Hendricks Herald

During the month of October, we will complete our 1st quarter of the 24-25 school year! Your children have been working incredibly hard this year to follow our SOAR expectations and excel in school!

As grades for the 1st 9 weeks will be reported in Infinite Campus in the next few weeks, it is a great time to have conversations with your children about their school experience. A common trend that we see is that our students put a lot of pressure on themselves to have the best grades possible and see mistakes as failures and not opportunities. Succinctly, it seems many of our students have perfectionist tendencies.

Adam Grant is an author of many great books and a professor at the Wharton School at Penn. In his book, Hidden Potential, he writes “In their quest for flawless results, research suggests that perfectionists tend to get three things wrong.

• 1: They obsess about details that don’t matter. They’re so busy finding the right solution to tiny problems that they lack the discipline to find the right problems to solve. They can’t see the forest for the trees.
• 2: They avoid unfamiliar situations and difficult tasks that might lead to failure. That leaves them refining a narrow set of existing skills rather than working to develop new ones.
• 3: They berate themselves for making mistakes, which makes it harder to learn from them. They fail to realize that beating yourself up doesn't make you stronger—it leaves you bruised. The purpose of reviewing your mistakes isn’t to shame your past self. It’s to educate your future self.”

As you talk with your children about their work, effort, behavior, and their well-being, see if any of these “perfectionists” tendencies are present and have a conversation about working on the right problems, taking risks, and seeing mistakes as opportunities.

As always, we are grateful for your partnership!

Ben Jones

Principal

September 15-October 15: National Hispanic Heritage Month

October: National Bullying Prevention Month

October: National Principal's Month

October 1: West Fest

October 1-11: West Community Food Drive

October 1: Football vs LMS @NFHS

October 3: Hawks Academy after school until 5:30

October 5: Football vs NFMS @HMS

October 8: 7th & 8th Fall Band Concert @HMS

October 8: Football vs NFMS @WFHS

October 9: Fall Make-Up Pictures

October 9: Highschool 101 Night @HMS Gym @6:00 PM

October 10: Hawks Academy after school until 5:30

October 10: Fall Chorus Concert at Cumming First United Methodist Church

October 12: State XC Meet Cochran, GA

October 14-18: National School Lunch Week

October 16: Unplugged Night

October 16: Ice Cream Social Spirit Night

October 17: Hawks Academy after school until 5:30

October 18: Online Learning Day for Fall Conferences

October 21: No School for Students

October 21-25: National School Bus Safety & Driver Appreciation Week

October 23-31: Red Ribbon Week

October 24: Hawks Academy after school until 5:30

October 28: Trunk or Treat at WFHS

October 29: 8th Grade Career Exploration and Pathway Discovery Fair

The school year is flying by, and while it seems like 8 th grade just started for your child, it is also the time of year when we start talking about high school schedules, pathways, and what the transition from middle to high school will look like. In order to keep you in the loop, I wanted to share some dates and information that will be important in the upcoming weeks.

• October 9 from 6:00-7:30 pm

  Hendricks is hosting a High School 101 night in our school gym. Administration and counselors from West Forsyth High School and Forsyth Central High School will come to share information about schedules, pathways, and more. If you are unable to attend, we will post the presentation to our school website.

  
  

• October 28 from 4:30-6:00 pm

  Parents and students are invited to attend the Career Exploration and Pathway Discovery Fair at the Forsyth Conference Center.

  
  

• October 29 from 9:10-11:15 am

  students will attend the Career Exploration and Pathway Discovery Fair at the Forsyth Conference Center. If you would prefer that your child not attend, please let us know and we will ensure that we have an alternative plan in place. Students will be asked to Dress for Success for this event.

  
  

• The window to request for your child to attend a school Out Of District will be open from October 14- November 29.

Each individual high school is also hosting an individual Pathway Night for parents.These programs are open to families across the district to come learn about various pathways in case they want to submit an out of district request. Specific school details would be available through the schools website and social media as the event nears.

Alliance Academy: 10/22/2024 and 10/30/2024

Denmark: 10/30/2024

East Forsyth: 10/17/2024

Forsyth Central: 10/29/2024

Lambert: 11/06/2024 and 11/07/2024

North Forsyth: 11/07/2024

South Forsyth: 10/03/2024

West Forsyth: 11/04/2024

Fall conferences will be held throughout the month of October this year, with October 18th specifically set aside as a conference day. Teachers will be reaching out to parents of students who may be struggling with grades, attendance, and/or behavior to schedule time to discuss interventions and supports. If you do not receive a request from one of your child's teachers for a conference, your student is showing appropriate progress in their courses. However, if you would like to request a conference, you may complete this form.

The Food Fight has started! Each year the West Community of schools competes against the South Community of schools to collect food items to be donated to The Place of Forsyth. At Hendricks, we will be having a friendly homeroom competition to see which class can collect the most food. Each week, the leadership students will be coming around to tally and collect from each class. The winner is determined by the most weight collected and will win a donut party. Last year, HMS collected close to 1000 lbs. of food (2nd most in the West Forsyth Community). Collection starts September 30th and ends October 11th. The South Forsyth Community won last year, so send in as many items as possible.

Multicultural night will be November 12 from 6-7:30. Be on the lookout for sign ups to participate! Come out that night and learn about all the different cultures we have at Hendricks, enjoy performances, and try some food! Plus, we will have Auggie’s Lucky Taco truck back this year, the HMS book fair, and Ice Cream Social will be here!!

Hendricks Middle School has a podcast. Kyle Pullano, one of our outstanding connections teachers, hosts the HMS Podcast. The podcast is updated monthly and features both students and staff members. Click here to listen to the most current or previous episodes.

Does your student have a teacher at Hendricks who has gone the extra mile? Please take the time to nominate that teacher to be a teacher of the month here at Hendricks. Thank you for taking the time to recognize the teachers. Keep the positivity coming by completing the nomination form linked here. Each eligible teacher of the month will be a candidate for the 2025-2026 Teacher of the Year at Hendricks.

Raising kids in this digital age is difficult. Whether we’d like to admit it or not, the time our children spend on various digital platforms can make them vulnerable in the online world. Because our school places high importance on keeping your children safe, we want to do everything we can to equip you with resources and tools to help you raise responsible digital citizens. Therefore, we are partnering with a company called Neptune Navigate. This service teaches students and families how to be smart and stay safe online through a comprehensive, engaging online curriculum for students K-12.

The topics your child will cover this year include Digital Citizenship, Cyberbullying, Digital Footprint, Digital World Basics/Social Media, Media Literacy, Privacy & Cyber Awareness, and Age Appropriateness/Tech Laws. Neptune Navigate also provides a module for parents called “Continue the Conversation” which includes a short video highlighting critical information being taught in each of the student modules. This is an important resource to help you further the discussion with your child/children about being responsible digital citizens.

You can access the link to Continue the Conversation for Parents here:​ https://neptunenavigate.com/ctc/

We desire to work together to help your children be smart and stay safe online. Thank you for allowing us to partner with you in this endeavor.

Unplugged Nights are evenings designated as nights when no homework will be assigned. The goal is for families to have an evening away from school work and technology where they can connect and communicate. Thank you for your support of our students, our community, and our school. Please let us know how we can partner with you to encourage ongoing unplugged time between home and Hendricks. We hope you and your family enjoy the time together on October 16th this month. Your entire family can join HMS staff at Ice Cream Social on the 16th. We are hosting a spirit night at Ice Cream Social to raise funds for our November Multicultural Night.

HMS held our first Sources of Strength campaign on September 12th - 17th. We offered prizes and games before school from 8:30-9:00 in the commons, getting the word out amongst our students about Sources of Strength. The campaign was a huge success! To learn more about the Sources of Strength program, please click here. On September 19th, we trained 30 additional sixth grade peer leaders in the Sources of Strength program.

Mr. Flath: A-F

Ms. Chapple: G-M

Mrs. Schroeder: N-Z

Ms. Taylor: Wellness

Please note that a student must be seen by the school nurse to check out early with an excused absence for illness. If a child is checked out without being seen by the nurse, the absence will be unexcused unless a note from a physician is sent to the school.

The media center is the place to be at Hendricks. Students are coming daily to check out books, read, play games, or play instruments. If you have any gently used board games, puzzles, blocks, or card games that you are no longer using, we would love to make them available to students in the media center. Students can drop them off any time during the school day. We will be hosting a book fair during multicultural night. Happy Reading!

Forsyth County Schools will use MySchoolBucks.com for student breakfast and lunch payments. If you had a MyPaymentsPlus account with funds prior to this school year, the funds will roll over to My School Bucks for the new school year. Money in accounts will automatically carry forward to the student’s assigned school for the new year. You can add additional funds

FCS utilizes SchoolPay for all other student-related payment items. Parents/guardians need to create an account and attach their student to the account. Please click here for directions on creating a SchoolPay account.

Thank you for utilizing these two payment methods for your children.

Install the Canvas app and become an observer of your student's courses. Teachers will be posting all relevant course information in Canvas. Being an observer will keep you informed and give you additional tools to support your student's progress. Click here for more information on using Canvas.

Please email attendance excuses within 5 days to:

Andi Moran at amoran@forsyth.k12.ga.us

Excuses need to be received within 5 days of the students absence. If seen by a licensed physician, please ensure the attending physician provides a medical/dental/vision/etc. excuse.

STUDENTS MAY BE EXCUSED FOR THE FOLLOWING REASONS:

1. Personal illness or attendance in school that endangers a students' health or the health of others.

2. A serious illness or death in a student's immediate family necessitating absence from school.

3. A court order or an order by a governmental agency, including pre-induction physical examinations for service in the armed forces, mandating absence from school.

4. The observance of religious holidays, necessitating absence from school.

5. Conditions rendering attendance impossible or hazardous to student health or safety.

6. A scheduled medical, dental, or eye examination of the student. (Please provide a note from the attending physicians office)

7. Registering to vote or voting.

8. Visiting with a parent or legal guardian who is in the military service in the armed forces and has been called to duty for or is on leave from overseas deployment to a combat zone or combat support post. The student may be excused for a maximum of 5 days per school year.

Non-school related activities and vacations are considered unexcused.

Website: https://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/hms
Location: 4950 Hyde Road, Cumming, GA, USA
Phone: (678) 965-5038
Facebook: facebook.com/HendricksHawks/
Twitter: @HendricksMiddle