4th Quarter: March-June 2010
Volume 3, Issue 4
Principal, Beth Lind
Assistant Principal, Paula Sereleas
Spartan 300
Dean of Students, Jim Letsos
Edited and produced by Joanna Maas
Show Choir Ends Year With Spring Concert and Mentoring
The Show Choir had another excellent performance on
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010. They
opened the spring concert
“Spring into Music” with the
Beatles‟ song “Here Comes the
Sun.” Their second number was
the ever-famous song by Journey, “Don‟t Stop, Believing,”
which featured soloists Molly
Ciszek, Cathy Maschmeyer,
Alec Chase, and Casey
Sawilchik. In April, the Show
Choir met with the Hilda Walker
extracurricular music students
and answered questions about
Show Choir and the music department in the junior high.
They were guest performers at
the Hilda Walker Spring Concert, as well. The Show Choir is
looking forward to performing
at the Fall Concert, where the
theme will be Disney songs.
Below: (Show Choir Pictured
from left to right): Front Row:
Jillian Nast, Julie Meyers, Susan
Liva, Maddie Witt. Second Row:
Savannah Stiglic, Aly Martin, Michelle Housh, Cathy Maschmeyer.
Third Row: Casey Sawilchik, Savannah Filkins, Brandy Benak,
Katie Sheehan. Top Row: Alec
Chase, Molly Ciszek, Lauren
Vitiritti
Important Dates to
Remember
 August 19: 1st day of
school
 September 6: Labor
Day– no school
 October 8: Teacher
Institute: Half Day
 October 11: Columbus
Day
For additional events and
dates to remember, see our
calendar posted on the
website
Inside this issue:
Show Choir
1
Notes from
2-3
Principal, Nurse,
Reading Specialist
and Librarian
Encore
4-5
Team 7-1
6-7
Team 7-2
8-9
Team 7-3
10-11
Team 8-1
12-13
Team 8-2
14-15
Team 8-3
16
Newsletter Title
Page 2
A Note from the Principal
Dear Parents/Guardians:
The Summit Hill faculty
and staff extend our warmest
congratulations to the graduating Class of 2010. Students are
wished only the best as they
begin their high school journey.
It has been an exciting
year at Summit Hill Junior High,
and we are looking forward to
working with the Class of 2011
and hearing tremendous news
as our eighth grade students
begin their new journey in high
school. We have accomplished
much, and our students have
made excellent progress both
inside and outside of the classroom. As a staff, we are constantly looking to improve our
instructional delivery so that
every student at Summit Hill
Junior High meets the benchmarks set forth at the start of
the school year.
As the year winds down,
we thank all of our parents and
community members for their
contributions, their energy, and
their problem-solving attitude.
Our partnership is only as good
as the amount of time and
energy we invest to support
student success. We appreciate when our families provide
us feedback regarding our
strengths and ways we can
continue to evolve as a school
both in and out of the classroom.
I continue to appreciate
more and more working with
the students and parents of
Summit Hill Junior High and I
know I speak for our staff as
well. We are grateful for the
opportunity to work with our
Spartan students and support
them in their development as
caring, competent, and responsible citizens.
Have a terrific summer
celebrating successes and
making plans for continued
success in the future! Watch
the website for upcoming
dates.
~Mrs. Beth Lind
A Note from our School Librarian, Ms. Noonan
On Monday, May 10, the students pictured above attended
the Battle of the Books by reading and taking Accelerated
Reader quizzes on three of at
least of the twenty
Rebecca Caudill 2010 nominated book titles. The 7th grade
battled the 8th grade by answering questions asked by the
Tinley Park Young Adult librar-
ian, Ms. Jennifer Lowe. The 7th
graders won by a score of 5856.
This reading incentive
program was a great success
as it challenged students to set
goals and achieve them
through reading. Several of
our students read all 20
titles!! Over 1,000 circulations
of these books took place at the
SHJH this year! A big “thank
you”
to the Summit Hill Educational
Foundation for issuing grant
money to purchase these titles
and also to the SHJH SCO for
the incentive prizes that students received; Students were
given a prize for every 5,10,15,
and 20 books that they read
and were able to pass the cor-
responding Accelerated Reader
quiz,
Have a great summer and
check out some of the great
programs at your Frankfort,
Mokena, or Tinley Park libraries. The Rebecca Caudill 2011
nominees will also be available
if students want to get a jump
start for the 2010-11 school
year.
Page 3
Volume 3, Issue 4
Mrs. Condon and Mrs. O’Keefe – Reading Improvement Team
Summer Reading and
Vocabulary Fun!
Welcome to Summer Vacation! As a reminder from the
Reading Specialist, please keep
reading over the summer. It
will keep your brain active and
ready for the fall. Reading can
be relaxing and fun. The public
library in your town may offer
summer reading programs.
Check it out.
For more great fun on rainy
days or those hot day when
going outside is impossible, try
playing word games to keep
your vocabulary skills strong.
By playing word games with
your family, you can combine
family fun time and word development at the same time. There
is a new game called Bananagrams that is similar to Scrabble but simpler, quicker, and
more portable. (Available for
$14.99 at Walgreens)
Other games that increase
vocabulary are: Boggle,
Scrabble, Upwords
Catch Phrase, Taboo, Scattergories, Imagine It, Outburst,
Tribond, Password, and Balderdash.
A Note From Nurse Lucy
SH Staff, Parents and Students,
School is almost out; therefore it‟s a good time to get your life in balance again. Find your balance between the right food and physical activity.
A healthier you isn't just about eating healthy, but it is also about the physical activity that you do. The overall health and fitness of each individual includes their regular physical activity. The activity that you do controls the body weight by balancing the calories you take in as food with the calories
you expend each day. So remember to be physically active for at least 30 minutes most days of the week. Also, increasing the intensity or the amount
of time that you are physically active can have an even greater health benefit and may be needed to control body weight. For some people, sixty minutes
a day may be needed to prevent weight gain! In fact, it is advised that children and teenagers should be physically active for 60 minutes a day or most
every day. Stay healthy and have a great summer.
~ Nurse Lucy
Nutrition— Know the Facts. Always Check Food Labels.
Try these tips:
 Keep saturated fats (sodium,
trans fats, and cholesterol) low.
 Get enough of these: potassium, fiber, Vitamins A & C,
Calcium, and Iron.
 Use the % Daily Value (DV)
column when possible: 5% DV
or less is low, 20% DV or more
is high.
 Check servings and calories/
double servings will double
calories and nutrients, including
the % DV's.
 Make your calories count.
Look at the calories on the
label. When one serving of a
single food item has over 400
calories per serving it is high in
calories.
 Don't sugarcoat it. Since
sugars contribute calories with
few, if any, nutrients, look for
foods and beverages low in
added sugars. Read the ingredient list and make sure that
added sugars are not one of
the first few ingredients. Some
names for added sugars
(caloric sweeteners) include
sucrose, glucose, high fructose
corn syrup, maple syrup, and
fructose.
 Know your fats. Look for
foods low in saturated
fats. Keep total fat intake between 20% to 35% of calories.
 Reduce sodium (salt) Increase Potassium. Research
shows that eating less than
2,300 milligrams of sodium
( 1tsp of salt ) per day may
reduce the risk of high blood
pressure.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
If you eat 100 more food
calories a day than you
burn, you'll gain about 1
pound in a month. That’s
about 10 pounds in a year.
The bottom line is that to
lose weight, it's important
to reduce calories and
increase physical activity.
Page 4
Newsletter Title
Mrs. Yiakos– French
Sadly, the year has come
to a bittersweet end and Mrs.
Yiakos's second period French
students are ready to move on
to high school.
We have had a wonderful
year and the French students
have come a long away with
their grammar and comprehen-
sion. We are ending our last
week with oral presentations
from the students teaching
various lessons from
our twelve units and playing the
role of Mrs. Yiakos.
They have done a wonderful job with visual aids such as
Power Points and posters, and
of course imitating Mrs. Yiakos!
Mrs. Yiakos would like to wish
them good luck in high school and
to future endeavors. It has been
my pleasure being your French
teacher this 2009-2010 school
year! I will miss you dearly.
Encore
Above (pictured from left to right): Front row: Emily Hodges, Alex Hodges, Maggie Conroy, Katherina Reynolds, Shoshana McClarence. Second row: Alyssa Martin, Fredeurika Toussaint,Mary Ciszek, Elizabeth Warkocki, Chloe Lyen, Kelsey
Hanson. Third row: Kevin Morrow, Courtney Suggs, Katrina Mixson, Bryanna Johnson, Randi Reynolds, Kristin Kovieckis.
“Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.”
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Page 5
Volume 1, Issue 1
Ms. Goddard– Concert Band, Show Choir, and Strings
Summit Hill Strings had a
wonderful spring performance
on March 30, 2010. Beginning,
Intermediate, and Advanced
Strings all had featured performances on the concert. The
Beginning Strings impressed
the audience with the traditional song “Michael Row the
Boat Ashore” and Beethoven‟s
famous tune “Ode to Joy.”
Intermediate Strings performed the centuries old “Tallis
Canon” as well as the theme
from Dvorak‟s “Surprise Sym-
phony.” Advanced Strings
rounded out the orchestral
part of the concert with
“Singin‟ in the Rain,” Themes
from Harry Potter, and “Viva la
Vida,” by Coldplay. After the
concert, all three groups continued to meet during zero
hour through the second half of
May where they worked on
music theory, sight reading,
and bowing techniques. Strings
will start again in the fall, and
is open to all 5th through 8th
grade students.
Volume 3, Is
“A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence.”
- Leopold Stokowski
Ms. Coughlin– Band
The SHJH Bands had a
great year that ended with
many accomplishments and
great performances!
The Symphonic band competed in the Illinois Grade
School Music Association State
Organizational Contest on April
25th and received a Superior
Rating! Our two junior high jazz
bands presented an outstanding
performance at their Jazz
Coffeehouse on May 4th.
The Concert and Symphonic bands presented their
year-end Spring Concert on
May 10th. There were several
awards presented, as well.
Receiving the Director‟s Award
for the Concert Band was Michelle Housh and for the Symphonic band was Brandy Benak.
The Director‟s Awards are
recognition given to the 8th
grader displaying exceptional
leadership skills and who is a
helpful team player. The Band
Boosters presented six- $100
scholarships, three per grade.
7th grade recipients were Jon
Jellison, Elena Mooth and Cindy
Rozak. 8th grade recipients
were David Smith, Kyle Stanuch
and Savanna Steck.
Our music department‟s
third Musical Revue was presented on two consecutive
evenings, May 14 and 15 and was
a huge success! The musicals
included in our review this year
were Mamma Mia, Les Miser-
ables, Hair, Mary Poppins, Dr.
Horrible‟s Sing-along Blog and
Oklahoma. The students really
took ownership of this year‟s
show, suggesting pieces to
include and doing their own
choreography (thank you Jamie
Choi and Brandy Huppert!).
We spent just 5 weeks putting
together the entire production,
each group meeting one day a
week until the dress rehearsals. We even brought over the
6th grade members to watch
our second dress rehearsals,
which was fun for everyone.
Also included in the production,
besides the performers on
stage, were the pit band, stage
crew, light and sound crew and
MCs, all 100% done by the students themselves. Congratulations to everyone on a great
show!
“Music washes away from
the soul the dust of
everyday life.”
~ Berthold Auerbach
Page 6
Spartan 300
Mrs. Goebel– Language Arts
3-2-1. Blast off into summer! What an extremely fast
school year we‟ve had. As my
first year at the junior high
comes to an end, I would like to
thank you for such a warm
welcome and for making my
transition such a success! I
now have many more special
highlights to add to my teaching collection! Here‟s what we
were up to fourth quarter:
Students in Mrs. Goebel‟s
class decided to take the opportunity to write for our class
newsletter again this quarter.
Here are their perspectives:
“Our favorite activity in
Mrs. Goebel‟s gifted class was
when we read the most interesting folktales online. This
was fun because it was an
introduction to our next reading unit, Myths, Legends and
Folktales. Creating „character
Team 7-1
cubes‟ as part of our Character
Analysis unit was our favorite
topic because it was fun to
learn, and the activities we did
for this topic were exciting and
different. The most useful
information we gained this
quarter was the information
from our Civil War novels. It
was helpful because it related
to what we were learning in
social studies. Every so often,
we have ten minutes of free
time in class that we earn due
to our good behavior. That is
one special event we love in
Mrs. Goebel‟s class!”
“In Mrs. Goebel‟s Reading
and Language Arts classes, our
favorite activities were participating in G.R.E.A.T. and making
vocabulary posters for novels
and stories. Our most interesting topic learned was by far
reading „The Outsiders.‟ This
novel was one of the best we‟ve
read, especially with the activities that went along with it.
One special event that we
were able to participate in was
The Outsiders Mock Trial.
Every student was chosen to be
a character from the novel and
an actual trial was performed
in class. It was an excellent
way to recreate one of the
most influential parts of the
novel.
The most useful information we‟ve gained this quarter
was learning Extended Response tips. These tips will
help us in the future and are
easy to follow when writing a
response to a question.”
Here‟s to a wonderful summer! Remember to
keep reading and visit next
year when you are upstairs as
8th graders!
Mrs. Bergmann– Language Arts
“Greaser . . . greaser . . .
greaser. . . . O victim of environment, underprivileged, rotten, no-count hood. . . . Juvenile
delinquent, you‟re no good!”
The 7th-grade Language
Arts students are currently
reading S. E. Hinton‟s novel of
gangs and growing-up, The
Outsiders. Though written in
the 1960‟s, this novel fascinates our SHJH students with
its lessons in both literature
and life. Students meet in Literature Circles to discuss the
chapters they have read independently and answer questions, define vocabulary, describe characters, and more.
The students have also used
the laptops to research the
author and discover who S.E.
Hinton really is. After they have
completed their final tasks of
plotting a timeline and making a
map, the 7th-graders will design
a 60‟s brochure to present
some of the culture and customs of the decade such the as
nation‟s leaders, newsworthy
events, and pop phenomena.
Are bell-bottoms really back in
fashion? To conclude, the 7thgraders want you to remember
the words of Johnny Cade,
“Stay gold.”
“It’s okay… We aren’t in the same class. Just don’t forget that some of
us watch the sunset too.” -Ponyboy from the novel, The Outsiders.
Page 7
Volume 3, Issue 4
Mrs. Ostrowski– Science
On May 7th and 8th twelve
students from SHJH competed
in the State Science Fair competition at University of Illinois.
The students were competing
in a paper session which required the students to be
judged strictly on their final
paper and oral presentation
using an overhead projector.
The final papers were mailed to
judges prior to the oral presentation which allowed for more
time to review the paper. The
project portion of science fair
required the students to have
three copies of their final pa-
per and their backboard. This
presentation was similar to the
one presented in class. The
students worked extremely
hard to get to and through the
Regional Session to qualify for
State.
Projects ranged from
behavioral science about the
size of your plate and how
much is consumed, the use of
grey water to clean plants,
stroup effect, and pollution
absorption, to the tension place
on the tendons of the knee
depending on the angle of the
position.
Here are the students and
the awards received:
Jack Quirk- 2 gold‟s (a gold in
both paper and project session)
Brenna Molinare- Gold
Tony Costella- Gold
John Larson- Gold
John Scott-Gold
Justine Ivanov-Gold
Emma Cunningham-Silver
Abby Greenwood-Silver
Allison Daly-Silver
Kyle Stanuch-Bronze
Tyler Houlebeck-Bronze
Jill Allen-Bronze
Great job everyone!
Mrs. Christensen– Math
In the seventh grade math
classes, we have been wrapping up the year by working on
projects. This quarter, some
classes have been solving
systems of linear equations
using different methods such
as graphing, substitution, and
linear combinations. Other
classes have been writing
equations for lines in slopeintercept form, point-slope
form, and standard form.
Other classes have just finished a chapter on graphing
inequalities.
Integers Rock!
Mrs. Christensen, one of
the 7th grade math teachers at
Summit Hill Junior High in
Frankfort, IL wrote a song
called “Integers Rock” to help
her students learn how to add
and subtract integers. She and
130 of her students practiced
singing the song in class, and
then as a team, they performed
it in front of the whole school
at an assembly on Wednesday,
May 19th. Mrs. Christensen
played the drums, Mr. Weber, a
7th grade Resource Teacher,
played the keyboard, Mr. Smalter, a 7th grade Social Studies
teacher, played the cowbell,
and Joe Richter, a 7th grade
math student played the electric guitar!
The performing students
seemed to have a great time,
and the audience really enjoyed
the show. Integers Rock!!!!
Pictured Left: Students participate in a school-wide assembly to help
perform the song, “Integers Rock,” written by Mrs. Christensen,
Page 8
Spartan 300
Mr. Barnas- Language Arts
“Hullo there, good
man!” called
grandfather. “There
is no place for the
dead up here. Hullo!”
-quotation taken from
the novel, Fever 1793.
What a year it has been in
room 169! Mr. Barnas‟ English
classes worked with writing
persuasive papers, and students now have a better understanding how to correctly use
capital letters and commas in
their writing. Students also
came up with their own advertisement and tried to convince
their classmates to purchase
their product. Also, students
were given time to review their
60 plus journal entries and
write one reflective journal
about the whole school year.
In reading, students concluded their novel study for
Fever 1793. Students now have
a better understanding as to
why Mr. Barnas began the unit
with the words friendship, hope,
perseverance, self-reliance,
sadness, and thieves on the
Mrs. Blevins – Math
Team 7-2
By: Brenna
Molinare and
Matt Prusak
Mrs. Blevins‟ Algebra
classes finished the year by
completing chapter six, which
involved solving and graphing
inequalities. Her Pre-Algebra
classes completed chapter
three, learning how to solve
multi-step equations. The Honors classes completed chapter
nine, so they finished the year
by solving and graphing quadratic functions.
Pre-Algebra and Algebra
classes made and flew sled
kites using measuring and
proportions. Honors students
were assigned construction
companies and given a budget
to work within. They built
bridges out of toothpicks to see
which bridge had the best construction and held the most
weight. They used team work,
scale drawings and accounting
skills to complete their bridges.
board. Students did a fantastic
job completing a jig-saw activity while teaching their classmates historical events during
the time of the yellow fever
epidemic! Lastly, students had
a wonderful time attending our
team field trip to Naper Settlement. The field trip tied directly
to our curriculum in social
studies and reading.
Page 9
Volume 3, Issue 4
Mrs. Heiden– Language Arts
In Mrs. Heiden‟s English
classes, students wrote awesome persuasive essays and
came up with topics such as
“going green” and “four day
school week.” Students finished a capitalization unit and
worked hard on a preposition
unit. In reading class, students
finished reading “Rikki-TikkiTavi,” which students loved
since it was an animal story.
They also read the play
“Monsters on Maple Street.”
The Honors class loved
reading The Outsiders, and
doing activities centered
around the book. All students
worked well in literature
groups and finished the year
on a positive note!
Ms. Trotta–
Social Studies
Ms. Trotta‟s class finished
up the year by working on a
Civil War research paper.
Students learned how to paraphrase, write proper paragraphs, and cite sources, while
learning much about many
famous civil war figures. Students are now prepared for 8th
grade where they will learn
about “Reconstruction” after
the Civil War.
Pictured Right: Students pose for
a picture during their Naper Settlement field trip. This field trip
linked social studies with reading.
Mrs. Stemen– Science
Mrs. Stemen‟s science
students had a great last
month of the school year. The
students started out learning
that there are ages of rivers
just like people. There are
young, mature, and old rivers.
We then began swimming in the
ocean. The students learned
that the part of the ocean that
they can stand upon and walk
on is the Continental Shelf, and
the Abyssal Plain is the bottom
of the ocean. We learned that
there are 3 main types of marine life: plankton, nekton, and
benthos. We reviewed what
students have learned from the
movie, Finding Nemo, the Intertidal Zone, the Sublittoral Zone,
the Bathyal Zone, and the Abys-
sal Zone. Our students also
were artists and drew what the
ocean looks like beyond what
we can see above the water.
Page 10
Spartan 300
Ms. Wydra– Reading and Language Arts
Wow! I can‟t believe it‟s already the end of the school
year, which unfortunately
means our time together is
almost up! To conclude our
poetry unit that we worked on
for an entire quarter, students
“wrapped” up their favorite
poem they wrote throughout
the unit and a favorite poem
from a published author to use
in our “Poetry Gift Exchange.”
Students had a lot of fun pass-
ing around their poems to see
which one they ended up with;
students also supplied an additional copy of each poem they
selected to put in our 20092010 Class Poetry Anthology.
Next we read The Outsiders and spent time at the end
of the quarter producing projects that attempted to answer
the “unanswered” questions in
the novel.
In Language Arts, we fin-
Mrs. Kelly– Algebra and Pre-Algebra.
Team 7-3
The end of the year fastly
approaches. It does seem that
the year has gone by at a fast
pace. It has been a pleasure
and a privilege to have taught
all of our students this
year. You all have worked very
hard and have learned so
much. I hope that you have a
fabulous summer holiday. Be
safe and enjoy!
As we wrap-up the end of
the year we are finishing Chapter six: Solving and Graphing
Linear Inequalities in Algebra
and Chapter three: Solving
Linear Equations and Inequalities. We are also constructing
a kite using proportions and
ratios. We will be testing to
see if our kites work at the end
of May.
Mr. Sullivan– Language Arts
Time flies when you‟re
having fun… This year just
seemed to fly by, huh? And
what a year it‟s been.
First off, a BIG congrats to
Taylor Herrmann, who won her
age division in the International
Bicycle Essay Competition.
“Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding” won her
the top prize, and you can read
her story at www.ibike.org. We
also had 39 students get their
poems published in the anthology, A Celebration of Poets.
Speaking of poetry, we
just finished our unit covering
everything from Edgar Allan
Poe to Robert Frost, and hyperbole to alliteration. The students did a beyond admirable
job breaking down the meaning
in a work of poetry, looking at
poetic elements, and writing
epitaphs and haiku. I‟m very
excited to see how they perform next year in this genre.
Please have a safe and
healthy summer, and we‟ll see
you in a few months, Class of
2011!!!
ished up 4th quarter by finetuning our grammar skills. In
order to learn prepositional
phrases, students memorized
the most common prepositions
to the tune of “Yankee Doodle.”
Students then presented their
songs to other teachers in
Team 7-3‟s hallway. Now every
time students hear “Yankee
Doodle,” they will think of their
prepositions… I hope!
Page 11
Volume 3, Issue 4
Mrs. Hartley– Science
Our junior oceanographers worked extremely hard
preparing for their Problem
Based Learning (PBL) presentations. Our topic was endangered species. Students have
been researching and collaborating all of their information
into a Power Point format, a
newspaper article, a poster, or
even a movie. We focused in
class on the possible extinction
of our polar bears and have
learned how Global Warming is
a huge factor in this devastating possibility. I am proud of
their hard work and efforts and
we have all become more
aware on how to help protect
our planet. Go Green is an
essential key element in reducing the threats of Global Warming. Our junior oceanographers
are making a conscious effort
to adhere to this and spread
the word throughout our community.
We culminated our unit
with the honor of having a
guest speaker come talk to all
of our 7th graders regarding
our endangered species.
Jaime McInerney, a conservation biologist and owner of
Reptile Rampage, arrived on
Friday, May 14th and brought in
a variety of animals that have
been brought in from their
natural habitats. His job is to
take them into his possession
and nurture them back to
health. Mr. McInerney then
places them in zoos or hopefully back into their original
ecosystems. We were mesmerized as we were able to see
a 200 year old tortoise, a snapping turtle, rare amphibians
and reptiles, and even an opossum.
We will be continuing
oceanography in the classroom
by focusing on marine life and
its precious balance in our
ocean‟s habitat. A final R.A.F.T.
assignment will be focused on
as we continue to learn more
about these creatures through
an oceanography movie and
note taking.
I am pleased with our
junior scientists this year and
hope they have gained a variety
of information. We began with
Astronomy, then moved onto
Chemistry, Biology and now
Oceanography. Our labs were
many and varied. We designed
our own experiments with
earthworms, created BeeBop
creatures using alleles and
phenotypes from Genetics, cowrote and illustrated Element
Baby Books, went on a Planet
Walk, graphed the sea floor,
and even made Oobleck on
Halloween. I hope they retain
the wonderful and intriguing
concepts in Science and bring
that knowledge on with them as
they enter 8th grade and their
high school years. Have a wonderful summer and keep exploring.
Mrs. Lane– Social Studies
Students have been busy
studying the Civil War and all of
its many interesting facets. Students have learned
about the many causes and
effects of the war. We have
spent time learning about the
important battles of the war,
the casualties, the diseases,
and the men and women who
served both the Union and
Confederate forces. The students have enjoyed viewing
actual photographs of the battle fields, the generals, the
wounded and dead soldiers, and
the destruction of the
south. We read picture books
about Gettysburg and the young
drummer boys, watched United
Streaming videos, and we are
concluding the year with a
research project. Students
have chosen a topic that interests them, and I am taking
them through the steps of putting together the research
paper. Students will conclude
the unit by presenting their
topic to the class along with a
visual display!
This has been a wonderful
year for Team 7-3. The students have been an absolute
pleasure to teach, and they
have kept me busy with insightful and well-thought-out questions! I have spent quite a bit
of time this year surfing the
web and my History books
trying to find the answers to
some of their questions! It is
my hope that you all have a
wonderful summer. I will see
you in the fall!
Page 12
Spartan 300
Ms. Greene– Reading & Language Arts
Our reading classes are
finishing up the year reading
several folktales. We are reading “Chicoria,” “Brer Possum‟s
Dilemma,” “Coyote Steals the
Sun and Moon,” and “Why the
Waves Have Whitecaps.” Our
language arts classes have
been working on improving
spelling and vocabulary. We
are all looking forward to a
relaxing summer and the beginning of a new school year in
August.
“I’m somewhat of a teller of tall tales
myself, but occasionally I enjoy
listening to an expert. Please carry
on.” -Anonymous
Mrs. Furmanek– Math
Mrs. Furmanek‟s math
classes have been moving right
along giving everything their
Team 8-1
all! The students should be
proud and keep up the hard
work! The end is near! In Honors Algebra, they have begun
to match wits with matrices.
Soon they will be using
Cramer‟s Rule.
Algebra 1B has begun to
realize rational equations are
the key to opening the door to
advanced algebraic topics. In
Algebra 1A, the students are up
to their ears in linear equations. They can graph them,
but will they be able to write
them?
“Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theatre.”
-Gail Godwin.
Page 13
Volume 3, Issue 4
Mrs. Hollowell– Science
We are happy to announce
that we have completed our
Earthquake PBL papers and
Presentations! Yeah! We are
pleased to share with you that
not only are we AWARE-(Are
We All Ready for Earthquakes),
we are prepared! Duck, Cover &
Hold On! In our Lava Volcano
Brochure, students individually
selected a volcano, role-played
as a member of a high-
adventure travel agenc and
created an eye-catching, informative three-fold brochure
highlighting what the Volcanic
area has to offer the adventure
traveler.
Pictured Below: In order to keep
her students engaged, Mrs. Hollowell has students participate in a
variety of science experiments.
Page 14
Spartan 300
Mrs. Miller– Language Arts
Mrs. Miller‟s reading
classes have seen how small
events in life can become
monumental and distorted
when people jump to conclusions. They discovered this
while reading Nothing but the
Truth by Avi. As an extension
of the novel, they created
newspaper pages focusing on
various aspects of a reporter‟s
job. They also completed their
cross-curricular unit studying
Team 8-2
the Holocaust through the
reading of „The Diary of Anne
Frank‟ and Sevek: the Boy Who
Refused to Die. We were honored to have Sidney Finkel, a
Holocaust survivor and author
of the biography, Sevek, speak
to our 8th grade students
again this year.
In the honors reading
class, the novel „Night‟ by Elie
Wiesel was read. Students
were able to relate Wiesel‟s
Holocaust experiences with
those of Sidney Finkel. Great
discussions have been the
result of reading Lord of the
Flies by William Golding. In this
novel, a group of stranded
British school boys take varying approaches to survive the
rigors of survival on a tropical
island.
English classes have been
perfecting subject/verb agreement and practicing expository
writing. An interesting photo
and/or writing project has
students reflecting on the
changes they have undergone
since first entering the Summit
Hill school district as a young
child.
This has been an amazing
year, and it is with confidence
that we send this year‟s class
of graduates on to high school.
They truly have unlimited potential!
Ms. Rodgers– Language Arts
Ms. Rodgers‟s reading
class has completed Unit 8,
Drama. Students have just
completed reading The Diary of
Anne Frank. Students ended
the unit by completing a culminating project which consisted
of a PowerPoint Presentation, a
Scrapbook, or a Poster on the
Holocaust. The students
worked very hard and all the
projects were outstanding!
Students continue to work
on their writing and are currently focused on expository
writing. Students are finishing
the year with a That Was Then,
This is Now essay on themselves. Students have also
finished all 15 Units in their
Vocabulary Book and were
excited over this accomplishment. Ms. Rodgers would just
like to thank her students for
making her third year at Summit Hill Junior High fantastic!
She would also like to wish
them all the best of luck in high
school!
“He who asks a question is a fool for a minute; he who does not remains a fool forever.”
-Chinese Proverb
Page 15
Volume 3, Issue 4
Mr. Evenhouse– Social Studies
As we wind down the
year, we are getting into some
more recent history. We have
recently completed our study
of World War Two and the Civil
Rights movement in the United
States. Now, we are exploring
the presidencies of Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson.
We are also examining the
Korean and Vietnam Wars
during the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.
As we finish the quarter and
year, we will work our way up
to present day by studying the
Modern Era and the War on
Terror in the United States.
“If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.” Pearl Buck
Mrs. Szymanski– Science
In eighth grade science,
we have been wrapping up our
new and exciting PBL unit on
Earthquakes. Students were
presented a letter from a citizens group AWARE, Are We All
Ready for Earthquakes. They
were to decide in teams if we in
the state, county and school
are prepared. Along the way,
they discovered many things.
One of the most important
things is that Illinois sits on the
New Madrid and Wabash Valley
fault zones and that these
zones have a history of producing major earthquakes. They
gained a new understanding
about measurement using the
Richter and the lesser known
Mercalli scale. Groups presented their newly acquired
information and their possible
solutions to the problem. They
gained new insight into working
together, researching a topic,
and presenting in front of their
peers and administration. The
presentations were awesome!
Good job students!
For the final lap of the
year, Mrs. Zayed's math students have be working
hard. The 1A students have
wrapped up Volume 1 of the
Algebra book, while the 1B students entered the fun world of
Factoring and Simplifying Ra-
tional Expressions. The Honor
Students have been covering
various concepts in Algebra
2. These students had the
chance to encode and decode
secret messages from their
peers.
All in all, it has been a
Mrs. Zayed– Math
very successful and productive
year! I hope all my students
have the best of luck in high
school and life! Remember the
concepts you learned this year
will come up again next year!
Page 16
Spartan
The following Cougars deserve a big “Shout Out” for being named “Cougar of the Week” during the school
year. Congrats, Cougars, for your outstanding efforts!
Cougars of the Week:
Team 8-3
Aaron Bidochka
Alex Hodges
Alexis Meyer
Alyssa Jimenez
Amanda Kemp
Ashley Hays
Astar Morgan
Becca Curtis
Billy Wheeler
Brandi Hoffman
Brittany Booth
Conor Grove
Dana McGillivray
Elly Waleski
Erin Julius
Ihab Mousa
Izey Cobian
JaMarr Sanders
Jon Mazanec
Justin Lennhardt
Katie Cooke
Krutin Kundaria
Kyle Weber
Lauren Leganski
Luke O'Donnell
Maggie Conroy
Marc Zyla
Matt Delgrosso
Matt Kramer
Matt Kuchta
Mike Rissley
Molly Thacker
Natalie Estrada
Niki Wagner
Osvaldo Salazar
Richie Randall
Sam Pietruszynski
Scott Dusek
Shawn MacDougall
Thomas Gilchrist
The teachers on Team 8-3 would like to thank the Cougar students for an outstanding year! It has been
our pleasure to work with such an amazing group of students. We are very proud of all that you have accomplished, and we are confident that you will continue to be successful. We congratulate you and we celebrate you
for all that you have done and for all that you have to offer. It has been enjoyable working with you this year, and
we wish you all the best as you move forward! Go Cougars! Go Spartans!
“Put your future in good hands - your own.”
~Author Unknown
Congratulations!
Ms. Bottomley
Ms. Canter
Mr. Chrusciel
Mrs. DiNolfo
Mrs. Marinucci
Mrs. Schlesselman