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September 2023
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All Things STAR at Blackhawk
To celebrate the start of our school year, Blackhawk had its annual STAR celebration today. STAR is the acronym for Safely Together Acting Responsibly and Respectfully. Students enjoyed time outside getting fresh air with their grade-level friends and teachers. Music was played as well as a summer snack provided to set the stage for a great year ahead. STAR is the name of our PBIS efforts at Blackhawk (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports) A team of teachers, social emotional support staff, and administration lead this team which defines and supports appropriate student behaviors in our school.
We encourage families to discuss our three behavior expectations that are Be Safe, Be Responsible, and Be Respectful with their children to not only reinforce these aspects of good citizenship, but also to better familiarize our families with character traits we are hoping to instill in our students.
Our STAR program is fortunate to have student ambassadors of appropriate behavior known as STARbursts as part of our teaching team. STARbursts not only provide a student voice to our PBIS program through feedback and suggestions, but they also actively take the lead in bringing our behavior expectation to life through advisory checks on Fridays that started today. In advisory checks, STARbursts award Blackhawk Bucks, our monetary system for meeting expectations, to students who are safe, responsible, and respectful under our STAR teacher oversight.
Blackhawk Curriculum Night
We invite all families to join us for curriculum night on Thursday, September 21st, at 6:30 PM at Blackhawk. Families will briefly be addressed by the school administration, where introductions to our new Assistant Principal of Social Emotional Learning, Mr. Jamie Hogue, and our new Assistant Principal for Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment, Ms. Concetta Caringella will occur.
The next part of the evening will allow families to meet with teacher teams in designated classrooms that will be announced shortly. The meeting time with teacher teams will allow families to be introduced to teachers of the four subjects: ELA, math, science, and social science. Beyond meeting teachers, families will be introduced to the curriculum being taught in all four core subjects. There will be time for questions as well, so please join us to set your child up for a successful year.
Blackhawk Curriculum Night
Thursday, Sep 21, 2023, 06:30 PM
Blackhawk Middle School, 250 South Church Road, Bensenville, IL, USA
Blackhawk Alumni Spotlight
Our first Blackhawk alumni spotlight of the new school year is Edwin Hurtado-Hernandez who was promoted from Blackhawk Middle School in 2018. From Blackhawk, Edwin went on to Fenton High School, where he graduated in 2022.
Edwin reports a favorite memory about Blackhawk that involved a frequent occurrence at lunch in the cafeteria with his friends. Edwin and his friends would buy chips from the snack bar and lay the chips out on paper towels in the middle of the table. Once this smorgasbord of chip products was distributed on the table, he and his friends would begin munching on the chips all together. While at Blackhawk, Edwin participated in Soccer Club that was an after school activity. Edwin said that Soccer Club was another fun activity that he could do with his Blackhawk friends.
One of the activities Edwin reports participating in at Fenton includes the soccer program. Edwin states representing Fenton as a soccer player was very fun because he got to meet new people that are still his friends today. A favorite achievement from high school for Edwin was getting to hold the regional soccer championship award in his hands for the first time.
Edwin said: "I didn’t really have a plan for the future but thankfully it is never too late for you to start a career you love." He reported that he recently decided to pursue a career in automotive repair because he had a job with hours from 12:00 to 9:00 PM that was really frustrating. He decided to go with his heart and go to another school just to pursue a career. According to Edwin, he feels like he has been very successful lately, because not only is he's going to school again, but he' actually learning more about what he loves--cars. But with going to trade school, Edwin's experienced some challenges such as getting quantities of homework that require him to stay up late at night to finish. He's glad that he went to school to pursue what he loves.
Advice that Edwin has for current Blackhawk students: "Enjoy what you guys have now because it is true what they say, middle school and high school goes by like a blink of an eye. I personally miss hanging out with my friend in middle school and high school, and I wish I could relive the moment again. It was such a beautiful moment, and sometimes I regret not doing some stuff in high school because I would just be too lazy. Take advantage of what you guys have in high school."
Blackhawk PTO
Blackhawk is very fortunate to have an active group of parents to help lead our Parent Teacher Organization (PTO). If you would like to join the PTO or are curious about what it’s about, we encourage everyone to join us for our first meeting of the new school year on Thursday, September 7th, at 6:30 in the Blackhawk Learning Center. Our PTO does many things throughout the year to support all students in our school. Some of the latest beneficiaries of our PTO include all of our grade level teams who receive an annual budget as well as our 8th graders who had a very memorable dance at the end of the year. If you have good ideas on how we can celebrate our awesome students at Blackhawk or are wizard at fundraising, please consider joining us next Thursday.
Blackhawk PTO Meeting
Thursday, Sep 7, 2023, 06:30 PM
Blackhawk Learning Center
...And in Sports
Blackhawk opened its competitive sports season on Thursday this week. The Hawks took to the trail as our school hosted four other conference schools to "run the hill." There was a great spirit of sportsmanship from everyone in attendance which is so common at cross country meets within our conference.
Stand out Hawk performances:
6th graders Mason Carrasco and Brisa Espindola
7th graders Andrea Calderon and Nathan Dorado
8th graders Andy Murga and Hermione Martinez
The Blackhawk co-ed varsity and jr. varsity soccer teams had their second and final day of tryouts today. Those rosters will be public soon, and we will begin reporting on the Hawk soccer team action.