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Pictured very top:
Guest Speaker Marc Mero with ThinkPoz.org and some of our Hornets during this month's special presentation.
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8200 Tattant Blvd.
Windermere, FL 34787
(407) 250-6291
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Horizon West Middle School
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We are already a little over halfway into the first quarter and our Hornets are still growing strong. Students and teachers are working together to create engaged learning experiences. We are very excited to see many of our Hornet families buzzing around Horizon West this week as we prepare to host our very first Open House. Please be sure to make time to attend this special event to meet each of your child's teachers and see what is happening in all of their classrooms.
Guest Speaker Marc Mero
On September 13th, Horizon West was honored with having Guest Speaker Marc Mero from ThinkPoz.org tell our students inspirational stories from his childhood and telling him about of the situations in his life that have brought him to speaking to students all over the US. Our students really enjoyed this opportunity and were able to think about how to live a positive life and leave a lasting impact, just at Mr. Mero has with our Hornets.
Progress Reports
First quarter progress reports were distributed Tuesday, September 17th. Please take time to review your child's report card with them. Be sure to celebrate their success and encourage continued academic achievement. Simple words of encouragement can be very powerful in helping students stay focused and motivated. If your child is not doing well, then take time to talk about what he or she needs to do in order to get on track. There is still time between now and the end of the quarter. Communication with your student as well as their teacher is imperative to their success. If you need more ideas on how you can help your child succeed, please contact your grade level school counselor. However, when it comes to grades please remember that open communication with your child's teacher is the first line of protocol.
Progress Monitoring Assessments
Starting in October, students in 8th Grade Science, Civics, Algebra and Geometry will be taking our quarterly PMA assessments. These assessments are to monitor your students achievement in the above courses in which they will be testing during the May FSA Testing Administration. Please be sure to remind your students to take all testing sessions serious, study and follow directions to achieve their greatest success.
Thank you all for another wonderful week at Horizon West Middle School and enjoy this edition of our community brief.
Thank you,
Michelle Thomas
Principal
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Jeremiah's Italian Ice
Thank you for hosting our Spirit Night with our PTSO. We are honored to have Jeremiah's Italian Ice on the Horizon West Middle School team.
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Sept. 23: First PTSO meeting of 2019-2020 (6:00 PM) after the monthly SAC meeting. All Horizon West parents, teachers, and students are invited to attend!
Sept. 26: OPEN HOUSE, 5:30-7:30 PM
Sept. 27: NFL Team Shirt Friday
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Sandy Hook's Promise: Start With Hello Week
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This program teaches students to make a difference with their peers in a simple, fun, and impactful way. They take small but powerful actions to promote connectedness and inclusion, and to identify and help lonely students who are showing signs of social isolation. Below is how Horizon West Middle School will be supporting the "Start With Hello Week" efforts.
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Free/Reduced School Lunch - DEADLINE TUESDAY!!
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Horizon West Middle School Hornets should apply for Free/Reduced Lunch to see if they are eligible.
**** IMPORTANT: You must reapply for benefits each year!! ****
For more information about the OCPS Free/Reduced Lunch program, please visit:
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Please remember that Open House is this Thursday from 5:30 to 7:30. This is your opportunity to walk your child's schedule and meet all of their seven teachers. Please remember this time is not a parent teacher conference and individual questions may be asked via email. If you are interested in a parent teacher conference, please contact your child's teacher and we will be sure to set something up.
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You're Invited: Parents of ESOL/ELL Students
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Thursday, September 26th, 5:00 PM
We would like to extend a special invitation to all our parents of ESOL/ELL students to our first MPLC Meeting. This meeting will be held right before our Open House on September 26th at 5 PM. If your child is part of the ESOL/ELL program we hope that you can attend this event geared to second language learners.
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Spotlight on Rigor in The Classroom: 7th Grade Civics
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Last week during Civics classes, 7th Graders participated in THE AMAZING RACE. This activity gave students a fully engaged opportunity to deepen their knowledge with essential standards focused on Influential People and Historical Documents. Students worked in groups to complete activities, read documents and master roadblocks. We know that engaging, rigorous activities like this will help our students come May, when they take the NGSSS Civics test.
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Dear Hornet Families,
The PTSO would like to thank the families who have come out to support us at our first Spirit Nights of the year at Gator's Dockside, Jeremiah's Italian Ice, and Bruster's Real Ice Cream. Your support has helped us to raise just over $300.
We will host our first general PTSO meeting on Monday, September 23rd in the Media Center at 6 PM. Please join us and help in creating new traditions and events at HWMS. You will have the opportunity to sign up for committees, hear more about our upcoming events, and meet other parents, teachers, and students.
The Spirit Store will be open most Fridays throughout the year for your student to pick up new gear and PTSO membership cards. You can also follow us on our FB page HWMS PTSO and on the web at www.hornetsptso.org to stay in the know on all things PTSO!
Sincerely,
Tammy Forrester
President
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Soccer
Our boys and girls soccer season is still going with our boys game this week at Carver Middle School. We also have 2 "make-up" games this week for the games that were missed during our hurricane days. Please continue to cheer on our Hornet soccer players as we hopefully move forward into playoffs!!
Volleyball Season is ALMOST HERE!
Please make sure you have your paperwork completed and ready to turn in. Tryout dates, times, and location will be October 3, 4, and 7 from 4:00 till 5:30 in the gymnasium.
Mark Your Calendars Now for Our Upcoming Season!!
Date
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Location
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Opponent
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10/23
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Chain of Lakes
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Windy Ridge
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10/28
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Bridgewater
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Bridgewater
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10/30
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HOME
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Chain of Lakes
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11/6
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HOME
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Gotha
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11/11
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Sunridge
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Sunridge
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11/13
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HOME
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Southwest
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11/20
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Carver
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Carver
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Mr. Wroe and Ms. Gonzalez were tremendous assets in supporting our SGA hurricane relief effort for the Bahamas. Thank you for the extremely generous donations of food, hygiene items, and medical supplies given to SGA by many students, families and teachers at HWMS. The donations were delivered to Senator Rudolph Bracy's office in Orlando on Tuesday. (The donations will be delivered when it is deemed safe to travel to the Bahamas.)
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Spotlight on Rigor: Ms. Parrish's Chorus Classes
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Ms. Parrish's chorus students are developing foundational skills. Students are working to develop healthy vocal habits and using movement to reinforce the rhythmic, textual and emotional context of the piece of music. Great job to our Chorus students and Ms. Parrish for strengthening a love of the arts in our Hornets.
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October - PMA Testing
 Students in Civics, 8th Grade Science, Algebra and Geometry will be taking their first quarter Progress Monitoring Assessments. These assessments are to assess the progress that student have achieved thus far in the school year. Each quarter students will take an additional PMA so we can see their progress for the entire year.
December - Common Final Examinations and Algebra Retakes
December bring us two assessments for two smaller groups of students. First, early in December we will have retakes for any students that need an opportunity to retake the Algebra I EOC. Then right before winter break we will have CFE's. CFE's will only be for students participating in STEM, Learning Strategies and Physical Education and other semester courses.
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Our New Segment by our Journalism Hornets
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Each edition of "The Buzz," we will be featuring student articles from our hornets in our journalism class. This a great way for students to publish their works and get real work experience as a writer. We know our parents and community are going to really enjoy these upcoming pieces of work from our aspiring journalists.
HEALTHY HORNETS by Vanessa G.
15 quick and easy ways to stay HEALTHY HORNETS
1. Exercise daily
Exercising daily will help you stay in shape and not become inactive. Make sure you're exercising 20-60 minutes a day, and 3-5 hours a week. You CAN exercise five days a week but if you're going to exercise for four, think about your goals and what you want to work on the most (muscle, strength, etc.).
2. Eat a healthy breakfast
Many studies have linked eating breakfast to good health, including better memory and concentration, and lower chances of getting diabetes, heart disease, and being overweight. Breakfast helps replenish it.
3. Eat your fruits and vegetables
Fruits and vegetables are a good source of vitamins and minerals, including folate, vitamin C and potassium. They're an excellent source of dietary fiber, which can help to maintain a healthy gut and prevents digestion problems.
4. Get a good night's sleep
Sleep boosts your immune system, manages weight loss, and helps you retain memory. Whether it's setting an alarm or getting a new mattress, you can take simple steps to help you get seven to eight hours of sleep.
5. Protect yourself from sunlight
Sunlight contains ultraviolet radiation, which causes premature aging of the skin, wrinkles, cataracts, and skin cancer... Sun exposure at any age can cause skin cancer.
6. Go to the doctor yearly
Going to the doctor yearly helps you keep up with what's going on in your body. This can mean your eyes, your mouth, your ears, etc. Going to the doctor can also help you by telling you if you have a disease.
7. Drink lots of water
Drinking lots of water helps you from not getting dehydrated. This is important so that you can keep your mind straight and focus during class or activities. Water is very important and if you don't have enough of it, it can lead to serious damage to your body.
8. Find little ways to stay active throughout the day. Being able to find ways to stay active throughout the day can really help you stay healthy. You can go as small as walking up and down stairs, or going as far as running a mile every day.
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9. Take time off your electronics
Taking a little time of your electronic is a very important way to stay healthy if you stay more than 10 hours a day on you phone or laptop etc there is a high chance you may need to use glasses. Doctors recommend 3-5 hours at most on your electronic
10.Brush your teeth twice a day
Brushing your teeth twice a day keeps your teeth nice and healthy but if you don't brush your teeth you will get plaque and might need a really expensive teeth whitening and you may need to use braces.
11.Dress appropriate for the weather
Dressing appropriately for the weather helps you stay healthy by layering up in the winter and wearing none heavy stuff in the summer. Being prepared for stuff like this can keep you from getting sick or overheated.
12. Take time for yourself
Taking time for yourself not only helps you concentrate more on other things but gives you time to relieve your stress. This can be as littleas taking five minutes off from doing homework, or to as much as making a whole day dedicated to you treating yourself.
13. Avoid sugary foods and drinks
Avoiding sugary foods and drinks can help you not only stay healthy but keep you in good condition. This doesn't mean you can't have dessert every once in a while, or have candy at movie theaters. But having candy freely and not equaling the weight with something like working out or eating healthy food can be bad for you.
14.Meditate
Studies show meditation helps relieve stress and keeps your mind clear. This keeps you healthy and ready to think with a clear head. Meditation is normally done before you go to sleep so that you have a good night's sleep.
15.Think positive
And finally, you should think positively. Thinking positively helps you develop as a person because when someone is negative it can tend to be hard to look on the bright side. But when someone is positive, looking on the bright side is easy especially when trying to stay healthy.
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Skyward Family Access Usage
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Skyward Family Access is available for all students to utilize when they sign in to Launchpad.OCPS.net on their school issued laptop. We understand that many parents are still having issues logging in to their Parent.Classlink.Com/OCPS accounts, but there are still options for you to see your child's grades.
Here are some ideas:
1) Schedule time once a week for students to show you on their laptop their Canvas and grades in Skyward. This is a great way to openly communicate with students and have them explain to you what is happening in each class.
2) Have your child take screen shots of their Skyward and send it you weekly. We know our teens love their cell phones and students can access Launchpad on their cell phone. So have students screen shot their grades and send it to you.
3) Set up notifications in Canvas so you can get messages on all your children's classes.
a. In Canvas, have your child sign in a click on Account > Settings.
b. On the right hand side of the screen you will see "Ways to Contact". Click on + Email Address, here you can enter your email and/or cell phone # to receive alerts from Canvas.
c. Confirm with the email send and then you start receiving the same notifications your student does.
d. Be sure to set up what notifications you would like to see by Clicking, Account Notifications, you will see your email or cell phone and you can select what notifications you want and how often you want to receive them.
Making sense of the chart: Over 90% of the students logged into the system in the week before last. Options 1 and 2 above are based on the fact that they understand how to access and use the program and can share their results weekly with their parents if needed.
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Monday's Motivational Moment!
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Fame Isn't Worth a Flea
 Walt Disney was once asked, "How does it feel to be a celebrity?" This was his answer:
"It feels fine when it helps me to get a good seat at a football game. But it never helped me to make a good film, or a good shot in a polo game, or get the obedience of my daughter. It doesn't even seem to keep the fleas off our dogs - and if being a celebrity won't give one an advantage over a couple of fleas, then I guess there can't be much in being a celebrity after all."
"Don't confuse fame with success.
Lady Gaga is one; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is the other."
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Horizon West Leadership Team
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This communication may contain information that is legally privileged, confidential or exempt from disclosure, and intended only for the use of the addressee(s) named above. If you are not the intended recipient, please note that any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. Anyone who receives this message in error should notify the sender immediately by telephone or by return e-mail, and delete the message from their computer and any printout thereof. Please note that OCPS utilizes spam and junk e-mail filtration applications in its e-mail systems. That filtering process may prevent or delay delivery of certain e-mail communications. If you do not receive a timely response to an e-mail communication, please contact the intended recipient by phone.
Copyright Notice
 Reproduction of this material, either written or electronically, including the general layout, graphics, analyses, and content topics without the express approval of Target Performance Systems, Inc., a Florida corporation, and OCPS-Horizon West Middle School is forbidden without written consent. Thank you for your support of the Orange County Public Schools and especially Horizon West Middle School. Please contact Mrs. Heather Rodriguez (Administrative Dean) at [email protected] with any questions.
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