Start & End Time Change for 21-22 School Year
As many of you know, the official start and end time of school was scheduled to change for the current school year as Hamilton was part of a final group of middle schools moving to a later start. We actually did have our classes starting at the later start time for most of this year, but reverted back to our early start time when the in-person Cohort groups began on campus in late April. The reason for reverting to the earlier start time was to ensure that the district had access to enough buses to implement appropriate student spacing in its response to the pandemic. Below is the start and end time information for Hamilton Middle for the 2021-2022 school year:
Starting in September, Hamilton will be back to its originally scheduled student instructional day of 8:38am-3:55pm, Tuesday-Friday, with the early release time of 2:23pm on Mondays.
|
|
|
Covid Mitigation Strategies Remain in Place |
As most of you know, Public Health Madison and Dane County will lift all public health orders on June 2. Despite the sunset on these orders, local public agencies and private businesses can continue to implement covid mitigation strategies. Here at Hamilton Middle and across all MMSD schools and facilities, we will be continuing with our current mitigation strategies at least through to the end of the school year on June 9. The main items for you to keep in mind is that all individuals on our campus are required to be wearing masks at all times and to maintain social distancing of six feet or more whenever possible. In addition, we still do not allow visitors inside our building, with the exception being for brief visits to our main lobby to collect supplies, drop off materials, or to sign out a student. Lastly, below in the Quick Link section is the full description of all health mitigation strategies specific to Hamilton that will continue to remain in place. Thank you for helping to keep Hamilton Middle safe for all!
|
|
|
Reminder: Youth Vaccine Information
|
The following information is being provided as a service to our community and should not be considered an endorsement of any particular vaccine, or a recommendation to get yourself or your child vaccinated.
|
|
|
Reminder: Summer Tech Support
This summer, Tech Support will be provided for student devices (i.e., Chromebooks) during the weeks of June 21-July 30 for students attending Summer School and those who are not. The process looks a little different depending on whether or not your child is in Summer School.
Note that Tech Support will not be available for the time periods of June 14-18, and again from August 1-25
For a full description of when and how to access MMSD Tech Support across the summer, please read the information provided at the below link.
|
|
|
Recently, with the help of eighth grade Social Studies teacher Jessica Zappia, a student Principal Advisory Board was formed at Hamilton Middle. The next two items have been written by students who participate on PAB as we work toward the creation of a standalone student newspaper. These items will also be sent in a separate newsletter format directly to all Hamilton students. |
|
What is the Principal Advisory Board? |
By: Brenely G. and Leila Z.
The Principal Advisory Board (PAB) is a group composed of students who were elected by eighth-grade teachers. This board allows student voices to be heard and gives everyone a chance to share their opinions and ideas. The board focuses on areas and projects that are important to students this year. The PAB works on creating educational and informational lessons for advisory so our students can communicate and discuss certain topics with each other. We also help plan school events such as spirit week, and the upcoming Send-off Celebration for the end of the school year. If you would like to discuss an important issue/topic all you have to do is talk to your class representative and we’ll make sure to bring it up at the next meeting. And vise versa. Student representatives will also communicate important information back to their homerooms from the board so that everyone stays informed and up to date on the current issues and discussions. Is there anything you would like to talk about this year? Do you have any suggestions for cool projects or school activities for these last weeks? Feel free to reach out to any board members via email, text, in class, or even on social media. If you do not know who your representative is, just ask your homeroom teacher.
|
|
|
How Can You Help Manage Your Stress Around In-Person Transitions? |
By: Brenely G. and Dara F.
Students - we know first hand that this transition back to in-person school has been stressful. We understand that all virtual kids are missing their friends. But there are ways you can help yourself manage this stress, not only now but when school starts again in September. During these transitions, our routines have changed drastically, first with starting earlier and our after-school routine. One way to help manage your stress/anxiety about school is to get a routine going. You can start small with your new habits and slowly add to your routine, such as setting aside time to work on school then adding in time to do other activities. With routines, you will have to be consistent, which can be more difficult for some. Other ideas on handling stress are: talking to an adult who can help you with whatever is stressing you out the most during these transition periods, and make sure to set aside time to talk to your friends via text, FaceTime, or safely in-person!
|
|
|
|
|
Upcoming Dates of Interest |
Mark your calendars for these upcoming dates:
May
-
28--No School--Prof. Dev. Day
-
31--Memorial Day Holiday
June
-
10--Last Day of School
-
21--Summer School Begins
|
|
|
|
|
Hamilton Quick Links:
Report an Absence: 204-4702
|
|
|
Photo Finish
In case you missed it on Facebook, below is a recap of our duck adventure from this week on the Hamilton campus!
|
|
 |
It began Tuesday morning when we noticed that the eggs belonging to our resident duck that had set up shop in our garden had hatched, obviously some days ago. We wondered about calling a duck rescue group to help them out of the garden as there seemed to be no way out. |
|
|
|
Later that same day, much sooner than any of us expected, the ducks were already taking care of business on their own. Perhaps sensing the need for a family move to a body of water, mother duck made the jump from about 12 feet to the below sidewalk followed in rapid succession by 12 of her 13 ducklings. |
|
|
|
|
The jump was followed by quite a bit of quacking encouragement for the 13th duckling to make the jump. |
|
|
|
The quacking got our attention and a search for the remaining duck ensued. |
|
|
|
Meanwhile, mother duck and 12 of her ducklings headed to our main entrance to await a resolution. |
|
Nurse Jill located the 13th duckling, which was clearly the smallest of the bunch, and released it to its waiting family. All’s well that ends well! Good luck in your new home, wherever that might be! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
