7-12 Blackhawks Newsletter

The end of the school year is near so here is what you need to know:

We have two concerts this week: Monday is grades 4-8 and Tuesday is grades 9-12, both starting at 7 pm.

This Wednesday is Baccalaureate at the HINTON UNITED METHODIST CHURCH at 7:00 pm. THIS IS A CHANGE IN LOCATION from what the newspaper said or what was previously showing on our school calendar. Seniors need to be there by 6:45 pm and have their caps and gowns.

Wednesday is an early out for everyone and is also the last day of regular classes for seniors.

Thursday is Senior Breakfast at 7:45 in the library and then the high school Awards Assembly will be at 8:30 am in the gymnasium. Following the awards program will be commencement practice for our seniors and junior escorts. Seniors who don't have semester tests nor detentions can check out following commencement practice. Seniors who need to take semester exams will need to be in the library by 8:30 on Friday.

Commencement is Sunday, May 15th at 2 pm at our high school gymnasium. Seniors need to be here in the choir room by 1:15. A professional photographer will be here at that time. Weather permitting; there will be a congratulatory line outside on the east side of the school following the ceremony. We plan to livestream it on our Hinton's Facebook page.

7-11th grade: Last day of school is Friday, May 20th.

The junior high awards program will be on May 20th at 9:00 am in the gymnasium. THIS IS A TIME CHANGE!

Other fun happenings include:

Last week the Siouxland Kiwanis Club sponsored the Kiwanis top 5% recognizing the top 5% of graduates from the Siouxland area. Our top 5% of seniors include: Bella Badar, Katie Heimgartner, and Hailey Rosenbaum! We are very proud of their successes in their high school career as all three of their GPAs are outstanding!

Preliminary ISASP results are in, which allowed us to reward the open campus incentive for our juniors. Most received 3 weeks of open campus for meeting their goals the last two years (freshmen year was a freebie due to no testing). At least 80% of our 7th-8th graders met their individual goals as well, which means all 7th-8th graders will enjoy a fun day this Wednesday having different activities they can choose from throughout the day. For lunch, the students will be eating outside. To make this easier for the lunch cooks, we are asking them to make sack lunches for the kids to grab on Wednesday. If your child will need to eat school lunch on Wednesday, please let Mrs. Cotter know so that I can have the kitchen make up the appropriate amount of lunches.

Last Saturday was Large Group Contest. Our choir received a 1, which is the top score you can receive! Our band received a 2, but actually had the same total raw score points from the three judges as the choir received, but two of the judges rated them a 2 instead of 1. Overall, these are both solid successes we are proud of!

We are excited to announce that our first year band teacher, Ms Weyhrich, will be presenting at the annual Iowa Bandmasters Association Conference later this week in Des Moines. On Thursday, Ms. Weyhrich will partner with the band directors from West Monona, Westwood, and Woodbury Central to present "A Beginner's Guide to Small School Band Programs." The four directors will share their tips and tricks with fellow new teachers and with college music education students.

Ms. Weyhrich has also been selected to participate in the Young Conductors Workshop at the conference held on Friday. Only six band directors from across the state were invited to participate in this clinic. Ms. Weyhrich will conduct two pieces with the Southeast Polk High School Wind Ensemble and receive feedback from esteemed teacher Paula Crider, Director of Bands Emerita at the University of Texas at Austin.

We are very proud of Ms. Weyhrich and thank her for her continued professional commitment to growth for herself and our students!

Also, congratulations to 7th-grader Casen Boeve for being selected as the 2022 Tolerance Week essay winner. He presented his essay at the Warrior Hotel on 5/4/22 to the mayor, Tolerance Week board members, Sioux City council members, Governor Reynolds, and other attendees of the event. Way to go Casen!

Lastly, we just finished our high school homeroom dodgeball tournament. Congratulations to Mr. Crawford's homeroom for defeating Mrs. Nelson's defending champions!

Seniors -

Congratulations on your outstanding high school graduation achievement! You worked so hard and you took advantage of so many personalized pathways to prepare you for your next step in life. We are excited to watch you take flight on your newest adventure!

Final Transcripts will be sent to the school that you indicated in the Demographics Class of 2022 spreadsheet. If you change your mind this summer, please email Mrs. Clausen and we will get transcripts sent to the new destination. I check school email on a daily basis.

Juniors -

College applications will begin to open for your school choices in late June/early July. Set a personal goal to have all applications finished by the time we start school in August. Applications can often be found under the admissions tab for each website.

Scholarship lists can be found under the 7-12 Counseling link on the hintonschool.com website. Fast Web is also another national search engine that you set up and Fast Web then emails scholarships to you. Take advantage of employer scholarships and ask your parents if their employer has a scholarship fund as well.

I decided to experiment with Independent Learning. It’s a hot topic in secondary education these days. My Spanish 4 class is always my guinea pig class, because they’re generally the smallest and the most willing to try new things.

Since this type of learning is relatively new in the world of education, there aren’t a lot of resources available. I did find some resources that I plan to use in my Spanish 4 class. The unit is based on novels. Each student will choose their own novel from my library. They are organized by level and there are no duplicates (thus the individual part). Each day, we’ll start with 15 minutes of silent reading time, then 15 minutes of discussion time in small groups, then 15 minutes of journaling time. At the end of the unit, they will have to turn in up to 10 journal entries and a summary paper all in Spanish.

The goal of independent learning is essentially to allow students opportunities to succeed at their own pace and at their own level. It’s an interesting theory for teachers, but also a bit intimidating. I’m excited to try this unit and hopefully, I can do more of these units in the future.

The district level Siouxland Speech contest was held on Tuesday, April 5 in the Hinton Community library from 6:30-8:00. Three students from each school, Hinton, Siouxland Christian, and Woodbury Central, participated. The top 3 participants received a trophy and monetary scholarship from Prime Bank in Le Mars.

Taya Eisenga from Siouxland Christian placed third ($25), Natalie Stamm from Woodbury Central placed second ($50), and Kennedy Hensley from Hinton placed first ($100). Congratulations to all nine participants on a job well done.

Back row left to right: Kennedy Hensley (Hinton) Natalie Stamm (Woodbury Central) Jaeley Kooiker (Siouxland Christian) Taya Eisenga (Siouxland Cristrian) and Gabrielle Hamann (Siouxland Christian)

Front row left to right: Becca Lahrs (Hinton) Peyton Beeck (Hinton) Sophie Feddersen (Woodbury Central) and Isabelle Pacheo (Woodbury Central)