From the halls of Houlton Junior & Senior High School

The halls of Houlton Junior/Senior High School are once again filled with students and staff who are eager to be headed into another exciting school year.
    Our efforts to continuously improve our educational process have resulted in HHS joining the district’s other schools in implementing PLGs (Professional Learning Groups). Every Tuesday throughout the school year, classes are being released at 1:54 p.m. so all staff can take part in professional development from 2 to 3 p.m. PLGs are a condensed version of a teacher’s workshop with topics of discussion designed to assist educators in continuing to provide elite and differentiated levels instruction to our students.
HHS also has a variety of exciting programs and projects taking place throughout our classrooms every day.
Mrs. Wright’s science class is in the process of developing “Quest through the Bird Farm.” The quest is a community treasure hunt that guides people through a unique educational adventure. Mrs. Wright attended a Summer Institute in July at The Herring Gut Learning Center in Port Clyde, Me., led by Steve Glazer, to learn how to create a quest. When this outstanding project is completed, the students hope to make it available to the community and visitors of our town.
Mrs. Kreyssig’s junior high reading classes have started to prepare for the upcoming New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP). In doing so they are: practicing close, careful reading; looking for and marking evidence in the text; and developing written responses which show a clear understanding of the text and include sufficient evidence to support the writer’s conclusions. In addition, Mrs. Kreyssig’s CP 9 English class is in the midst of their research unit. Students are expected to demonstrate the ability to: locate, analyze, and evaluate findings; effectively communicate those findings in a research paper; understand and apply terminology that is relevant to the research process; and complete all steps of the research process in accordance with the Houlton High School Research Guide and MLA documentation format.
Mrs. Peabody’s Social Studies classes have been involved with the interdisciplinary unit SAD 29 Community Project. Throughout the next few weeks, students will be creating a booklet about their community that will include history, geography, industries, famous sons and daughters, interviews and landmarks. As a culminating event, students will go out into the community to complete various projects and visit local places of interest. Parents and community members are encouraged to become involved as we look forward to exploring our SAD 29 community.
Mrs. Korhonen’s math students are working on budgeting, specifically on “How and Where Does the Money Go in the Real World.” This exciting unit blends classroom direction with essential information on real world money matters.
Mrs. Tidd’s room is filling up with uniquely designed footwear created her many art students. Flip-flops are flopping around the room in step to the creativity found within; students are designing and creating flip-flops and footwear in a self-representing format. We would also like to welcome student teacher Carolyn Anderson to the art department at HHS. Ms. Anderson joins Mrs. Tidd in bringing enthusiasm and new ideas to the program. She will be with us until Oct. 19. Also, Mrs. Tidd’s photography classes are delving deep into the snapshot verses photography curriculum and learning how to be photographers.
Mrs. Sewell’s English students are diligently preparing for NECAP tests to be administered Oct. 9-12. Their focus has been writing excellent paragraphs with fantastic topic sentences, three or more supporting sentences, and concluding sentences that ends with a “BANG!” This follows Common Core State Standards #3: “Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.”  Students are required to review the given SAT vocabulary words every night.  Please add our classroom Facebook page, which may be found at: Grade 8 English — Houlton Junior High School.  Updates are posted daily.
Warm Welcomes
We would like to welcome the following new staffs members to our halls. Reggie Cory is our new half-time math teacher, Joyce Folsom has signed on as our newest  custodian/bus driver, Andrea Newman has joined the Main Office staff, and Tim Thoreson and Stephanie Weeks have stepped in as our newest educational technicians.
We have also said farewell to Mrs. Edgar and Mrs. Wotton who are now enjoying a much-deserved retirement after many years of dedicated service to the SAD 29 community.