21st Century Digital Learners
OCPS School of Innovation
Florida 'A' Rated School
5 Star School

13400 Town Loop Blvd.
Orlando, FL 32837
(407) 858-4620
Hunter's Creek Middle School
Monday, May 11, 2020
     

I am grateful to our Hunter's Creek Middle School teachers and staff and extremely proud of all of their efforts. In addition, I am blessed to have such an amazing PTSA, SAC and Hunter's Creek Community that support us in every endeavor that we take at HCMS.

This year's Teacher Appreciation Week was certainly different! Defying barriers and challenges through this pandemic to maintain the instructional momentum and care for each Eagle's academic achievement and well-being created unprecedented struggle. Watch out now! Our HCMS teachers do not stop at anything! Teaching has become a labor of love to them more than any other time with an oath and a solid plan to go above and beyond any imaginable measures to become the superheroes they are. They have an iron commitment not to leave any student behind.

Mrs. Durgin, HCMS ELA Department Chairperson and 7th grade ELA teacher, sent an email to the ELA teachers which resonated with me. I would like to share some of the information she wrote with you.

She wrote, "Yesterday, I came upon an article by an author who did not hold back on the opinion that schools are not helping students grow, and inevitably, we are looking at a huge loss in learning. In addition, one of the comments implied that teachers are loving this whole experience because teachers don't care about their students and aren't complaining or protesting in the streets about distance learning (logical fallacy, btw.)

I thought about how inaccurate both of these writers were. Teachers aren't protesting because we love and care about our students. Instead of complaining, protesting, or refusing, we adapt. We always adapt, and this year (Skyward, distance learning) is a testament to how awesomely we adapt, and next year, we'll adapt to the additional needs from this unique situation. THAT is why we need to celebrate being teachers this week, and I hope you all know how much you mean to our parents, students, fellow teachers, and administration. Not every student and parent will tell you or take the time to email or post it, but they know...and so do I."

Again, thank you to all of our students and parents for sending messages of kindness and appreciation to our teachers this week.

Eagle family! Please remember to vote for our own Raida Nowreen who is a FINALIST in the running for the OCPS Middle School Visual Arts Top Talent. Text FFVISUAL to 41444 and vote now. Voting closes at 7:50 PM on May 15. VOTE EARLY and VOTE OFTEN!

Please help me congratulate another amazing HCMS artist! Our own Amy Gomez placed SECOND in the NATIONAL Middle Schools of America Poster Contest! What an accomplishment!

Parents! If you have not already done so, please check your student's progress report as soon as possible. If you need assistance  accessing the progress report, please click the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nyzpy900zxs&feature=youtu.be 

I would like to conclude my message with our warmest wishes for all the moms hoping that they enjoyed a very Happy Mother's Day!

Your Proud Principal,

Joumana Moukaddam

Hunter's Creek Middle School

Pictured very top: HCMS parent and student showing appreciation for HCMS teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week!

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Important Reminders and Announcements

This is Police Week across the USA!
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed a proclamation which designated May 15 as Peace Officers Memorial Day and the week in which that date falls as Police Week. This week honors those that serve and especially those that have paid the ultimate sacrifice.

Should you happen to pass a member of law enforcement this week, kindly take a moment to thank them for their efforts as through this COVID-19 outbreak they have stepped up doing their part to keep us all safe.

Orange County Sheriff's Office Deputy Martin did a wonderful job this year as our SRO. He was very popular with all the students and staff. He is pictured above with two of our Eagles as they learn how to properly fold the American flag.

OCPS Virtual Parent Academy Thursday Evening
  • Thursday, May 14, 2020 from 6:00PM - 7:00PM


If your child is interested, there are Chess Tournaments during the month of May through Chess Kids on LaunchPad:


Please follow HCMS's social media for up to date information as things are changing often:

https://www.instagram.com/hunterscreek_ms

Pick Up/Drop Off of Items at HCMS
As of the writing of this digital newsletter, there are no updates about the picking up and dropping off of items at HCMS (this includes yearbook, instruments, library books, PE lockers, etc.). We are waiting on the county to share a plan to implement then we will tweak to fit our school. As soon as there is a plan in place, we will share on our multiple communication avenues.

We know there is a lot of uncertainty right now, but we will get any and all information out when we have it to share.

Frequently Asked Questions
If students have questions during this time that do not pertain to one specific class, they can fill out the #VirtualHCMS Questions form: https://forms.gle/kXNjG7to7r2GRCLQ8

Then all of the questions and answers are being compiled in a FAQ document: https://tinyurl.com/r9hnmn5 

* To access, students must be logged in under their @students.ocps.net Google account

Teacher Appreciation Week Drive-Through  

The HCMS admin. team, Ms. Menzies, Mrs. Shilling, Ms. Margot and PTSA celebrated our HCMS teachers as they joined us to pick up a grab-and-go lunch and a teacher appreciation goody bag this week. More than anything we were all extremely happy to see each other in person. Some of our wonderful parents and students joined us and showed their appreciation while practicing social distancing. Principal Moukaddam and Mrs. Shilling made sure to keep modeling social distancing to everyone around!  



Students of the Week! 


As we move further into distance learning, we want to highlight as many students each week for their successes as we can, so we'll be changing up our students of the week to include all nominees from teachers:
  • Brandon Lai: Brandon is always polite and helpful. He does more than he has to. Thanks Brandon! -Ms. Perez
  • Krizia Lopez-Rosario: Krizia is nominated for student of the month for demonstrating exemplary work! She has done amazing with completing all work necessary through our distance learning assignments! I never had to doubt if she is doing the work! Keep up the great work, Krizia! -Ms. Lebron
  • Santiago Quevedo: Santiago is nominated for student of the week for working very hard to complete all of his assignments. He asks for help if he has a question and has turned in all of his work. Santiago is learning English and completing all of his assignments correctly. He works very hard and deserves this honor. -Ms. Spilker
  • Holly Richards: Holly Richards was always a great student in my classroom, and now she has proven to be an amazing distance learner as well! She is one of my first students to complete her math checklist each week. Holly always goes above and beyond by completing all Kahoot games and extra Khan lessons for practice, and she has earned As on her tests and quizzes. Holly, keep up the wonderful work! -Ms. Heinl
  • Teddy Batissa: I am nominating Teddy for the most improved student in Science ever since distance learning started. He is submitting all his assignments on time with a highly improved accuracy. -Ms. Chiomadzi        
  • Osias Chungata: He has been rocking this distance learning thing, asking questions as needed, and doing a really stellar job on every submission. Great job, Osias! -Ms. Davis
  • Maelynn Antel: Maelyn has an amazing work ethic. She always puts forth 100% effort and strives to master concepts not simply memorize facts. In addition, she meets each challenge she faces with a smile on her face :) -Ms. Daniels
  • Stuthi Baskar: Stuthi is never afraid to ask questions or ask for help. Additionally, she is attentive in all aspects that I work with her. On top of all of that, she is a bookworm which I adore! -Ms. Moye
Boys & Girls Club Through the End of the Year

We are offering services for our B&G members virtually, and the students can attend as many sessions as they'd like! Students need to be enrolled in B&G,and the only other thing needed is for the parents to complete the consent form (below).

Power Hour is hosted by various teachers (Science, History, Language Arts, etc.) and the goal is to help the students with their schoolwork. The Wednesday Power Hour is actually in Spanish and hosted by Mrs. Frontanez (one of our Science teachers). Young Entrepreneurs is basically like the TV show Shark Tank (kids come up with an invention). Myfuture.net focuses on things like teaching kids coding skills. Yoga/meditation will help the kids to deal with today's stresses.

If your child would like to participate in any or all of the sessions just email the teachers (for the link to join) and complete the parent consent form. Let's have a great time online!

Parental Consent Link: https://forms.gle/DTj4nB4KP4zfYcfk7


(must be logged in under @students.ocps.net to access)

OCPS Top Talent


Don't forget to vote! Our very own Raida Nowreen is A FINALIST in the running for the OCPS Middle School Visual Arts Top Talent, and we are happy to share that the Foundation for OCPS announced that Top Talent 2020 is still on, and it's going VIRTUAL! The stay-at-home order is crucial for safety... and the talent of OCPS students is simply too amazing to contain. The show MUST go on!

Top Talent Fan Favorite voting has begun! Vote for your favorite artists NOW! $1 per vote! Proceeds from our Top Talent event help support the Foundation and provide arts enrichment for students experiencing poverty and homelessness.

Text FFVISUAL to 41444!!

Special Recognition: Amy Gomez

Congratulations to Amy Gomez for placing SECOND in the NATIONAL Middle Schools of America Poster Contest! We are so proud of your accomplishment!


Mrs. Moye's Memo: Week Six
 
 
Mrs. Moye's Memos come out weekly and include important and interesting information for the whole school!

Week six's memos include: Teacher Appreciation Week, Star Wars Day, Webcomics, SSYRA & FTR State Winner, Nathan Hale Availability through Virtual Library Card, Ms. Armstrong's Game, and Reading Reminders (and includes archives to past memos)

The sixth week can be accessed at: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xloj0ijFeNq_JLQ8VaHxh973b_ZJeruqT3H53EMbtC0/edit?usp=sharing

Note: Google Drive must be logged in with students' @students.ocps.net addresses to access.

Virtual Author Talks

Our first May Virtual Author Talk was Tuesday, May 5th with Sherri Winston! We are so thankful for her donating her time to visit our students!

More information about Sherri can be found at: https://www.amazon.com/Sherri-Winston/e/B001HPLR68?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1588779664&sr=8-1



Next Year's Author: Nathan Hale!

We are so excited about next year's author visit for many reasons:
  • He writes graphic novels!
  • He is funny!
  • He is award winning!
  • He writes fiction and nonfiction, so hopefully we can intertwine reading his books in many classes!
  • He'll do after school again, so 8th graders will be able to see him if they want!
His nonfiction books focus on historical events such as World Wars, the Alamo, and Harriet Tubman narrated by a hangman, a spy, and a British officer.

His fiction books are sci-fi and fantasy including a fairy tale retelling, alien invasion, and a multi-dimensional story with tacos.

Next year's author (scheduled for 4/7/21) is NATHAN HALE!

On Nathan Hale's YouTube channel, during the quarantine, he is doing COOPED UP COMICS CAMP! You can also find Book Trailers for many of his books on his YouTube channel.

Awesome news: His books are available on the Orange County Virtual Library Card!!!


Eighth Graders: Opportunities at Freedom High School 

Want to join the Freedom wrestling team or interested in receiving more information?

Please sign up below.
http://tinyurl.com/fhswrestlesignup

Freedom Wrestling Interest Video:
http://tinyurl.com/fhswrestle2020

FHS Musical Theatre Class Auditions!!
Musical Theatre Class auditions are coming up, so get ready!
 
 
Please record yourself singing one minute of a song. We prefer the song be from a musical, but this is not required. We also prefer you sing with an accompaniment, or karaoke track, but this is also not required. You can find these through a Google search or on YouTube. Just type in your song name, plus the word "karaoke."

** When filming, please place camera slightly below eye-level and attempt to film yourself from the knees up.

Deadline for auditions is Friday, May 22.

Then fill out THIS form!
https://forms.gle/QEKB1YnG56FLKaLv8

Please complete answers to the best of your ability. You will need to upload you audition video to Google Drive, and then submit the link to your audition video at the bottom of the form.

Please email matthew.nashbrown@ocps.net with any questions or concerns.

School Lunch Hero Day
May 1st was School Lunch Hero Day, and we want to take this time to celebrate!   


We love our food and nutrition team, not only at HCMS but at OCPS! During this time, they've continued to make meals for over 28,000 students eating through the Grab-and-Go program to ensure that students have the basic needs for success. Thank you to our OCPS Food and Nutrition Services!

Examples of Eagles Distance Learning (Part I)

Cinco De Mayo Projects
For Ms. Calderon's Spanish classes, students were asked to complete projects about Cinco De Mayo after watching a presentation about the true history of the day.
 
Sofia Diaz, 6th grade
Alejandro Valencia, 7th grade
Frank Frasca, 6th grade

Luisana Espinosa, 6th grade
Parody Songs
Students in Ms. Davis' chorus class were tasked with creating parody songs that had to deal with teaching people about chorus or music.

Parodies by:
  • Cinthya Contreras, 7th grade
  • Summer Roberto, 8th grade
  • Rafael Sardina, 8th grade
  • Allyra Castillo, 6th grade
  • Lana Sbahi, 6th grade




Examples of Eagles Distance Learning (Part II) 
Two opportunities await you at Freedom High School. Go Patriots!!

Quizizz Review Game with Ms. Rokaw's 7th Grade ELA Classes


Virtual Visitor with Ms. Renuart's 8th Grade Science Classes
A marine biologist virtually visited Ms. Renuart's classes and showed the students how to age a fish.


Spirit Days
Time to celebrate all of the fun days and amazing participation from the fifth spirit week: "Favorites Week!"

* All images shared on our social media; below are a few examples.

Monday: Favorite Movie
Ms. Rokaw, Mr. Baptiste, Ms. Renuart, Mr. Solomons, Mateo Ortiz (8th grade)


Tuesday: Favorite Animal
Antonio Quiles (Ms. Quiles's son), Lizzie Sanderson (8th grade), Katie Schischa (6th grade), Ms. Hernandez, Ms. Frontanez, Ms. Daniels, Ms. Pratt



Wednesday: Favorite Book
Eva Schischa (6th grade), Ms. Britos, Thomas Lebron with Ms. Lebron, Ms. Moye, Abner Valencia (6th grade), Joshua Miller (7th grade), Ms. Chiomadzi, Cooper Boris (7th grade), Ms. DeLuca, Ms. Chacon, Ms. Hobbs, Ms. Durgin



Thursday: Favorite Band/Musician
Beatriz Correa (7th grade), Mikayla Jacobs (8th grade), Ms. Ennion, Ms. Lebron


Friday: Favorite Sports Team
Coach Coogle, Ms. Shah, Ms. Quiles, Ms. Davis, Jennie Nguyen (7th grade), Ms. Cole, Ms. Armstrong



Virtual Travel
It's an OCPS Virtual World Tour! 
 
Each weekend in May, we invite families to "see" the world using Nearpod virtual field trips. You can even message us a picture of your "travels" and we'll randomly select one lucky family for a prize each week. This week, explore the continents of the world! To start, just go to https://join.nearpod.com and enter the code for your tour choice.

Join using a Chrome browser on a laptop, desktop, tablet, phone, Xbox or even cast to your TV. A VR headset is not required, but if you have one that can navigate to a website, or is app based like android, then just download the Nearpod app and you can use the same codes.

Bon Voyage!



Closing Image for this Week . . .  
Recommended Daily Schedule  
 
Distance learning can be a struggle for some, so here is a recommended daily schedule to help keep you/your student on track. And remember that you/students must sign in to EVERY CLASS, EVERY DAY (Monday - Friday) in Canvas. Also, be sure to check your EMAIL/INBOX and read new ANNOUNCEMENTS when posted.


Want a Word Document or Google Doc of the schedule, so you can edit to fit your classes? It can be viewed and downloaded or copied here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jh7zCSvk0DknvXuckeMl0iByGyg9MmhI/view?usp=sharing

* To access, students must be logged in under their @students.ocps.net Google account.

Florida flag

Make it a great week Eagles!
Ms. Moukaddam, Principal
Hunter's Creek Middle School
Monday, May 11, 2020

Leadership Team

* Principal: Joumana Moukaddam joumana.moukaddam@ocps.net
* Assistant Principal: Liesl Hernandez liesl.hernandez@ocps.net
* Assistant Principal: Jessica Swain jessica.swain@ocps.net
* 8th Grade Administrative Dean: Shedrick Copeland shedrick.copeland@ocps.net  
* 8th Grade Counselor: Kelly Armstrong kelly.armstrong@ocps.net
* 7th Grade Administrative Dean: Joquetta Carter joquetta.carter@ocps.net
* 7th Grade Counselor: Sejal Shah sejal.shah@ocps.net
* 6th Grade Administrative Dean: Dominic Golia dominic.golia@ocps.net
* 6th Grade Counselor: Joel Anderson joel.anderson@ocps.net
* Librarian: Kellee Moye kellee.moye@ocps.net

 

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 - 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 Ms. Joumana Moukaddam (principal) at  37895@ocps.net with any questions.  
  Hunter's Creek MS | Joumana Moukaddam, Principal | 407.858.4620 | HCMS Website
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