HPS MLD News
December🎄
Hello December👋
Dear HPS Families,
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving break! Can you believe it is already December, and the Winter Break is just a few weeks away?
We are a community with heaps of gifts and talents, which we share daily with one another and most importantly, our students. From the classroom to your living room and all points in-between, our combined efforts to raise the whole child are packed with emotion, dedication and an eagerness to make decisions that may be challenging in the moment but will have positive and long-lasting impacts.
Part of our hope for the future is the understanding that education continues to be the space that decreases ignorance and anxiety as it increases empathy and acceptance. If we are ever to defeat the social prejudice epidemic, education must be the voice of inclusion. When the world seems to be more ‘anti-something or anti-someone,’ it is vital to keep in mind how much richer we are because of our diversity. Making time to appreciate one another, builds connections to a stronger community.
Please note that the district will be closed during Winter Break, from December 23 – January 3 and schools will resume on Monday, January 6, 2025. I trust that everyone can find a bit of personal time – to be with family or friends, see a movie or perhaps read that book that has been on your night table for the past 5 months. No matter how you observe the approaching holidays, whether you are traveling or staying local, we hope you have a happy, healthy season filled with all the love and happiness that is the promise of this special time of year. See you in 2025!
Sincerely,
Afrin F. Alavi/MLD Director
Mirjana Maros/MLD District Facilitator
Amela Kukic/MLD Admin Assistant
HPS FAMILY NIGHT
We are super excited to host our Quarter 2 Family Night: Monday, January 27 @ 3:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m. at Tau Beta.
The purpose of the event is to provide our families with instructional resources and information to help their children be successful. This will also be a great opportunity to meet the families that we serve and to build community connections.
We already love how the community will come together to help us make this a HUGE success!
Early Childhool Elementary (ECE)
At our school we have been working with the 2nd grade students on Comparing and Contrasting. Students were exposed to many activities in all four domains (i.e., Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing). This was their introduction to one of the first high-order reading comprehension skills. Students worked in groups and with partners. We will continue with new skills next month (i.e., the language of sequencing).
In addition, we will be piloting the WIDA MODEL as a progress monitoring tool. It will be used throughout the year and the learning would be tailored based on individual student needs.
In the end, we all have to do what is best for our ML students.
Dickinson East Elementary (DE)
Through interviews with their parents and sharing meaningful artifacts from their countries, students are uncovering rich family histories and celebrating their diverse cultural roots.
It’s amazing to see their excitement as they connect their personal stories to our shared history, bringing their projects to life.
Holbrook
Holbrook’s Restorative Practices Coordinator, Ms. Sheila Flowers and the PBIS Leadership team would like to accomplish the following tasks with your assistance:
Character Trait: Honesty November
Character Trait: Integrity December
Sending Positive Postcards to Students
Culminating Activity each month for students showing Responsibility, Honesty, Integrity
Welcome Ms. Saba Al Azzawi (ML Teacher) and Aliya Saleh (ML Paraprofessional) to Holbrook. We are happy to have you both working with our multilingual students.
Our second Holbrook Principal/ML Meetings took place on Wednesday, November 21, 2024 in Holbrook’s library 3:15 p.m. - 4:15 p.m. We had fifteen families show up. Three gift cards (raffled), ten book bags (first ten to sign in) and each student received a token as incentives for coming.
Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, December 11, 2024: Math Curriculum Night in Holbrook’s gym. Families will be able to take a game home.
Tau Beta (TB)
Happening in December
If you attend English language classes for moms held at Tau Beta on Wednesdays 2:00-3:00 pm, your children will join you for 10 minutes at the end of your classes on December 4th, 11th and 18th to share with you what they have been learning and will be willing to hear about your learning too. We will provide you with sentence starters in English and in Arabic to get you started. We are so excited about this opportunity of translanguaging and knowledge sharing!!
Strategies to Try at Home in December
Draw a picture of your family, name or label each family member. Talk about special traditions in your family. Compare how you and your child look alike and how you look different. Tell a family story. Can you act it out? Use the following sentence starters:
We are alike /the same because _________ .
Both you and I _____________ .
We are different because ____________.
You are ________, however, I am ________ .
Resources
- Encourage your children in Grades 1-8 to work on Summit K-12 daily. This program is located in Clever and working on it consistently will help your child exit the English Language Learner Program/score proficient on the WIDA ACCESS.
- Learning Language every day WIDA created activities for children in grades Kindergarten through 3rd grade:
https://wida.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/resource/Early-Years-Family-Activities-ENGLISH.pdf
https://wida.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/resource/Early-Years-Family-Activities-ARABIC.pdf
November Activities and Celebrations
On November 14th, 5th and 6th grade ML students fromTau beta embarked on an immersive field trip to learn about the Arab World, Muslimmajority countries outside the Arab World, and the diverse immigrant experiences of people from these regions. Through interactive exhibits, storytelling and engaging discussions, they learned about the push and pull factors driving migration, gaining a deeper understanding of the immigrant journey following the Unit in Reach Higher “Crossing between Cultures”. This experience broadened their perspectives on the resilience and contributions of immigrant communities to our shared world.
Kosciuszko Middle School (KMS)
The Hamtramck Drug Free Community Coalition (HDFCC) spent a day with us at Kosciuszko Middle School in Mrs. Housey-Johnon's Science classroom presenting "Knowledge is Power." It was a presentation about how vapes look, how bad they are for your health and students learned how to say "no" to peer pressure. We want to thank Lara, Shannon, and Paul from HDFCC for spending the day with us and teaching our students.
Our students had a very busy and positive November from working on classroom projects, to after school clubs and celebrating our first Students of the Month. Some of our students also went on their first field trips with Ms. Schulte to the Detroit Institute of Arts and with Mrs. Goodridge to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Horizon
Our students had a “Wrap the Mummy” contest for Halloween. It was during the first period. Students were asked to go to a designated spot, choose the ornaments they want to wrap up a mummy, come back to class and start wrapping up a student. After 15 minutes, they were able to go and get more ornaments, and it was a 30 minute activity in which all students participated. Judges went around the classrooms and judged. There were 3 prizes and everyone had fun. Shout out to Mrs. Rucinski for putting this together and shout out to everyone who participated.
November 4 was the start of quarter 2, a new beginning for all the students. We usually celebrate them the week after with our “Shining Star” ceremony.
We celebrate students’ academic achievements, their perfect attendance, near perfect (3 or less) attendance and their greatness for the quarter. Students were awarded with certificates and some light refreshments. Everyone wants to be recognized for the great work they are doing, and it makes them feel great. Mr. Guay, who is the PBIS coordinator, was responsible for this event.
We are all eagerly waiting for the Thanksgiving Holiday. I am thankful to be working with the best people in the best school with the best students.
Thanksgiving Drive
The Pupil Services Department partnered with J & E Community Relief to provide Thanksgiving meals for 80 HPS families. Our School & Community Facilitators, along with the Parent Engagement team, have worked hard to make this possible. Below are some photos of the team preparing for this week's distribution. In addition to the Thanksgiving drive, Mrs. Brown-Lloyd and Mrs. Dreshaj have been helping by delivering food directly to families when donations were received. Thank you all for your dedication and for making a positive impact on our families.
December 2: Students and Staff Return
December 2: iReady Testing Begins (K-12)
December 9: Story Time Hamtramck Library @ 3:45 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
December 12: Q2 Progress Reports distributed
December 13: DE's 6th Grade Immigration Journey Event @ 9:00 a.m.
December 13: ½ Day for All Students (AM)
December 15-December 19: HS Seal of Biliteracy Language Assessments
December 20: iReady Ends
December 23-January 3: Winter Break (NO SCHOOL for Students and Staff)
January 6: Students and Staff Return