In October, Middle North celebrated Red Ribbon Week! Red Ribbon Week is the largest drug-abuse prevention campaign in the United States. To show our support for being drug-free, the students and staff participated in different themed days throughout the week. Although we had to do it virtually instead of being able to see it in person, dressing up for the theme days was still a lot of fun for both students and teachers. The spirit week started on Friday, the 23rd, which was Hoodie Day and ended on the next Friday, which was Halloween Costume day. Below are a few pictures of the winners and participants of the different spirit days.
10 / 23 / 2020 - Hoodie Day: we wore our favorite hoodies to class for the day!
10 / 26 / 2020 - Bring Your Pet to Zoom Day: we brought our furry friends to class with us!
10 / 27 / 2020 - Tie Dye Day: we wore tie dye to show our support for being drug-free!
10 / 28 / 2020 - Pajama Day: We climbed straight out of bed and into school while dressed in our pajamas for the day!
10 / 29 / 2020 - Favorite Color Day: we dressed in our favorite color from head-to-toe!
10 / 30 / 2020 - Halloween: we put on our Halloween costumes and came to online school !
Interview with Ms. Codell Vlad E. Staff Reporter
Several teachers have been teaching at Middle Northl for many years, but that is not the case for all of them. Some teachers are just starting out teaching in this district. I wanted to see how it felt to have their first year be virtual. One of these teachers is Ms. Codell, so I decided to interview her. You will find my questions and her answers below.
1. How does it feel to have your first year teaching in this district be virtual? A: Strange
2. How would you change your teaching style if we were back in school? A. I would definitely include more group work, during virtual school it is hard to incorporate group work since the only real way is breakout rooms. But that does not always work that well because it takes a lot of time to set up and I don’t know what the students are doing.
3. Do you think students would learn better in back at school? A. I don’t think students would learn better, I just think some students would have an easier time. All the students are still learning well.
4. If you could change one thing about virtual learning, what would it be?A. A. I would incorporate an option that if a student had trouble getting somewhere, for example an assignment on canvas I could take control of their screens and get them to it.
5. Have you learned anything from your experience teaching this year? A. Yes, I have learned A LOT I have learned a lot about technology, and I love it. 6. How does a virtual class work? A. It is basically the same as a normal class would work. We begin by reviewing the agenda, then you get assignments, and then at the last 30 minutes of class you get asynchronous work.
7. How does this school compare to other schools? A. This is a really good school, one of the best I have been in because the students really care. I have been to schools where the students don’t care about their learning so that would be the difference here.
8. Why did you decide to work for our district? A. Because I really wanted to work with middle schoolers.
9. Is there anything you wish you knew when you first started teaching? (not at this district but in general) A. How much fun middle schoolers are.
10. What is the best advice you have been given about teaching? A. To be collaborative with your coworkers and be understanding with your students.
Interview with Ms. Stern Manha D. Staff Reporter
Cross Country Vladimir E. Staff Reporter
As you all know many school clubs and sports have gone virtual this year. One of those sports is cross country. I wanted to find out how that worked. I mean, how do you run virtually? To find out the answer to that question I interviewed one of the coaches, Mr. Cantagallo. Mr. Cantagallo said the easy part was that all you really need for running is a pair of shoes and somewhere to run. So the first thing the coaches did was make sure that everyone had a place to run and that the parents were okay with it. Then it was time to start the lessons. First, they did a 10 minute warmup where they would stretch. Then they would run. The students would have to carry a camera with them while they run. The coaches would see how they ran and their weaknesses and strengths. Based on that they would give them specific exercises. As with a normal class they have synchronous and asynchronous parts of the class. After they were done with their asynchronous running they would come back to the class and finish up with a 30 minute workout with stretching and core work. A really cool thing that cross country would do is set up courses and have the students record their times on those courses at a later time. Mr. Cantagallo, Mr. Matuch and Mrs. Altshuler really did a nice job setting up this sport virtually.
Science Olympiad Ghostwriter Staff Reporter
The Science Olympiad is a team competition in which students compete in many different events, such as earth science, biology, chemistry, physics, engineering and more. Hawthorn Middle North's Science Olympiad Team was 27th out of 96 teams at the BEARSO Invitational which was the LARGEST SO tournament ever and the FIRST virtual national one in the history of Science Olympiad! Two medals were received: 5th place Anatomy and 10th place: Experimental Design. Top 20 Finishes: Density Lab, Game On, RFTS. Way to go HMN!!!! In November, the team placed 9th out of 43 nationally-ranked teams at the Boyceville Invitational. Several Hawthorn students received medals in both competitions.
The team also received 15th place out of 91 teams at the virtual Lake Braddock Invitational in Virginia. Each student competed at their own home virtually. We are especially proud of the Science Olympiad quiz bowl team (Arushi/Anya) who received 4th place overall in their first ever competition and Aishi and Kristina who each received 2 medal placements. Other recognition goes to: Crime Busters: Kristina / Arushi 13th place, Density Lab: Aishi/Stephen 5th place , Disease Detectives: Om / Rodrigo 13th place, Helicopters: Cal/ Adin 10th place , Heredity: Om / Rodrigo 7th place , Meteorology: Aishi / Kristina 9th place , Ornithology: Cal / Anya 16th place, RFTS: Aishi / Kristina 6th place , Experimental Design:Zoe/Madelyn/Raghav 14th place, and Meteorology: Ashva / Aadit 17th place. What a great job everyone did.
P.E. Olympics Ghostwriter Staff Reporter
Who will win the PE Olympics? Middle North or Middle South? The olympics consisted of an opening ceremony, 5 events and a closing ceremony. Each class represented their building as they completed a series of knowledge based and physical challenges. Some of the challenges include a paper challenge, a balance challenge, a scavenger hunt and toilet paper flip challenge. South got off to a good start winning the first two events, and North came back to tie it at 2 a piece heading into the final event - the all school Kahoot. It actually came down to the final period on the B day with both schools posting the highest total percentage of the event - North 62% edged out South’s 59% to take home the Olympic flag. Congratulations to Middle North. They will get a traveling trophy and bragging rights!
