For the First Week of School!
8/30 - 9/1
Embedded Files
A Message from Dr. Clapp
Classroom Peeks
Happenings
HKMS In the News
Counselor's Corner
The Flags of Keller!
Community Clicks
and Upcoming Events
“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” ~W.B.Yeats
Dear HKMS Families,
A school is not a building, not a faculty, or a group of students, it is a community coming together to learn, productively struggle, and grow together. This week, the "flame" was passed to our new community of learners with teachers providing a spark and a bit of kindling. You, the parents, guardians, grandparents, and caregivers did an excellent job of getting everyone here and ready for this new school year, with their supplies, lunches, new outfits, and positive attitudes. This week, I saw a teacher who learned all of her students' homeroom names within 10 minutes of day one, and all 100 names by the end of day two! I learned one of our teachers has been to all of the Disney Parks in the world and is a martial arts black belt! Students engineered paper “traps” for a golf ball drop and have checked out over 500 books. We have covered lockdown drills, cafeteria expectations, set classroom norms, opened lockers, and made sure every kid is leaving here with a smile…all in just a few days! In short, the 2023-24 school year is off to a great start.
The coming weeks bring some important events and opportunities for families to connect with the school. Next week's open house (Thursday 9/7 from 6:30 - 8:30) will be a fun and engaging experience featuring a presentation about adolescent growth and development, and of course a chance for you to "go back to school" as you walk your child's schedule and meet all of their teachers. You can find a link to the "master schedule" here. A student-created and individualized schedule will be sent home on Thursday with your child(ren). Grade 8 parents will notice the classes do not go in chronological order, this is due to teachers who teach across multiple grades.
Families are already getting involved in important ways. We have flags coming in for our heritage flag display, once we have a few more in we will start our display in the cafeteria.
I hope you find this first edition of the '22-'23 HKMS Family Newsletter both informative and enjoyable. Every week we pack the newsletter full of pictures of students engaged in learning tasks, videos of innovative performances, and insights into what students are learning.
Wishing you all a wonderful holiday weekend!
Sincerely,
Steven Clapp, Ed.D.
A glimpse inside of the terrific teaching and learning going on this week at HKMS!
Grade 6
Mrs. Burke's wall of names must be part of her secret to learning all 100 students names in just one day!
Starting science class off with a laugh!! Everyone loves Mrs. Maggi's joke of the day!
Grade 7
The first science debate has begun! Teams have been formed and the research is underway!
Students tossed around the "getting to know you" globe that is filled with fun questions!
Grade 8
Mr. D's students are engineering traps to catch a dropped golf ball using paper, tape and straws!
Mr. Crawford using the new Desmos math program, challenging students to think hard on day 3!
FPAs
Mr. Dolecki getting to know his 6th grade percussionists!
Mrs. Tiani explaining the rules of the first PE unit and the foundation of it all is sportsmanship.
Media Center
The 6th graders kicked off the first day of middle school with an informative trip to the media center where Mrs. Gale went over some basics and the setup of the space. Sixth graders checked out their first books of their middle school career!
The second day of school, Mr. Rogers; 7th graders were introduced to the 40 book challenge. Mrs. Gale focused on tools helpful for the book challenge such as how to log into Destiny to see your checkout history, how to do an advanced search by genre sublocation, and how to check for book pages and place holds. The lesson ended with a trip down to the media center armed with the relevant information to locate their choices independently!
Over 500 books have been checked out by HKMS students in the first two days!
Events, activites, and other occurrences that happened at HKMS this week outside of the classroom.
Check out this video of lunch on day one!
IMG_4977.mp4
So great to see all the smiles (and Dr. McKinnon) at lunch and recess this week!
Lockers getting set up!
THANK YOU PTO!
THANK YOU PTO!
Our amazing PTO provided breakfast, lunch, and these lovely flowers to welcome back the staff from summer break. Please consider joining the PTO, you can find the sign up page linked here: https://www.eastonctpto.com/
Class Meetings!
Today Mrs. Mohr and Dr. Clapp met with each grade to learn about everything to make the school year successful. They covered topics from adolescent brain development and why popularity is so important, to our cell phone policy and the importance of attendance and being on time for school!
Grade 6
Grade 6
Grade 7
Grade 7
Grade 8!
Grade 8!
Welcome to a brand new school year! The counseling department is so excited to be at HKMS. We have a lot of new faces this year and a lot of fun & fresh ideas. We want to get to know the students and help them be their best. Here is a little something about the new team...
Bailey Keehan- School Social Worker
I am excited to be joining the HKMS community! I am looking forward to getting to know the students and staff in the next few months. Previously, I worked as the school social worker in a K-6 elementary school so I will be learning the ropes of middle school alongside the students! In my free time, I enjoy family time and being outside.
Nick Willett- School Counselor/ Academic Mentor
I am super excited to be returning to HKMS family. I feel extremely lucky to be a part of this amazing school again. While I was away from HKMS I spent the last 10 years working in New Canaan as a school counselor. But I knew I would return back to HKMS where my passion lies working with middle schoolers again.
Kristin Burnham- School Counselor
I am happy to be back at HKMS again! I loved my time at HKMS and looking forward to a great year. I have two middle schoolers myself so I understand what it is like to be a parent of a middle schooler. I enjoy spending time with my family and love to take my two crazy dogs for hikes. We have been fostering kittens for the past few years but just became a foster fail and adopted our first cat.
Dominika Pellegrini- School Psychologist
I am looking forward to getting to know all the students, staff and families of HKMS this year! I have spent a majority of my career within the Stamford Public Schools working across all grade levels, with most recently being at Stamford High prior to joining the district last year. I live at home with my husband and two kids, ages 13 and 10. I enjoy spending time with friends and family and just a little tidbit about me, I speak Polish and was born in Poland.
We can be reached at:
Bailey Keehan Bkeehan@er9.org
Kristin Burnham Kburnham@er9.org
Nick Willett Nwillett@er9.org
Dominika Dpellegrini@er9.org
Do not hesitate to reach out if we can help in any way! We are looking forward to meeting many of you at the open house.
Dominika, Bailey, Nick, and Kristin (pictured bellow, left to right)
The HKMS Mental Health Team
Is your families flag flying at HKMS? The ceiling and walls of the HKMS cafeteria will be filled with flags that represent the various cultures, countries, and ethnicities of the entire HKMS community! We want to be sure we have your family represented in the flags for the 2023-24 school year. Please take 15 seconds to fill out the questionnaire here so we can update our flags to include your family.
@helen_keller_middle_school
@helen_keller_middle_school
@hkmsmediacenter
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