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Hunter's Creek Middle School
21st Century Digital Learners
Florida 'A' Rated School
13400 Town Loop Blvd.
Orlando, FL 32837
(407) 858-4620
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Pictured above: New York Times Best-selling Author of the Olympians series, George O’Connor, visited HCMS and presented to all students. More information below on this HCMS success story! | |
Hunter's Creek Middle School Community Brief Monday, March 10, 2025 | |
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On Tuesday, February 25th, as preparation for George O’Connor’s visit, the HCMS reading department and library team hosted a community literacy night focused on the 12 Greek God/desses that George O’Connor’s books are about. It was a fun-filled evening where families had the chance to participate in many engaging activities that reflected the gods and goddesses. Thank you to HCMS PTSA and all the HCMS teachers and staff members who took part in making this event an extremely successful one. See pictures below.
On Thursday, February 27, we hosted the author George O’Connor. What a wonderful event it was! All students and adults were mesmerized with Mr. O’Connor’s highly engaging presentations. Our valued guest certainly increased the interest of our Eagles in reading and writing within one day.
A special thanks goes out to Ms. Moye and Ms. Helin for the extremely organized planning of the day giving a lot of attention to cover every detail. Also, thank you to all the teachers for ensuring that the students read the books and were ready for the author’s visit. Thank you to all of our Eagle parents for your continuous support and partnership.
In this edition of the Eagles’ View, my heart is full as we continue to celebrate the accomplishments of our amazing students. Whether it is the FPS team, the students of the week or the Chess Club students, all of our Eagles are winners! Due to the length of announcements on student recognitions, this edition of the Eagles’ View will be part one of two separate parts. You will be receiving the next one at the end of this upcoming week. What a great thing to have!
Our SAC, PTSA and MPLC meetings will be held in the Media Center tomorrow, March 10th, at 5:00pm and 6:00pm respectively. Please join us.
Reminder! Friday, March 14th is a teacher workday. This year’s spring break is from March 17-21 with classes resuming on Monday, March 24. Once we return, we will begin our final nine-week quarter of 2024-2025.
Have a great week.
Your Proud Principal,
Joumana Moukaddam
Principal
Hunter's Creek Middle School
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Monday, March 10th:
SAC Meeting 5pm, Library
MPLC Meeting 6pm, Library
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Tuesday, March 11th: Last day to buy Pi Day Pencils! | |
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Wednesday, March 12th:
House Spirit Day! 🧡🤍💚💜💙💛❤️
Future Patriot Orchestra Night, Freedom High School
Thursday, March 13th:
Pi Day PIE Fundraiser (for Math)
End of 3rd nine weeks
Friday, March 14th: No School
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Saturday, March 15th to Sunday, March 23rd: Spring Break | |
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Sunday, March 23rd to Wednesday, March 26th: Future Problem Solvers State Competition
Wednesday, March 26th: House Spirit Day! 🧡🤍💚💜💙💛❤️
Friday, March 28th: House Meeting
Tuesday, April 1st: BEST Writing Test
Wednesday, April 2nd:
House Spirit Day! 🧡🤍💚💜💙💛❤️
Paraprofessional Appreciation Day
Thursday, April 3rd:
Band MPA
Report Card 3 A/B Recognition During Lunch
Friday, April 4th:
8th grade Junior Achievement Field Trip
Report Card 3 Breakfast of Champions
School Librarian Appreciation Day
Action for Happiness
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THANK YOU!
Thank you to the Hunter’s Creek Middle School Advisory Committee and to Publix Charities for sponsoring George O’Connor’s visit! (Special feature in this week's edition.)
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Two new Partners in Education have joined the HCMS team! | |
Thank you to Main Event for sending in coupons for our students! | |
Thank you to Portillo’s for sending certificates, coupons, and bookmarks for our students! | |
8th Grade Students of the Month (announced 2/28) | |
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Congratulations to our 8th Grade Students of the Week!
Jack Shockley for Leadership: Jack is a very well behaved student with excellent grades. He sets a great example for his peers! -Ms. Coogle
Isabelle Mancuso for Soaring to Greatness: Isabella is always offering and willing to help other students in need. -Ms. Coogle
Madison Espinal for Academic Integrity: Maddy is a very bright student who consistently brings great ideas to the table and advocate for them. I'm incredibly proud of the growth she has shown. -Ms. Cozzo
Sarah Costa Almeida for Exemplifying Perseverance: Sarah is nominated for student of the week for exemplifying perseverance! She has come such a long way in Algebra this past semester and I'm so proud of her hard work. This success comes from her amazing work ethic and perseverance to not give up. Way to go, Sarah! -Mrs. Lebron
Sahasra Ganta for Leadership: I am nominating Sahasra this week to thank her for all her help during 7th period. She is always offering to help around the library, and whatever we ask her to do, she completes with a smile. As a reader, she is equally as enthusiastic! She always finds me to share books that she is enjoying and tell me about her reading. She is also an active participant in book club, and always brightens our discussions with her thoughts and opinions. -Ms. H
Penina Sene for Exemplifying Perseverance: Penina exemplifies perseverance by consistently pushing through challenges with determination and a positive attitude. -Ms. Rivera
Juliet DePriest for Exemplifying Perseverance: Juliet is consistent with her work and has become resilient within the language arts class, continuing to build her skills from reflecting on past challenges she's encountered while working on assessments and quizzes. -Ms. Durgin
Laura Harlan for Excellence: Laura has achieved much success with her commitment to her grades and skills in language arts. She continues to achieve constant success due to her hard work. -Ms. Durgin
Juan Pablo Higuera Arango for Excellence: Juan has worked hard all year with language arts and continues to gain more and more success as he pushes himself with mastering reading and writing skills each day. -Ms. Durgin
Isabella Vieira Faria for Exemplifying Perseverance: Isabella has been in the U.S. for 2 months, and she is writing the assignments in English. She listens to the lesson (in English) and takes notes. Isabella completes all of her assignments and takes time to ask questions. She has taken two test and earned higher than average on both. -Ms. Jarque
Jenessa Rivera for Leadership: Jenessa has really stepped up as a leader in her class period's discussion groups over the last few weeks of our novel study! She is eager to participate, shares great thoughts, and is leading her group to success! I've loved seeing her use her skills in class to analyze the poetry we are reading. Great job! -Ms. DeLuca
Saul Lopez for Leadership: Saul has been a true leader in his class period's discussion groups over the last few weeks of our novel study! He is eager to participate, shares great thoughts, and is helping others in his group understand! I've loved seeing him use his skills in class to analyze the poetry we are reading. Great job! -Ms. DeLuca
Abrare Boulerhcha for Leadership: Abrare has been a true leader in her class period's discussion groups over the last few weeks of our novel study! She is eager to participate, shares great thoughts, and is leading her group to success! I've loved seeing her use her skills in class to analyze the poetry we are reading. Great job! -Ms. DeLuca
Alfonso Pedroza Rodriguez for Excellence: I am recognizing Alfonso as my student of the week because he consistently does well on tests and assignments. He leads by example with his academic accomplishments and respectful behavior. It is a pleasure having him in my US History class this year! -Ms. Ennion
Gabriel Black for Excellence: Gabriel has been excelling in our science class. He is able to add a positive contribution to class on a daily basis. He completes all work, assists peers, is always prepared, and acts as a leader in the class. His work ethic and ability to help others is very much appreciated! -Ms. Bullock
Orlando Leal for Leadership: Orlando is an excellent student who demonstrates academic integrity and leadership qualities. He is always willing to help his peers in class, especially new students to school, who are learning English for the first time. he has become a mentor to many of them. I'm proud to nominate him as student of the week. Buen trabajo Orlando - Ms. Lemus
Andres Leal for Excellence: I'm happy to nominate Andres as my student of the week for his Academic integrity and participation in the ELA class. Andres demonstrates great attitude toward learning, completes all his assignments and is always willing to help his peers. Proud of you Andres! - Ms. Lemus
Dhivya Royam for Leadership: Dhivya is irreplaceable as our 3rd period student assistant in the library. She is always willing to help, has great ideas about the library, and is just a pleasure to see every day. I am so lucky to have her in the library helping. -Ms. Moye
Mason Cramer for Leadership: Mason likes to help other students, he always does his work on time, and he offers to help others. He can inspire other students positively. -Ms. Chamon
Keep up the amazing work!
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Future Problem Solvers Regional Competition | |
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Back/Mid Row: Ms. Moye, Amanda Suarez, Liam Zhong, Nicholas Bonilla, Sai Balakavi, Camilo Gutierrez, Nethuka Hewagama, Eva Schischa, Katie Schicha, Celeste Rossi, Valiya Taylor, Julianna Golden, Maria Fareeduddin, Hadicha Abdukayumova, Ishani Majudmar, Melanie Luzardo, Louis Garriout, Annarita Abraham, Quinn Terrell, Caeden Stockdale, Derrick Wallace, Ethan Grafal, Connor Allen, Travis Tayler, Kumar Chakraborty, Lisa Wojciechowski, Ms. Rokaw, Linuka Hewagama
Front Row: Dominic Zambrana, Alyssa Chapman, Judianna Becker, Derrick Tayler, Senuth Amarasekera, Sakshi Tripathy, Cooper Terrell (Not Pictured here but in below photo: Evanka Sukhu)
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Congratulations to all members of the Hunter’s Creek Future Problem Solving Club (from HCMS, FHS, HCES, CCHS, and OSS)! We are so proud of the hard work they put into the competition! It is a grueling, demanding, and tough competition that takes creativity, futuristic thinking, collaboration, and application of research. These students are amazing!
Four out of our nine teams and both of our individuals qualified to move on to the State competition. (Because of how many students qualified, we will actually be able to invite all students to attend States if they would like!)
Hunter’s Creek Middle Team E placed 12th out of 29 in the middle division and qualified for States!
● Quin Terrell, 5th grade (HCES)
● Livianna Stockdale, 6th grade
● Annarita Abraham, 7th grade
● Judiana Becker, 7th grade
Hunter’s Creek Middle Individual A placed 3rd in the middle individual division and qualified for States!
● Ishani Majumdar, 7th grade (OSS)
Hunter’s Creek Senior Team A placed 3rd in the senior division and qualified for States!
● Minaya Amarasekera, 12th grade (FHS)
● Kumar Chakraborty, 12th grade (FHS)
● Linuka Hewagama, 12th grade (FHS)
● Lisa Wojciechowski, 12th grade (FHS)
Hunter’s Creek Senior Team B placed 5th in the senior division and qualified for States!
● Cristian Camilo Gutierrez Lasprilla, 11th grade (CCHS)
● Katie Schischa, 11th grade (FHS)
● Eva Schischa, 11th grade (FHS)
Hunter’s Creek Senior Team D placed 1st in the senior division and qualified for States!
● Senuth Amarasekera, 9th grade (FHS)
● Derrick Tayler, 10th grade (NeoCity)
● Cooper Terrell, 9th grade (FHS)
● Sakshi Tripathy, 10th grade (FHS)
Hunter’s Creek Senior Individual A placed 1st in the senior individual division and qualified for States!
● Maria Fareeduddin, 11th grade (FHS)
Future Problem Solving Rundown: Students, before the competition, only know the topic of competition and are allowed to do research based on the vague topic. Then, when they get to the competition, they receive a future scene that is written using the topic. They then have to brainstorm 16 challenges within the future scene, determine the biggest problem, find 16 solutions to that problem, rank the solutions using criteria, then write an action plan for solving the underlying problem. All within 2 hours. Then they have to present their action plan.
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On Saturday, Feb. 22, the HCMS Chess Club went to the OCPS Chess tournament at Freedom Middle School. Although they did not take home any prizes, the students did an amazing job, with Andrew, Nethuka, and Brayden winning 3/5 of their games. | |
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Students in group photo from left to right:
Brayden Pokorny
Myles Kliegl
Aniece Helminski
Nethuka Hewagama
Melanie Luzardo
Andrew Martin
Annarita Abraham
Regi Inga Ticllacuri
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George O’Connor Author Visit!
HCMS’s Yearly Author Visit took place on Thursday, February 27th with New York Times Bestselling Author George O’Connor coming to visit ALL students to share about his writing life, his illustration choices, about mythology, and more!
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Ms. Moye, HCMS librarian, with George O'Connor | |
We are so thankful to George O’Connor for being with us all day. Not only did he present to over 1,000 students, he did a signing time for any student who wanted his autograph; he did an author lunch with students who read over 6 of his books; he stayed after school to draw us a special image, finish signing anything left to sign, including bookmarks for each of our Olympians Community Night finishers, and take pictures with the library team. | |
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We prepared tremendously for this event! George O’Connor was so impressed and said it was the most work about his books he’d ever seen in one place!
The library was decked out with decorations by Ms. H and Ms. Moye; posters by Student Literacy Leaders (outside); index card one pagers by 6th grade social studies students; Wanted posters and other projects by Ms. Lemus’s class; Mythology comics and temples by Ms. Rokaw and Ms. DeLuca’s students; artwork by Mr. Gomez’s students; Hera and Hermes by Zean; the mythology themed door by Student Literacy Leaders; and work from Olympians Community Night including our Underworld maze, the Zeus collaborative poster, Athena’s math problems, and Apollo’s Karaoke menu.
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Here are some student reflections about the day:
● I really liked the day. It was a fun experience learning about him and how he became an author.
● I really liked the day! Meeting the author was exciting, and their presentation was inspiring. The workshop helped me think creatively, and I enjoyed sharing ideas with my classmates. It was a great experience that made me love reading and writing even more!
● I liked it. George O' Conner was funny and I liked how he gave a description of the god's story.
● I really like how the authors show the process of how they make the books that we read everyday
● He said that we shouldn't try to erase our mistakes and try to learn from them
● George O'Connor taught me that you have to keep trying for your dreams because he got rejected from a job at marvel but eventually got it.
● My biggest takeaway is that nobody is perfect, and it takes a while to get where you want to be.
● My biggest take away from George O'Connor's visit is that it's ok to make mistakes. He talks about even as an adult, and artists, he still regularly makes mistakes, and going over how it is ok to do so was so refreshing to hear in a world where people are so often afraid to be anything but perfect. Really motivating and inspiring!
● My biggest take away was when he told us that he started drawing at such a young age and has always had a passion for the Olympian books he has written.
● His advice about drawing about not being perfect was a HUGE takeaway for me.
● My biggest take away was that nobody is perfect because I draw a lot and I make mistakes and I learned that it is okay to.
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● My biggest way take away from this visit was that our changing moment in life can happen wherever and whenever.
● My biggest takeaway was that your imagination can take you anywhere in life.
● That it takes a long time to do things perfectly and to achieve something you are want so you have to be patience.
● George O' Connor taught me some very valuable life lessons and made the presentation funny.
● It impacted me because it allowed me to learn more about the writing and illustrating process, something which I didn't know much about before.
● It helped me understand better on how the author makes his books and connect to the author better which was good.
● I learned some new stuff about Greek mythology that I didn't know before.
● It helped me understand the whole journey to become an author.
● It was very impactful since I got to see the POV of an author's life and how he draws!
● This visit impacted me because it let me learn that even New York Best Time Selling authors make mistakes and learn from them to help them grow as a person and author.
● The visit impacted me by showing me how much work goes into these books.
● The visit really inspired me! Hearing the author share their journey made me want to write my own stories. Learning about their creative process showed me that it's okay to struggle sometimes. The interactive workshop was fun and helped me think more creatively. Overall, it made me excited about reading and writing!
● I thought it was really cool as his upbringing as an author and it is really motivating.
● Having a yearly visit means getting to learn about the lives of authors, how they got to where they are, and what inspires them. This. in turn, inspires me to stay motivated and chase my dreams no matter what goes wrong.
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Olympians Community Night!
On Tuesday, February 25th, as preparation for George O’Connor’s visit, the HCMS reading department and library team hosted a community literacy night focused on the 12 Greek God/desses that George O’Connor’s books are about. Each room had an activity that reflected the god/dess, such as karaoke for Apollo, an obstacle course for Ares, poetry for Aphrodite, and math problems for Athena. We had over 120 students at the event, as well as family members, and 90 students completed all 12 rooms!
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8th Grade U.S. History with Ms. Ennion and Ms. Occhipinti
Upon learning about the challenges each of the first five U.S. Presidents faced, 8th grade history students created a graveyard in their honor. Each tombstone states the domestic and foreign policy issues and how they were resolved. The best from Ms. Ennion and Ms. Occhipinti were then displayed in the library.
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7th Grade Earth and Space Science with Mr. Mizher
Our 7th Grade Earth and Space science students created a HR Chart in Mr. Mizher's class. The students were asked to research stars, draw their color and find the Luminosity and temperature then plot them on the HR Chart!
Since all periods are doing the same assignment, the later periods have the challenges of finding a new star that is not already on the board!
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HCMS Readers are rocking the Let’s Read, OCPS Challenge!
We were congratulated by OCPS as one of the 6 schools (and the only middle school) with 85% of their students and staff participating in the challenge!
We also are one of the top 4 schools with the most minutes in the county!
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Beanstack Year Goal ALREADY ACHIEVED! | |
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We have met the 1.6 million minutes read goal that Ms. Moye set for HCMS for the year! That is amazing! Ms. Moye is going to up the goal to 2 million minutes to see if we can achieve that goal as well!
Sunshine State Young Reader Award Readers Information
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Have you read 3 or more SSYRA (Sunshine State Young Reader Award) books?
If so, you have until March 13th to log them in Beanstack's SSYRA Validation Challenge.
If you log 3 SSYRA, you are eligible to vote for your favorite SSYRA book (voting will begin after Spring Break).
Eagle Super Reader Finisher Deadline
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To be invited to the Eagle Super Reader Finisher Party at the end of the year, Eagle Super Reader papers must be turned into the library by April 14th.
Any finisher that turns in their paper after that day will still receive their HERO points and prize, but would not be invited to the party nor receive the Eagle Super Reader Finisher shirt.
February Stats
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Can be viewed larger HERE!
February Beanstack Finishers
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For the FOR THE LOVE OF READING February Reading Challenge on Beanstack, we had 267 students read over 300 minutes! Of those students, 77 read over 600 minutes! View our Beanstack Student List to see who these students are! | |
Global Family Welcome Center - Upcoming Events: | |
Help support HCMS students by recycling gently used clothes, shoes, and household items! Our recycle bin can be found in the front of the school. | |
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Have a wonderful week!
Mrs. Moukaddam, Principal
Hunter's Creek Middle School
Sunday, March 9, 2025
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Hunter's Creek Middle School Leadership Team | |
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The School Board of Orange County, Florida, does not discriminate in admission or access to, or treatment or employment in its programs and activities, on the basis of race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, marital status, disability, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other reason prohibited by law. The following individuals at the Ronald Blocker Educational Leadership Center, 445 West Amelia Street, Orlando, Florida 32801, attend to compliance matters: Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Officer & Title IX Coordinator: Keshara Cowans; ADA Coordinator; ADA Coordinator: Jay Cardinali; Section 504 Coordinator: Tajuana Lee-Wenze. (407.317.3200)
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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 - Hunter's Creek Middle School is forbidden without written consent. Thank you for your support of the Orange County Public Schools and especially Hunter's Creek Middle School. Please contact Mrs. Joumana Moukaddam (Principal) at 37895@ocps.net with any questions related to the program.
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Hunter's Creek Middle | Mrs. Moukaddam, Principal | 407.858.4620 | HCMS Website
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