Thank you so much for the donations made to the Middle School Habitat Drive. We collected approximately 500 items, and our Student Council donated gift cards to pay for “moving in” groceries. Bravo! Continuing our community service efforts, our eighth graders, their peers from St. Mark’s, and advisors will be spending the morning of March 16 at the Texas Trees Foundation completing community service hours. The girls are to meet at St. Mark’s at 8:15 a.m. and return there to be picked up at noon. This organization works to maintain Dallas outdoor parks and trails in order to create communities with sustainable environments. Students will work at a tree farm at Richland College, mulching the area and cleaning up the farm. Girls should wear jeans (no shorts) and closed-toed shoes. We sent home on Monday a permission slip that must be returned to advisors by Monday, March 11. This is a required event for our students; please contact me if your eighth grader has a schedule conflict. Girls who are unable to attend on the 16th must make up the four community service hours missed. They may either choose a service project of their own, or I can provide suggestions and opportunities.

Please don’t forget that the online sign up for Middle School for spring conferences is open for your use. It closes on March 15. Let Alexa Heck know if you have any questions about or difficulty with the process. Conferences are a great opportunity to engage in conversations regarding your daughter’s day-to-day life at Hockaday, and we look forward to meeting with you on March 20. The format for these conferences will remain similar to those in the fall; students will be invited to spend a portion of the conference as a participant in the discussions with their parents and advisor. Eighth graders, their parents, and teachers will determine each child’s plan for Upper School courses next year.

Parents of eighth graders, please don’t forget our meeting on March 11 at 6:00 p.m. Upper School administrators will speak with students and parents regarding the academic program in Upper School. Each student’s Course Request form for ninth grade (which you will receive at this meeting) will be filled out and submitted during eighth grade conferences on March 20. In addition, I enclosed with your invitation details about the attire for eighth graders at their Eighth Grade Graduation on May 24. 

If you were unable to do so last week, please note the dates in this link as you begin to make plans for May and summer. The end of school holds different obligations for different grades; therefore, I have included the times girls need to arrive at school for special events and rehearsals. In other calendar notes, please remember we have a 3:15 dismissal on March 22 before Spring Break and no after school program will be offered on that day. Seventh grade parents, I look forward to speaking with you on March 13 at 6:30 p.m. in Clements Lecture Hall regarding your daughters’ upcoming trip to New Mexico in late April. We ask that at least one parent from each family attend if possible.

Seventh and eighth grade girls will spend next Friday participating in Career Day rather than attending normal classes. After hearing from Kathleen Hickman and Erin Ortiz, from the Dallas office of Secret Service, and Clarice Tinsley, anchor on Fox News, in two keynote speeches, the girls will rotate through small group sessions that will be led by women in the Dallas area who are engaged in a multitude of careers. Students will hear from alumnae, moms, and friends of Hockaday who are engaged in careers such as medicine, law, owning a restaurant, leading global corporations, engineering, research and science. I extend my appreciation to Olga O’Reilly and Bridget Cunningham for the planning and implementation of this fabulous program for our older Middle School girls!

We have all encountered pi in school, but have you ever wondered why it is 3.14? How many digits of pi are there? Why does it pertain mostly to circles? How was pi discovered? Your daughters will have the opportunity to explore all of these questions and more in our Pi Day extravaganza on March 14. Math classes, obviously, will engage in lessons pertaining to this mysterious irrational number, but there will be activities school-wide to experience the idea of pi. Our chefs will prepare a pi-themed lunch for us. In the Middle School, girls will spend R period rotating through various activities, ranging from measurement, art, physical activities, and mental prowess. Our day will end with our first ever Pi-K run. So… all those burning questions you’ve ever had about pi can be answered by your daughters on March 14.

My best,

Linda Kramer