HUSKY HEADLINES March 1, 2018

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1 Important Dates March 1 Spring Pictures March 2 Fresh Fruit Friday March 5 Spirit Night: Zaxby s March 6 Talent Show Auditions March 12 Rising 6 th Grade Parent Night March 13 School Council Meeting March 14 Early Release: 1:30 March 19 6 th Grade String Jamboree at Pope March 23 Quarters for a Cause March 28 Talent Show From the Principal HUSKY HEADLINES March 1, 2018 Hello HTMS parents, The Parking Lot (my favorite subject) Sadly, there are those who felt it was OK to run over the orange barricades that were bought to aid in understanding traffic flow in the parking lot. We have now gone to metal poles and chains. When the weather dries out we will be adding reflectors to the poles and placing reflective signs on the chains at that time the damaged orange barricades will disappear from behind the two chain barricades. If you hit one of the chains, it may do damage to your car please look for the chains and be careful. Ultimately we are trying to keep children safe. With recent happenings, I am even more determined that students must be dropped off and picked up according to already established parking lot procedures. The simple truth is that we have one lane for drop off in the morning the loop. That brings children in the front door that is supervised by administration and campus security. In the afternoon we have two lanes for pick up both supervised by county personnel. I understand that sometimes there is a time delay we are ultimately trying to keep all children safe. The School Council was asking questions about the upcoming state mandate of all children to be tested online. During the course of that conversation, a request was made to find an online typing instructional program. One of our CTAE teachers, Tamra Bolles, did some research and found the following: From TypingMaster: Typing Trainer is a free, full-featured typing tester and trainer for Windows. First you can take a 45 minute crash course to improve your typing fluency and accuracy with the most common words and letter combinations. After warming up with enjoyable typing games, you can evaluate your typing skills (WPM, accuracy) with any of the several test texts and print out test diplomas and detailed reports. Typing Analyzer is a unique tool included that analyzes your everyday typing in other programs and identifies those keys that repeatedly cause difficulties. After identifying your difficulties Typing Analyzer provides fully tailored training sessions each taking only a couple of minutes. Program has multiuser support and four games. In addition, this package contains access to 5-hour complete touch typing course (web based, 2 months). Here is the link for your convenience -

2 Furthermore, there was a request made about online testing practice. This testing year, 2018, all 7 th graders will be testing online. The next year all students are supposed to test online. Through investigation, the following free site for students to practice online test taking skills was found: The last piece of the conversation was about safe places for students to do research. The Cobb Virtual Library is an immense warehouse of current information for students. You can access this website by logging into the Cobb County website and going to the parent resources Cobb Digital Library. The URL is: The last few weeks have been difficult for us all. Each person in this building is precious to me. I am grateful that I have been given the opportunity to work in this community. As always, I appreciate your support. Laura Montgomery From the County School News SPIRIT NIGHT AT ZAXBY S Join us for a spirit night on Monday, March 5 from 5:00 8:00 at the Zaxby s in front of Walmart! TALENT SHOW Can you sing, dance, play an instrument, do magic, or have some other interesting talent? Audition for the Talent Show on Tuesday, March 6 at 4:30. Pick up a Talent Show Audition Interest form in the atrium. Return it to Ms. Myler in front office no later than Monday, March 5! You must have a form to try-out! The Talent Show is Wednesday, March 28. See you there! ALL VISITORS TO THE SCHOOL Everyone entering the building must show proper identification to the camera at the front door. After you are buzzed-in, please go directly to the front office to sign in and receive a green visitor s sticker. This sticker must be worn while you are in the building. This includes visits to the clinic and the counseling department. You will be stopped by a member of faculty or staff if the sticker is not visible. Thank you for helping us provide a safe and secure atmosphere for all.

3 PNC BANK MAKE A DEPOSIT! A representative from PNC Bank, an HTMS Partner in Education, will be in the Atrium Friday, March 2, 16, & 30 before school to accept deposits into your child s PNC savings account. Start a life-long habit of savings. Make a deposit today! Beginning March 16 th The Coder School will have weekly Code Classes at Hightower Trial Middle School Friday mornings from 8am-8:50am. $119/child for a 5 week course We will offer a Scratch curriculum for those with no coding experience. We will also offer a Python curriculum for those kids who have surpassed the basics learned in Scratch. Here is the link to register We will also offer a 50% off discount on your first months fees for kids who want to continue in Code Coaching at our school CONTEST WINNERS Congratulations to the following grade level winners: 6 th Grade Ms. Findling th Grade Ms. Thomas th Grade Ms. Hackney 150 Each homeroom will receive a doughnut breakfast and the teacher will receive a jeans pass. Thanks for helping raise money for HTMS!!! Look for the next competition to begin soon! From the Husky Foundation HUSKY FOUNDATION SUMMER CAMP Get a jump on your summer reading packet! Travel to Hogwarts! Build a robot! Learn archery! Brush up on Math FUNdamentals! Knit a scarf! These are just a few of the classes being offered at our first summer camp! Look for a full schedule of classes in March. Registration is on a first-come first-served basis and classes will fill up fast! From the PTSA ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A WAY TO GET INVOLVED AT HIGHTOWER TRAIL MS? We are looking for people that are interested in being an active part of HTMS. This opportunity is through the HTMS PTSA for the school year. Everyone has an idea of what they think the PTSA is or the type of parents that volunteer for PTSA but the truth is we: 1) want to be involved with making our kids school and experience better 2) like to have fun 3) work full time, part time and some of us stay home 4) are all busy but find time to volunteer when we can 5) don t all attend every single PTSA event 6) certainly don t do this for the pay 7) know that the only way to change or improve things is to get involved! If any of this sounds like you or you are interested in more info on the exec committee positions Co-President, VP, Secretary, Treasurer or Parliamentarian please contact Michelle Schlundt at mschlundt@att.net or another member of the nominating

4 committee - members are Esther Collins, May Moss, Melissa Vreeland, Bonneda Kallan and alternate Stacy Gibbs any of the committee members can answer your questions! We look forward to hearing from you and having you join the team! Deadline to apply is Friday, March 9th for any interested candidates. WISH YOUR STUDENT A HAPPY BIRTHDAY ON THE SCHOOL SIGN! Want to wish your student a Happy Birthday on the HTMS sign? It s easy and your child will love it! Just click HERE, log in to the PTSA website and complete the online form. You may pay online or bring a check to the school. The deadline is the 25 th of the month PRIOR to the birthday month; however, you complete the form earlier than the month before and the message will run when you choose. The message will run all day on the child s birthday (or other date you select), and makes for a great photo op! HEALTH AND WELLNESS COMMITTEE Grade Level/Connections News HTMS WELCOMES HOME WALDEN PERFORMING ARTS ASSEMBLY On Monday, Athens rock band Walden came to HTMS for our Performing Arts Assemblies. They re based out of Athens, GA, but are actually from here in East Cobb! Three of the members are HTMS Band alums, and one went to Dodgen. All four went to Pope and earned/are finishing degrees from UGA. Last summer they won the Road to Bonnaroo competition, and have been invited to perform again this summer. They ve signed with a major agency (Paradigm), and are about to go on tour. We re very proud of these former band students! Check them out online: Homepage: Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: SoundCloud: Also on itunes and YouTube.

5 8 TH GRADE SYMPHONIC BAND EARNS STATE HONORS Congratulations to the 8 th Grade Symphonic Band for being selected to perform for the state s music educators at the Georgia Music Educators Association (GMEA) In-Service Conference! This is the highest honor GMEA bestows. HTMS was one of 3 middle school bands selected to perform. They gave a beautiful concert on January 26 and represented HTMS extremely well at the conference. At the concert s conclusion, Mr. Cole and Mr. Norton were presented Citations of Excellence from the National Band Association for outstanding contributions to bands and band music.

6 ORCHESTRA NEWS Congratulations to all of the 7th and 8th Grade Hightower Trail Orchestra students who participated in the 2018 District XII Middle School LGPE event held on February 12th and 14th at Lassiter High School. Both the Hightower Trail 7th and 8th Grade Orchestras Students performed and received straight Superior ratings and a Superior ratings for their sight-reading evaluation. The highlight of many students winter is the SNOW DAYS! We want to highlight those in this year's yearbook. If you have a great picture of your student enjoying the snow days, send them to the yearbook adviser at autumn.mourdock@cobbk12.org. 8 th GRADE DC TRIP IMPORTANT INFORMATION FINAL PAYMENTS ARE DUE MARCH 9th!!!!!!! DC FORMS went home today February 28. The DC blog is updated with important dates. There are 300 people going on the trip, BUT only 170 have ordered the first TWO shirts through the PTSA Website. Here is the link to go directly to the order form for these two shirts: Parents can also go to the PTSA website at and click on the Spirit wear tab and then 8th Grade DC T-shirts to place an order. These 2 shirts need to be ordered by MARCH 2nd! The 3 rd shirt, is the CLASS shirt ordered through the ELA classes. That deadline is Thursday, March 1.

7 Clubs and Organizations News Please ask your student to check the rolling announcements for club information. These announcements can also be found under Quick Links on the HTMS website. HTMS Student Council thanks the Hightower Trail community for participating in the Hearts from Hightower Campaign in February! We sent more than 100 Valentine s Day cards and donated over 70 news items including games, books, activities, lotions, nail polish, and DVDs to Children s Healthcare of Atlanta. These items will benefit teen patients at CHOA as they are treated. HTMS CONTINUES TRADITION OF SUCCESS IN THE NATIONAL HISTORY BEE! After two local school competition rounds, seven Hightower Trail 8 th graders qualified to participate in the Regional competition of the National History Bee: Maithili B, Davis D, Swarat K, Luke S, Nate T, Ian W, and Grey W. Of those seven, Luke S came in third place overall in the Regional Bee on February 21, At the end of the competition, Luke S, Ian W, and Grey W were announced as National Finalists and can compete in the National History Bee in Atlanta this summer. The Math Counts Club is proud to announce that the HTMS team won 2 nd place in the regional competition! Congratulations!!!

8 Counseling Department News RISING 6 TH GRADE PARENT NIGHT Hightower Trail will be hosting the rising 6 th grade parent night on March 12, 2018 at 6:45 p.m. in the Hightower Trail Auditorium. This event is for parents only. The event will focus on how parents can support their student s transition from elementary to middle school. Parents will also learn about a typical middle school schedule, connections, as well as walk through the building. A current parent, student and 6 th grade teacher will be on hand to answer questions. The PTSA will also be selling spirit wear! BEHAVIORAL RATING SCALE FORMS FOR TEACHER INPUT All requests for teachers to complete rating scales or behavior scales for a student must go through the counseling department. Before a teacher can complete these scales, a release form must be completed with the name and address of the doctor. The forms will be sent directly to the requesting physician. Please allow up to two weeks for teachers to complete. For additional questions please contact your grade level counselor or call the counseling department at From the Nurse The clinic has a direct line! Please enter in your phone contacts so that you will know when your student or the nurse is trying to reach you. Community News POPE PTSA Pope PTSA is looking for people interested in getting more involved at Pope. The nominating committee for the Executive Committee are looking to fill the following positions: Co-Presidents (2) Co-Vice Presidents (2) Treasurer Recording Secretary Corresponding Secretary Please contact Alix Cloud if you are interested or have further questions. alixcloud@kw.com It's time to register and buy tickets for Pope High School Foundation's annual Gala & Auction. The gala: A Historic Night with Pope will be held on Saturday, March 10, Early Bird tickets are $50 each. Don't delay! Early Bird pricing ends on Feb. 10th! We're looking forward to some exciting changes for 2018! A new venue, The Mill in Roswell, and we will have mobile bidding for our auction items! Go to to buy tickets, and create your profile on the new online auction site. We will send you exciting updates throughout the year as the event draws closer. You can also text "popegala" to for updates. This is our biggest fundraiser of the year, and we can t do it without help from our community! We d love for our silent and live auction to be better than ever! First, join us! It's a fun night with a lot of Pope camaraderie. Second, if you have a business, vacation home, season tickets to sporting events or anything else you d like to donate, please let us know! You can contact Melina Smith, our Gala Chairperson, and she will be happy to help. She can be reached at melinabsmith@gmail.com. All donations are tax deductible. Thank you for your Greyhound support!

9 POPE JR CHEER INFORMATIONAL MEETING The meeting will be held Thursday, March 1st at 6:00 in the old Pope theater. *Please note change in location.* The meeting is for any rising 6th, 7th or 8th grader interested in tryout out for our upcoming cheerleading season. Pope High School Presents: The Addams Family A Musical Comedy In the kooky, upside-down world of the Addams Family, to be sad is to be happy, to feel pain is to feel joy, and death and suffering are the stuff of their dreams. Nonetheless, this quirky family still must deal with many of the same challenges faced by any other family. The Addams kids are growing up. The Addams family has lived by their unique values for hundreds of years and Gomez and Morticia, the patriarch and matriarch of the clan, would be only too happy to continue living that way. Their dark, macabre, beloved daughter Wednesday, however, has fallen in love with Lucas Beineke, a sweet,

10 smart boy from a normal, respectable Ohio family the most un-addams-sounding person one could be! And to make matters worse, Wednesday has invited the Beineke family to their home for dinner. In one fateful, hilarious night, secrets are disclosed, relationships are tested, and the Addams family must face up to the one horrible thing they ve managed to avoid for generations: change. This show is rated PG. Show dates: March pm, March 2pm; March 7pm Venue: Pope High School Performing Arts Center Tickets available online or at the door: Summer Opportunities (not sponsored by HTMS) Boys BASKETBALL CAMPS - At Pope HS 3 Weeks of Camp Offered again this Summer June 11-14, June 25-28, July Ages 8-15 (grouped by age/skill) Applications can be Contact Coach Pat Abney Patrick.Abney@Cobbk12.org