August 12th - August 16th

NOTES FROM MR. CRAWFORD

WELCOME!

We finished a week of preplanning getting ready for an exciting year.  The highlight of the week was welcoming new staff members to the Middle School TEAM.  They bring a wealth of experience and talents to share with our community. Look for exciting things to follow!

NEW FAMILY WELCOME SOCIAL

This year we welcome 5 new families to the 6th grade and 5 new families to the 7th grade.  We would like to have all new families join us this Sunday at 2:15 for a welcoming social. We will share concerns and offer tips to smooth your transition to Hancock.

ALL SCHOOL OPEN HOUSE

Sunday from 3:00 - 5:00 the administration, faculty and staff of Hancock invite all our families to join us for a drop in Open House.  Students will have a chance to catch up with classmates, meet teachers, check out their lockers and see the changes in store for the upcoming year.  Please join us!

CARPOOL REMINDERS! (THAT PESKY CARPOOL!)

For new families, the Middle School Zone is called the WHITE ZONE.

First rule of carpool:  The first two weeks are always challenging!  Remain calm and be patient!

MORNING

Arrive on campus by heading NORTH on Howard Foss.  No left turn into campus! This will facilitate a smooth entry into campus.  Drop off at Hancock Hall between 7:30 - 7:55. After that, follow the carpool lane ALL THE WAY AROUND to the gold zone (or when the line stops) to discharge students.  DO NOT STOP AT THE MIDDLE SCHOOL ENTRY (unless the line has stopped). Exit the driveway turning right only!

AFTERNOON

Again, set your arrival up to be heading NORTH on Howard Foss.  The afternoon carpool line will wind down Howard Foss. Please DO NOT arrive on campus before 3:15!  Gold Zone (at the side of the school) pick up runs from 3:00 - 3:15. Arriving on campus before then creates congestion for families picking up students in that zone.  If you do arrive early, park in a designated parking space. DO NOT PARK IN THE CARPOOL LANE, it stops the flow of cars moving to the Gold Zone. Watch for Mr. Crawford and his infamous STOP SIGN!  He is making sure we do not fill up both sides of the carpool lane. If that happens, no one moves until the first car in line moves! After picking up your child, signal Mr. Crawford your are ready to exit by using your left turn signal.   Again, exit the driveway by turning right only!

COMMUNITY SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES

Each middle school student is required to complete ten hours of community service over the course of the school year.  Please remember to list hours worked on a daily basis, do not log total sum of hours worked over an extended period of time.  See below for a few upcoming service opportunities. Click HERE for a log form.

The Old Savannah City Mission needs volunteers for various positions.  The mission provides food, shelter, and clothing to the homeless.  For more information, contact Connell Stiles at 912-232-1979 or stiles@oscm.org.

America’s Second Harvest needs volunteers to help prepare monthly bags of food for senior citizens in our community.  Volunteers should arrive by 7:45 and must wear closed-toe shoes. Contact Bryce Seuntjens at bryce@helpendhunger.org for more information.

GUIDANCE & CHARACTER EDUCATION

My name is Allison Maher and I am excited to be joining the Hancock Team as the School Counselor!  While this is my first year at Hancock, I have 15+ years experience as a social worker and counselor working with children and families.

Our Virtue of the Month for August and September is Commitment and we will be assisting the students with building skills and habits that will help them stick to their responsibilities and reach their goals! 

If you need to contact me, email is best.  I can be reached at: amaher@hancockdayschool.org

8TH GRADE ASSIGNMENTS

Algebra 1 - Mr. Cargile

Welcome to our new school year. My name is Jack Cargile and I look forward to meeting you, getting to know you, and working with you in, and outside of, the classroom. I am excited to be back in Savannah after teaching and living in the Philippines for the past 8 years. Next week, we will spend some time talking about class expectations and class routines, and we will also review some important topics that were covered in the summer packet. By the end of the week we will also be working on our first unit of study, which is Expressions, Equations, and Functions. 

Advanced Algebra - Mr. Lanfear

Welcome back to our returning students!  To our new students, welcome to Hancock Day School!  I had a wonderful and relaxing summer and I hope you all did, too.  I am very excited to be back! Next week in Advanced Algebra, we will jump right in, starting with Chapter 9 of the Algebra I textbook.  We will learn about polynomials and how to add and subtract them (9.1). We will also learn how to multiply them (9.2). We will then move on to solving polynomials in factored form (9.4) and how to factor and solve trinomials (9.5).  There will be a short quiz on Friday covering sections 9.1-9.4.

Geometry - Mr. Lanfear

Welcome back to our returning students!  I had a wonderful and relaxing summer and I hope you all did, too.  I am very excited to be back! Next week in Geometry, we will begin Chapter 1 by learning about the basics of Euclidean Geometry, such as points, lines, and planes (1.1).  We will also learn what postulates and theorems are (1.2). Students will discover how to calculate the midpoint of a line segment in a coordinate plane (1.3) as well as how to calculate the distance of a line segment in a coordinate plane (1.3).

Physical Science - Ms. Hoffman

A warm Welcome Back to our 2020 senior class at Hancock!  For 8th grade our focus will be Physical Science, which encompasses both Chemistry and Physics.  We will start off our year with a review of lab safety, variables and the scientific method. We will then discuss and learn about the Science Engineering Process and participate in a fun activity to help “save” Wendell the Worm.  Our first quiz on this material will be on Wednesday, 8/21. We will also discuss our new monthly writing homework assignment, which utilizes a Science Choice Board. Options include writing about a movie or museum you went to, creating a crossword or poem/song for a science topic we are studying, or creating a practice test/quiz to help you study.   I am excited to see everyone again and hope you had a wonderful summer and are all ready to learn some SCIENCE!!

English Language Arts - Mrs. Boyer

Welcome back! I am looking forward to an exciting and productive year with your children. Eighth grade English Language Arts is an engaging course designed to challenge students and prepare them for success in high school. The texts we read and the depth of our class discussions will push students to think critically while growing as readers and writers, but there will also be ample support throughout the year to ensure that students are able to find success. 

Although Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is a challenging text, I am committed to working with students to help them understand and relate to this novel. Discussion and comprehension run hand in hand, and the class activities planned are designed to help your child find his/her inner voice and be prepared for future academic challenges in the years to come.  At the end of this communication I have detailed many of the specific activities students will be in engaging in to help them better understand Fahrenheit 451.

Should any student feel that she/he needs additional help beyond our regular class time, I am available daily from 7:45-8:15.  Additionally, please feel free to contact me personally if your child ever needs extra help beyond this timeframe, or different strategies for their learning styles.  Thank you for all of your support and best wishes for a fantastic year!

Below are a few of the class activities and assignments designed to enhance each student’s understanding of key elements of Fahrenheit 451.

1. The Opinion Walk
1. Students will respond to prompts written on poster board around the room and will discuss their responses in class. Special attention will be paid to analyzing characters, connection to supporting details, and theme(s). 
2. Effective Annotation and Question Asking
1. Students will learn how to annotate and ask effective questions from a challenging novel. Students will learn how to question society, the novel itself, the author, etc. Secondly, students will learn how to ask an effective/ meaningful question and where to find the answers to their questions. 
3. Fake News/DQ
1. Students will read two articles from Stanford University and NPR regarding fake news in the lives of students. This topic will be discussed in regards to the novel and students will be responding to a Discussion Question where they can post their response and respond to other students. Students will learn how to write an argument. 
4. Think Aloud
1. Students will be paired up to analyze characters, setting, and themes. 
5. Theme Analysis
1. Students will be paired together to create a slide presentation on a theme chosen for them by the teacher. These themes/presentations will be discussed in class. 
6. Writing Prompt
1. Students will receive a writing prompt. The teacher will brainstorm with the students and the students will be able to take notes. The students will receive the rest of the class to respond to the prompt. 
7. Socratic Seminar
1. Students will be taught how to participate in a Socratic Seminar. Notes from this seminar will be posted on Google Classroom for study purposes. 
8. Plot Mountain Poster
1. Students will work together in groups to create a poster with a plot mountain for the novel. Students will use their prior knowledge to find the exposition, rising action, climax, conflict, falling action, and resolution. 
2. These will be corrected and discussed in class. 
9. Finding Literary Devices within Fahrenheit 451
1. Students will be creating literary device flashcards and using those to help them choose two examples of each in the novel.

Students will be taking an assessment on this text at the end of this unit. 

Don’t forget to bring in your summer reading projects and novels on the first day of school!!

History & Gov’t II - Mrs. Robinson

Hello everyone and welcome back! My name is Carell Robinson, and I will be teaching American History & Government this year. I am thrilled to be joining the Hancock community. We will be spending the first part of the week getting to know each other and exploring our own histories and how they relate to the larger picture of American history. At the end of the week we will start talking about the first people in the Americas- how they got there, what their lifestyle was like, and how they set the stage for the development of America. Looking forward to getting to know everyone! 

Spanish - Ms. Hill

¡Hola y bienvenidos a todos! Hello and welcome to all! My name is Kelly Hill, and I will be teaching Spanish. I am very excited to be joining the Hancock family, we’re going to have an awesome year! We will be getting to know each other this week as well as discussing the importance of language learning (not only Spanish) and how it affects your memory and brain power. At the end of the week we will be doing a basic review as well as a diagnostic assessment to see what you remember or already know. I can’t wait to meet you!

7TH GRADE ASSIGNMENTS

Algebra 1 - Mr. Cargile

Welcome to our new school year. My name is Jack Cargile and I look forward to meeting you, getting to know you, and working with you in, and outside of, the classroom. I am excited to be back in Savannah after teaching and living in the Philippines for the past 8 years. Next week, we will spend some time talking about class expectations and class routines, and we will also review some important topics that were covered in the summer packet. By the end of the week we will also be working on our first unit of study, which is Expressions, Equations, and Functions. 

Pre-Algebra - Mr. Lanfear

Welcome back to our returning students!  To our new students, welcome to Hancock Day School!  I had a wonderful and relaxing summer and I hope you all did, too.  I am very excited to be back and for some wonderful changes to this course this year.  Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will review some important topics that were covered in the summer packet.  We will review decimal and fraction operations, rounding decimals, evaluating exponents, and order of operations.  There will be a short quiz on these topics on Thursday, though it will not count towards a grade. We will then begin Chapter 1 proper by learning about expressions and variables (1.1).

History & Gov’t I - Mrs. Robinson

Hello everyone and welcome back! My name is Carell Robinson, and I will be teaching American History & Government this year. I am thrilled to be joining the Hancock community. We will be spending the first part of the week getting to know each other and exploring our own histories and how they relate to the larger picture of American history. At the end of the week we will review what the students learned last year in American History & Government Part One so we will be ready to start our work on the Civil War in the following weeks! Looking forward to getting to know everyone! 

Spanish - Ms. Hill

¡Hola y bienvenidos a todos! Hello and welcome to all! My name is Kelly Hill, and I will be teaching Spanish. I am very excited to be joining the Hancock family, we’re going to have an awesome year! We will be getting to know each other this week as well as discussing the importance of language learning (not only Spanish) and how it affects your memory and brain power. At the end of the week we will be doing a basic review as well as a diagnostic assessment to see what you remember or already know. I can’t wait to meet you!

ELA - Mrs. Boyer
Welcome to 7th Grade! I am so excited for this new year to begin! Let’s get reading!

To start us off, students will be engaging in multiple activities regarding their summer reading of Inside Out and Back Again. My goal this year is to make reading an enjoyable process. Our year will center around Book Clubs where the students will be given the opportunity to choose the novel they want to read. I believe that CHOICE is incredibly important in regards to creating a foundation for FUN reading! But first...students must be taught how to efficiently engage with a text! Therefore, we will start the year off with one of Mrs. Boyer’s favorite novels: The Hobbit!! 

Life Science - Mrs. DuRant

Welcome to 7th grade!  I hope you’ve had a wonderful summer, whether it was filled with lots of activities or a time of relaxation.  I’m very happy to be teaching at Hancock Day School this year and am looking forward to meeting each and every one of you. This will be a great year as we explore the exciting world of Life Science. Interesting discussions, labs and engaging projects have been planned for the year. We will begin the year discussing lab safety, the scientific method and our monthly writing assignment related to science in the news.  Beginning Thursday, August 15, we will be going to the science lab every Tuesday and Thursday. I will explain more about that on our first day of school. Our first quiz will be on Wednesday, August 21 on Lab Safety. Can’t wait to see you in Room 306!

6TH GRADE ASSIGNMENTS

Accelerated Math 7 - Mr. Cargile

Welcome to our new school year. My name is Jack Cargile and I look forward to meeting you, getting to know you, and working with you in, and outside of, the classroom. I am excited to be back in Savannah after teaching and living in the Philippines for the past 8 years. Next week, we will spend some time talking about class expectations and class routines, and we will also review some important topics that were covered in the summer packet. By the end of the week we will also be working on our first unit of study, which is Number Sense, Pattern, and Algebraic Thinking. 

Pre-Algebra - Mr. Lanfear

Welcome back to our returning students!  To our new students, welcome to Hancock Day School!  I had a wonderful and relaxing summer and I hope you all did, too.  I am very excited to be back and for some wonderful changes to this course this year.  Next week in Pre-Algebra, we will review some important topics that were covered in the summer packet.  We will review decimal and fraction operations, rounding decimals, evaluating exponents, and order of operations.  There will be a short quiz on these topics on Thursday, though it will not count towards a grade. We will then begin Chapter 1 proper by learning about expressions and variables (1.1).

ELA - Mrs. Sasser

Welcome to your first year of middle school at Hancock Day School! As a new teacher to HDS, I am greatly looking forward to getting to know all of you! Next week in ELA, we will go over key expectations for the class and review your summer reading. We will also start discussing important reading and writing strategies that will help you throughout the year. As we move into the second week of school, we will review grammatical proofreading marks and learn about the writing method SRES. Students will have a brief quiz over this material on Monday, August 19th.

Earth Science - Mrs. Hoffman

Welcome to Hancock’s Middle School!  For 6th grade our focus will be Earth Science, which encompasses meteorology, geology, hydrology, astronomy and environmental science.  We will also discuss our monthly writing homework assignment called Science in Comics and complete an example in class. Finally, the students will participate in a fun “Lifesaver Lab.”  We will continue the second week with information on measurement and our first quiz on this material will be on Wednesday, 8/21. 

Please note:  This year we will have two educators teaching 6th grade Earth Science.  Joining me will be Mrs. DuRant, who is also our 7th grade Life Science and Health Education teacher.  Students scheduled for Earth Science period 1 will be in her classroom #306 for approximately ½ of the week and rotate into the science lab (room #305) for two days per week.  Students scheduled for my classes periods 2 and 3 will be primarily in my classroom (the science lab #305) and then rotate into her classroom #306 during these same days. (These rotation days will be Tuesdays and Thursdays, unless otherwise notified.) Mrs. Durant and I will be working very closely together to provide the same educational material and content for our students and they will participate in many of the same labs and other hands-on science activities.  Due to our individual teaching styles and background, we will be providing our own personal delivery of information and additional activities to ensure all of our students are provided with instruction tailored to their specific needs.  

Earth Science - Mrs. DuRant

Welcome to Middle School! I hope you’ve had a wonderful summer, whether it was filled with lots of activities or a time of relaxation.  I’m very happy to be teaching at Hancock Day School this year and am looking forward to meeting each and every one of you. This will be a great year as we explore the exciting world of Earth Science. Interesting discussions, labs and engaging projects have been planned for the year. We will begin the year discussing lab safety and our monthly writing assignment related to science in comics.  Beginning Thursday, August 15, we will be going to the science lab every Tuesday and Thursday. I will explain more about that on our first day of school. Our first quiz will be on Wednesday, August 21 on Lab Safety. Can’t wait to see you in Room 306!

Ancient Civ -  Mr. O’Hayer

I would like to extend a big Eagle welcome to our newest members of the HDS Middle School. The whole team is excited to have all of you joining the MS family. During the first week of class, we will go over the class syllabus, expectations, responsibilities, and what you will need to do to be successful not only in Ancient Civ but also in Middle School. After that, we will spend time discussing note-taking and study skills- two important components that we will revisit throughout the year. Week two brings us to the “beginning” of our course. We begin our journey to Ancient times by exploring early humankind and the world’s first peoples. I am looking forward to having all of you in class. We will travel on many journeys this year,  exploring so many awesome cultures, places, and people. Get ready for an exciting and fun time in Ancient Civ. A final thought to ponder….. “If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.” (Pearl Buck)

Spanish - Mr. Alexander

¡Hola a todos! Hello to all! My name is Craig Alexander, and I will be teaching Spanish.  I am looking forward to becoming a part of the Hancock family, and I look forward to meeting you all!  In our first week as we all get our bearings and back into the swing of things, I will be assessing students’ prior knowledge of Spanish as well as discussing the importance of language learning.  I look forward to working with you all!

SPECIALS

Art - Mrs. Cookson

“One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.” Leonardo da Vinci

Welcome to the new school year. Hopefully everyone had a relaxing and refreshing summer. The art room will soon be abuzz with creativity, exploration, and lots of fun. I am really looking forward to seeing everyone soon.