April 10th, 2015
Dear Parents,
Calendar of Events for the Week of April 13th-20th
Saturday, April 11th: Orchestra solo and ensemble contest at Hopewell MS all day
Monday, April 13th: Boys and Girls soccer parent informational meeting 5PM in the Cafeteria
Wednesday, April 15th: Choir Concert and Sight Reading Contest at the RRISD PAC
Thursday, April 16th: Choir Concert and Sight Reading Contest at the RRISD PAC
Thursday, April 16th: Boys and Girls Soccer Vs. Cedar Valley. Girls @ 5:00PM, Boys @ 6:15PM
Friday, April 17th: GO GREEN Celebration #5
Friday, April 17th: Georgetown Jazz Festival
6th GRADE PARENTS:
ALL 7th grade students are required by Texas Law to have TDAP, Meningococcal, and Varicella #2 (if no history of chicken pox disease) BEFORE they can start the 7th grade with no exceptions. If your child recently received their immunizations as described above, or will be getting their immunizations over the summer, please remember to send a copy of the updated verified record to our school nurse, Jamie Mayfield. Please make sure that you take care of this very important, pre-first day of school obligation to ensure that your child can start off the school year in class. Thanks!
ALL 7th grade students are required by Texas Law to have TDAP, Meningococcal, and Varicella #2 (if no history of chicken pox disease) BEFORE they can start the 7th grade with no exceptions. If your child recently received their immunizations as described above, or will be getting their immunizations over the summer, please remember to send a copy of the updated verified record to our school nurse, Jamie Mayfield. Please make sure that you take care of this very important, pre-first day of school obligation to ensure that your child can start off the school year in class. Thanks!
STAAR TESTING INFORMATION
STAAR testing will occur April 20th-22nd. We will have a closed campus and visitors will be limited to the front office. All three grade levels will be testing on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 21st and 22nd. To ensure students have 4 uninterrupted hours to test and eat lunch at an appropriate time, the cafeteria will be serving sack lunches on these days. Sack lunches provided by the cafeteria are the same price as regular lunches and usually contain a cold sandwich, fruit, chips and milk. If you do not want your child to purchase a sack lunch on these testing days, they may bring their own lunch from home to eat after testing. Due to the closed campus and the uncertain schedules, we ask that you do not drop off lunches on these testing days, April 20th -22nd. Thanks!
Austin Monthly magazine rankings of Austin area middle schools:
Please check out the link below and see where Hopewell Middle School ranks among all the middle schools in the Austin Metro area. We are ranked #26 out of hundreds of middle schools. This is an incredible confirmation of the exceptional school your children attend and the rigorous, relevant instruction our staff delivers every day. Hopewell is a safe school, a place where students are learning at high levels, and where they are prepared for the next level. Thanks for your continued support as we strive to be even better.
Long Term Sub for 7th Grade English class:
We have had some challenges the past several weeks securing a long term substitute teacher certified in English Language Arts to cover Mrs. Lovejoy’s 7th grade Language Arts class. We have qualified substitutes in place until a finally secured long term sub arrives on April 27th. Both Mrs. Copley and Mrs. Hargrove have worked overtime to ensure that Mrs. Lovejoy’s subs have the materials and learning targets for those students. In addition to handling their own classes, they have graded Mrs. Lovejoy’s students’ papers and will input them into the grade book in time for the end of the reporting period on Friday. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused but again, I assure you your children are still learning the objectives they will need to be successful on the upcoming STAAR assessment. This truly has been an incredible team effort on behalf of the 7th grade Language Arts teaching team-Kudos to them for their great efforts on behalf of your children.
Hopewell Reading Initiative Update:
As you know, we have implemented a school-wide reading initiative where ALL Hopewell students are required to bring a book to read for pleasure during Advisory and to all their classes this year. I walked around today and most students had a book out and were reading today during advisory. Thanks to our teachers for supporting this initiative and making sure all students are reading. It is crucial that we continue to promote reading which builds vocabulary, increases comprehension and fluency, and sparks interests in the world around them. Many of our students spend much of their day with their noses in their cell phones, tablets or computers. Promoting reading an actual book (or electronic reader) is crucial to their overall intellectual development. Below are results of a recent study supporting our Hopewell MS Reading Initiative:
Student A reads a book 20 minutes per school day amounting to 3,600 minutes in a school year accounting for approximately 1,800,000 words on average read in one school year!
Student B reads for 5 minutes per school day amounting to 900 minutes in a school year accounting for approximately 282,000words on average read in one school year.
Student C reads for one minute per school day amounting to 180 minutes in a school year accounting for approximately 8,000 wordson average read in one school year.
Astounding results for reading only 20 minutes per day! Whether it’s reading right before bed time, during advisory, or after school and on weekends-the results speak for itself. By the end of the year, Student A will have read the equivalent of 60 whole school days while Student B will have only read twelve school days. Which student would you expect to have a better vocabulary? Read at a faster and more efficient rate? Which student would you expect to be more successful in school and life? This program is effective for students of all ability levels and challenges. As in anything in life, the more you do something, the more you practice, the better and more proficient you will become. Thanks again for supporting our program and making sure your child has a good book to read that they are interested would be a great help.
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
I will be off campus both this Thursday and Friday taking my Junior in high school daughter to a university campus visit out of state and will be back on Monday. Hard to believe that next year at this time I will be getting ready for a high school graduation. Having your children around is a wonderful, precious luxury but the time you have with them goes oh so fast. Have them put away their cell phones and provide family opportunities to be together, talk, and do things together. Before you know it, you will be getting ready for that college visit with that hour glass sand dwindling.
I will be off campus both this Thursday and Friday taking my Junior in high school daughter to a university campus visit out of state and will be back on Monday. Hard to believe that next year at this time I will be getting ready for a high school graduation. Having your children around is a wonderful, precious luxury but the time you have with them goes oh so fast. Have them put away their cell phones and provide family opportunities to be together, talk, and do things together. Before you know it, you will be getting ready for that college visit with that hour glass sand dwindling.
Karl
The April 18 Celebration of Families 5K benefiting Project Graduation at all 5 high schools – Cedar Ridge, McNeil, Round Rock, Stony Point and Westwood – still has open spots for registration.The chip-timed 5K will start at Round Rock High School, 201 Deep Wood Dr., at 8 a.m. with registration at 7:30 a.m. The cost is $20 for RRISD employees and students, $25 for everyone else. Registration ends Wednesday April 15.Awards will be presented to overall female & male winners, overall masters female & male winners, and top 3 females & males in the following age groups: 10 & under, 11-14, 15-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60 & older. No duplication of awards.The race will be the start of a FREE morning of wellness activities and parent/student workshops as part of the Celebration of Families. For more information on that event, please click here.
