Heartland MS Family Newsletter

Heartland Happenings - September 8, 2024

Greetings Heartland Families!

I feel so proud of our Heartland teachers, proud of our students/athletes and proud to serve a community that truly wants the best for our school. Thank you to each and every one of you for your continued support and flexibility as we navigate this school year together!

Looking ahead, we have a very BUSY week in front of us! As we all know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month! We celebrate just a little bit early so that we can get our Fall athletics involved. Join us this upcoming week as we highlight the cause through our Fall Sports Pink Out Week running from Tuesday September 10th through Tuesday September 17th!! Show your support by participating in our dress up days, purchasing items from our softball, football & volleyball players and attending the Pink Out games over the next week. See the graphics below for more information on when each sport will be celebrating and bringing awareness to the cause! All proceeds from fundraising and games will go to the Vera Bradley Foundation for Breast Cancer Research. For more information on how you can support this foundation CLICK HERE. See the graphic below for this week's dress up day themes! It's sure to be a great time for our Heartland community!

Starting this week and from this point forward, every Wednesday and Friday our students will attend their Hawk Hangout during their advisory time from 7:40am - 8:10am. Hawk Hangout is an enrichment time that we host that allows for students to sign up for an activity that interests them. Each teacher hosts a different activity that the students can sign up for! Whether it's our RZE STEP team, karaoke, yoga, Just Dance, gaming, coloring, drawing, cards, chess, BINGO....you name it, we have it! This allows for students to connect with different teachers and make new friends with students that they may not have met otherwise! We know that if students can find a niche within our school community in which they feel they belong, they will be more excited to come to school! Our first Hawk Hangout Session will last until Fall break and then students will select a new activity for Session 2!

Our short week packed a mighty punch as it's always just a little bit hard to get back in the swing of things after an extra long weekend. Before I go, I would like to encourage each of you to follow our Facebook page if you haven't already. We do our absolute best to post events happening at school in real time! It's difficult to get to everything but I can assure that we try our hardest to show all Heartland organizations some love on the socials! Click the button below to take you straight to our page and be sure to like our page for the latest and greats on all things Heartland! As always, should you have any questions, ideas, or suggestions please feel free to reach out to our office.

WE ARE...HEARTLAND!

Respectfully,

Veronica Johnson

Principal, Heartland Middle School

405-340-2972

Grade Level Newsletters

6th Grade

Click HERE to view the 6th Grade Team Newsletter!

7th Grade

Click HERE to view the 7th Grade Team Newsletter!

8th Grade

Click HERE to view the 8th Grade Team Newsletter!

Electives

Click HERE to view the Electives Team Newsletter!

Severe Weather/Tornado Drill Conducted Last Week! Great Job, Thunderhawks!

Thunderhawks RISE!

Now that we are a couple of weeks into the school year, I would like to take a moment to talk about our Reflect & Rise (R&R) form. You may have heard of this form from your students as they have all been briefed on what it is and what it means. Our R&R form is a way that we document student misbehavior at our school. We do our best to celebrate the great behaviors that our students exhibit daily, but it's almost inevitable that most students will make a mistake that may require a conversation with an adult.

A majority of the time, the conversation between the student and the adult is all that the student needs to be reminded of proper behavior at school and that nips the behavior in the bud. But sometimes the misbehavior continues and our teachers will begin to document the behavior so that we can track the data and administrators can intervene if necessary. It is protocol for our teachers to speak with the student and let them know that they are going to fill out the R&R, provide them with strategies to better handle the situation in the future, and contact a parent/guardian if misbehavior persists. Once the form is submitted, teachers have the ability to forward the form to parents so that you can read about the incident.

To learn more about R&Rs, CLICK HERE. The linked slide show is what was presented to our students as we taught them about our expectations. I wanted to be sure to introduce the concept to our families so that you are aware of the process should you have one forwarded to you from a teacher. If you have any questions, or need more clarification, please reach out to your grade level administrator. We hope that this communication will help to provide transparency as we all work together to ensure the best possible learning environment for our students!

Heartland Backpack Program

The Heartland Backpack Program provides a monthly delivery or pick up
of nutritious food for Heartland students and their families in need of
extra support.

Missing Assignment Reports

Every Monday during advisory, teachers make it a point to have conversations with their students regarding their grades and missing assignments. Our teachers have access to the weekly eligibility reports and are working diligently to ensure that your student is making a plan to complete and turn in their missing work. In an effort aid in this process, every Monday each advisory teacher will hand out missing assignments reports to all students missing 1 or more assignments in total for all of their classes. If a student has 10 or more missing assignments, they will be instructed to take the report home, have their parent sign it, and return it back to their advisory teacher the next day. Your student's ability to complete this task will help to determine their "satisfactory" or "unsatisfactory" grade in advisory. Our goal is to ensure that there is transparent communication between school and home and that we are all working together to ensure the academic success of our students. Thank you for your support in this matter.

TSA Parent Information Night

Is your student interested in STEM? The Technology Student Association is a student-led organization for 6th, 7th, and 8th-grade students. We are dedicated to competing at the district, state, and national levels in many different STEM-related events. We spend time researching, planning, and working on our projects. We are the future engineers, scientists, mathematicians, technologists, computer scientists, and business leaders of the modern world. Please join us for TSA Parent Night at Summit Middle School to learn more about our program!

Snack Bar Opens on Wednesday (9/4/24)

Let's take just a minute to talk about the "snack bar" at lunch. For those 6th grade parents who don't know...the snack bar can become an issue because students at this age are not used to financial freedom and free choice. It's difficult for them to spend out of an account as they tend to not understand that the money really exists and there is not an endless supply. I encourage you to have a conversation with your student about your expectations regarding spending at the snack bar. It is a common occurrence, especially in 6th grade, for a student or two to buy SEVERAL ice creams and pass them out to friends. We will work on our end to stop this practice but I also encourage you to check your account and make sure your student isn't spending beyond your expectations. Additionally - 6th-grade students will spend a LOT of time waiting in a snack bar line to get ice cream and then leave themselves little time to eat it. It's growing pains - they'll get through it as they always do.

Current and Former Volleyball Players! Thunderhawks Become SFHS Wolves!

HMS Media Center Fundraiser

Once again Heartland Media Center is partnering with local bookstore Best of Books to sell copies of books that students will read in their English and Literacy classes. Students are not required to purchase copies of these books - the school provides books that students will use while in class. Some families prefer that students have their own copy of these books so that they can highlight, underline and refer to the books at home. If this is you, and you would like to help support Heartland Media Center, you may use this link to order from Best of Books. You may choose to pick up the books in-store, have them delivered to your home, or have them delivered to your student at school. The media center will receive a portion of all sales as store credit, which will be used to purchase more books for the school library. Thank you for your support!

Heartland Middle School Facebook Page

Join/Like our page for the latest on all things Heartland Middle School!

Chromebook Protection Plan

EPS offers a $20 “Student Technology Protection Plan” (STPP) to help cover the cost of damaged devices such as loss, or damage caused by abuse, dropping, spills, etc. If the device is stolen, students must submit a police report with the claim to use their STPP (Student Technology Protection Plan). Visit Edmond Public Schools’ Technology webpage and select STPP-Student Protection Plan for the most recent information. Chargers are not covered by the STPP plan. Replacement chargers are $35.

Heartland Thunderhawk Sports Information 2024-2025

Heartland Athletics Update

Click the link to find out more about Spring sports: Baseball, Track, Tennis & Golf.

ATHLETIC ELIGIBILITY

Now that we are in the process of running eligibility for OSSAA activities - there always tends to be some confusion as to when a student can and can not participate. Here are some bullet points to help define when a student can and can not participate.

Eligibility is run mid-week. For example - we run eligibility on Thursday morning based on grades posted on Wednesday evening. If a student is listed as "ineligible" - that means they can not participate in any OSSAA games scheduled for the next calendar week of Sunday - Sunday. By OSSAA rules - students can still practice during that time. However, individual coaches may have other team rules regarding practice.
Probation vs. Ineligible. The first week a student has a grade that qualifies them for the eligibility report - they are listed as "on Probation"... At that point in time - they can still participate and play in games. (Again - team rules may be more strict) If the student raises the grade by the next eligibility report run - their name comes off the list and they are good to go. If there is still a grade in question - the student becomes ineligible.
If a student is listed as ineligible - AND - raises their grade (yay!!) the next time there is a grade in question -- they move back to the probation category. Therefore, there is always a week of grace after a student has worked to get their name off of the list.

Please feel free to contact Heartland Athletic Director Laura Brown with questions as I know it can be confusing.