will be learning about how to refuse these substances when making future decisions over the next two weeks of class. This idea of refusing and helping others quit becomes real for the students after they complete a lab simulating how it feels to be a smoker and having a disease associated with tobacco use.

8th Grade

The students are currently building on what they learned in 7th grade about tobacco. The students will understand more in depth about the addictive properties of tobacco and how easily it is for advertisements and the media to hook teens into using these products. The students are creating cartoons using the website goanimate.com in order to display their knowledge on tobacco.

The students will soon move into discussing alcohol during class. The students will be discussing topics such as the influences on teen drinking, drinking and driving, binge drinking, and alcoholism. As a culmination of the tobacco and alcohol unit the students will be writing letters to the Surgeon General discussing some of the concerns they have regarding these two topics.

Physical Education – Mrs. Eskra and Mr. Kolar

The physical education classes are currently in the middle of the badminton, fitness, and team handball unit. During this unit, the students learn and practice various skills and rules for badminton and team handball, compete against their peers in these sports, and participate in a cardiovascular fitness circuit while using heart rate monitors. At the end of the unit, the students will be given a written test to assess their knowledge on these subjects. Study guides for each test are e-mailed to the students prior to the test, can be found in home2 anytime, and will be posted on the homework website the week of the test. The next unit we will be covering is floor hockey. Students are still able to make up points lost (due to renting gym clothes) by coming in before or after school to ride a stationary bike.

PERFORMANCE TEAM (cont.)

ART with Ms. Zill(substitute teacher while Mrs. Cavello is on maternity leave)

7th Grade Graphic Arts:Class has been a lot of fun diving right into Fireworks and learning how to seamlessly blend photos. The possibilities are endless and with such creative classes the work is turning out awesome! We have students sliding down the wing of a butterfly, slam-dunking a basketball, going on a cruise and so much more! We have just started designing personalized calendars merging our photo editing skills with design layout. Afterwards we will start working with animation in both Adobe Flash and iStopMotion. Can’t wait to see what the students come up with!

8th Grade Sculpture and Ceramics:We have some truly enthusiastic classes working on a variety of projects in many different mediums. Students are exploring abstract form in a project involving wire, pantyhose, styrofoam, glue and paint. Others are working with a more concrete subject matter sculpting the human form in the style of Giacometti who sought to capture the shadow, or resulting impression of the human, and not their presence. Using wire, tinfoil and plaster students have come up with some creative solutions - check out the work on the display tables in the lobby! On the ceramics end we are working on a range of projects from vases to teapots to sculptural clay pieces. I am impressed with the variety in size, shape, and design of each piece! The first round of projects are going into the kiln, with many more on the way. After the initial firing students will glaze their pieces so we can add them to our display!

WINTER SPORTS Girls’ Volleyball Teams

20118th grade1. Lindsey Allen2. Jessica Bendyk3. Grace Gumbiner4. Emma Hirt5. Elizabeth Johnson6. Stephanie Lerner7. Anne Le Fevour8. Ariah Palter9. Kelly Roemer10. Julia Saunders11. Michelle Siamis12. Shantiera Taylor

Mgr. Macy TabachkaMgr. Mariah WalshMgr. Jessie Wittenberg

7th Grade1.Sarah Smolik2.Jeannette Alexander3. Andrea Smith4. Kristen Roemer5. Sophie Allison6. Linzy Barnes7. Sammie Ferrer8. Lauren Whelan9. Stephanie Findley10. Anastar Alvarez11. Nicole Stevens12. Anastaia Velliotis13. Maggie McDermott

Mgr. Vicky DemakisMgr. Rebecca Garbe

SPORTS RESULTS

The 8th Grade Boysʼ Basketball team showed up at Washington Middle School ready to play in the Hodgkins Tournament. The Hornets started the day off with a game against St. Cletus.  They played red hot, with a solid performance by every member of the team.  The team was able to win 44-32.  George Philippou led all scorers with 15 points, followed by Charlie Harrigan with 13 points, Danny OʼMalley with 12 points, Joey Leonard had 4 points, followed by Dante Stefanini who added a basket.  The team was then scheduled to play Park Blue.  The Hornets were excited to play and were seeking revenge for a win that got away from them at the last minute when they played them in the regular season.  At the start of the game it looked like the Hornets were going to sail to a victory, but during the third quarter the momentum shifted and the Hornets found themselves struggling to connect with the basket, only scoring three points in the quarter.  During the fourth quarter the team saw two players sub out of the game with injuries.  However, the team continued to press on and give it their all, but in the end the team fell short losing 42-44.  Philippou again led all scorers with 18 points, while Danny OʼMalley added 12 points, followed up by Dante Stefanini with 7 points, and Charlie Harrigan added five.  The Hornets should be proud of their effort and enthusiasm during these games.

The 7th Grade Boysʼ Basketball team ended their season in the Hodgkins Tournament with a 26-25 loss to St. Cletus.  The game was back and forth the entire contest, but the Hornet's ended up falling short as the buzzer sounded.  Luke Lopez led the Hornets in scoring with 13 points with some terrific drives to the basket.  Jason Miller and Nolan Delaney rounded out the scoring for the Hornets with 10 points combined.  Ryan Phillip and Spencer Kinzie attacked the boards in the first half, but couldn't find the bottom of the net on the dreaded Hodgkins rims.  Nick Hojnar came off the bench in the 2nd half and was jumping out of the gym for the rebounds!  In the end, a Luke Lopez buzzer beater could not find the basket, but the Hornets walked off the floor with their heads held high after a great season!  Thank you for all the support this year!  

Attn: Students, Parents, and TeachersDROP OFF YOUR JEANS TO THE MIDDLE SCHOOL OFFICE!