Heights Happenings

To our Amazing Families of Madison Heights,

Please read below to stay informed on all of the great things happening at Heights!

Lunch with your Child

This is just a reminder that the last day to have lunch with your child is Friday, May 19, 2023. In order to have lunch with your child please call the office to let them know you will be having lunch with your child. We cannot accommodate more than 8 parents at a time during each grade level lunch due to limited seating. Thank you to those parents that have visited our cafeteria and had lunch with your child; I know it was certainly a highlight of their day.

Bilingual Career Day

Our Bilingual Career Day is Friday, May 12, 2023. We are excited to have all of our slots filled and for our students to experience this great opportunity. This means that every homeroom will participate in a Spanish Presentation from a bilingual professional on the benefits of being bilingual and how the professionals use Spanish in their career. Here is the link to the :sign up

Please read some of the stats below on the benefits of being bilingual from Edutopia.

Link to full article: https://www.edutopia.org/article/benefits-being-bilingual/

• Bilingualism makes executive functioning skills stronger. Researchers at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan studied brain scans of bilingual and monolingual individuals. They found that people who are bilingual have significantly more gray matter in the portion of their brain called the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The ACC is one of the portions of the brain involved in executive functioning.
• People who are bilingual are consistently switching between languages and interpreting which language needs to be used at which time; this is brain exercise, which leads to the strengthening of this portion of the brain muscle. Researchers conclude that by having more gray matter in this portion of the brain, people who are bilingual may have an easier time with executive functions, including decision-making, motivation, and emotional regulation.
• Bilingualism makes people better at multitasking. People who are bilingual are multitasking without thinking about it. As a person’s brain transitions from one language to another, they are processing information and shifting between languages at the same time.
• Research shows that the ability to multitask linguistically translates to an ability to multitask in other areas of a person’s life because it strengthens the executive functioning skills in the brain. Researchers conducted a study looking at whether or not elementary school students could multitask; in this study, researchers had students perform multiple different types of tasks, and they found that bilingual students outperformed monolingual students on tasks that required students to multitask.
• Bilingualism can increase math and reading performance. Several studies have shown a correlation between bilingualism and stronger mathematical abilities in students. In a large study of pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, and first-grade students, bilingual students outperformed monolingual students in mathematical reasoning, mathematical skills on word problems, and early number awareness skills.
• Along with increased math performance, there is also conjecture that bilingualism can increase students’ reading abilities.
• American University conducted a four-year study of Portland Public School students, comparing the academics of students enrolled in dual-language programs with those of students enrolled in traditional public schools. Students were enrolled into these two types of programs at random, and it was found that by the end of middle school, students in dual-language programs were performing one grade level higher on reading assessments than their peers who were not enrolled in these programs.
• Bilingualism increases earning potential and job opportunities. Research shows that employers from all career fields prefer to hire bilingual employees. Research also shows that among the millennial generation, bilingual employees earn more on average than their monolingual counterparts. It’s been reported that bilingual employees earn on average between 5 percent and 20 percent more than their monolingual peers.

May 9 - Performance from the Phoenix Symphony in the cafeteria. Grade K-2: 8:15 - 9:00 am; Grades 3-4 9:15 - 10:00 am

May 12 - Bilingual Career Day

May 24 - 4th Grade Party - More information coming soon, volunteers needed

May 24 - Spirit Day - wear your spirit shirts that are typically reserved for Fridays (last day of school)

We are working to have these two positions posted, until then if you are interested or know someone how is please contact us at heightsoffice@madisoned.org.

Noon Duty Aide - (20 hours per week, 9:00 - 1:00pm) We are looking for a noon duty aide to finish out the school year and continue with us for the upcoming school year. The responsibilities for this position include, working with small groups of students on targeted skills in conjunction with the reading interventionist from 9:00-10:15am and supervising the flow of grade level lunches in the cafeteria from 10:15-1:00pm.

Library Associate - (Full Time) - We recently learned that our current library associate will be moving to Tucson to be closer to family. This position will start in the 2023-2024 school year. The Library Associate manages the library and the schedule of homeroom classes that attend to listen to a story and check out books. The Library Associate also helps with lunch supervision in the cafeteria.

We would like to send a sincere thank you to all of the parent volunteers that assisted with our field trip to the Mariachi Sol de Mexico Master’s Class at the Madison Center for the Arts on Friday, 5/5/23. It was a great show and a rare opportunity to see a professional internationally recognized Mariachi Ensemble.