Fifth graders enjoyed a workshop on Monday with illustrator A. G. Ford in preparation for their own Young Authors book project this spring. Thank you, Lisa Waugh, for helping to coordinate Mr. Ford’s visit.

 

COMMUNITY SERVICE: Continuing our community service efforts, our seventh graders, their peers from St. Mark’s, their advisors and I will be spending the morning of Saturday, April 2 at Goodwill Industries, completing their required community service hours. The girls are to meet at St. Mark’s at 8:15 and return there to be picked up at 12:30. They should please wear jeans (no shorts or leggings) and closed-toed shoes. Click here for more information. As this is a required event for our students, please contact me if your seventh grader has a schedule conflict. Girls who are unable to attend on Saturday, April 2 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. I’ll be sharing more information in upcoming communications about our eighth graders’ required community service on Saturday, April 16.

TECHNOLOGY MAINTENANCE: The week we return from Spring Break, the Hockaday technology department will be performing routine maintenance on seventh and eighth grade student laptops in preparation for upcoming ERB testing. The technology department will take up the seventh graders’ computers on Tuesday, March 29 and return them on Wednesday, March 30; eighth graders’ laptops will be collected on Thursday, March 31 and returned on Friday, April 1. Teachers will design lessons and homework assignments that do not require laptops on the days when the technology department is working on each grade’s computers, and the girls will have no homework over Spring Break, greatly reducing the need for their laptops. This maintenance will include:

 

   An external hardware inspection for broken components

 

   Software and operating system updates

 

   A full laptop reimage

 

The technology department will provide all students with training and assistance to back up any data not already stored on the Hockaday servers; indeed, seventh and eighth graders will soon meet with technology faculty to discuss the process. Through this maintenance process, all laptops will receive software updates as well as the latest security updates and patches. By providing this type of regular maintenance, our student laptops will better support the academic needs of our Hockaday students. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Jason Curtis at 214.360.6386.

 

SPRING CONFERENCES: Most of you have signed up online for Middle School spring conferences which will be held on Friday, March 18 for grades 5- 8. Online sign-up ends on Monday, March 14. Click here for instructions. Spring conferences are a great opportunity to review your daughter’s progress this year and revisit goals set in the fall. Eighth grade families will be planning class schedules for ninth grade. Please remember that all students are asked to attend these conferences with their parents. All conferences are 25 minutes in length with a 5 minute break in between for teachers. If you are not available to attend a conference on your assigned conference day, we ask you to contact your daughter’s advisor directly to set up an alternate day.

EIGHTH GRADE: You have received an email invitation to a very important gathering on Monday, March 14 at 6:00 p.m. Upper School administrators will speak with eighth grade students and parents regarding the academic program in Upper School. Each student’s Course Request form for ninth grade will be discussed during eighth grade conferences on Friday, March 18.

LANGUAGE SELECTION FOR RISING 7th GRADERS: World language options for your daughters expand in the seventh grade to include French, Spanish, or Latin. All teachers of a seventh grade language have made presentations to the current sixth graders, and it is time for your family to make a selection after you have read the background information on each language program. You should have received the language selection packet in an email last week. If you have any questions as you move through the process, please contact Lisa Camp, World Language Department Chair, at 214.360.6419. If you have not returned your daughter’s selection form to the Middle School Office, we need those as soon as possible as the deadline was on Monday, March 7.

LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL CALENDAR: It is time to send out notification regarding the last month of school as you begin to make plans for May and summer. I have included the times girls need to arrive at school for special events and rehearsals. Due to construction, Eighth Grade Graduation and all other spring and end-of-school events will be held in Penson Athletic Center. As a result, students in grades five through seven will attend Eighth Grade Graduation on Friday, May 27 this year because of the larger venue. Please make your late-May /early summer plans according to the dates and times in this link. 

 

Have a lovely weekend!

Linda Kramer