Middle School (5-8)

Working with peers, using technology and project-based learning are among the qualities students note as essential to engagement. The Sequoia Project, a yearlong project involving fifth through eighth graders, integrates the subjects of science, technology, math, social studies, and language arts, and uses the 21^st century skills of collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving. Students not only collaborate with each other, but with their teachers, administration, and most of all, with experts in the field. Each year, students use a fictitious island, Sequoia, which they developed, to problem solve real-world issues, such as the discovery of oil and how it will affect their country, designing and building homes in their country during a water shortage, and researching the country’s past through the discovery artifacts in an archeological dig.

Middle School students learn best when they are actively engaged with the content. Lessons that include technology applications, provide teachers with ways to motivate students into becoming active, real-world learners. Computer-based strategies help students develop higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills. Participation in real-life applications included in technology-rich teaching environments promotes the ability to draw analogies, infer relationships, predict outcomes, and analyze data. In the Middle School, each student has their own laptop which they use daily. All Middle School students also bring a tablet or have access to a school tablet for use during the school day.Each grade level has focused technology skill lessons each week in technology class. All classrooms are equipped with interactive Promethean Boards for both teacher and student use.

Students acquire the knowledge and skills for movement that provide the foundation for enjoyment, continued social development and access to a physically active, healthy lifestyle.

• Students learn group games in which they develop behaviors which exemplify individual character and the sportsmanship to resolve conflicts with peers, including responsibility, best effort, cooperation, and compassion.
• Students actively participate in physical activities that address each component of health-related fitness including: strength, endurance and flexibility.
• Students follow activity-specific safe practices, rules and procedures.

Middle School students have participated in various service projects for the benefit of fellow humans, animals and the environment.Projects last year were incorporated in Sequoia.This coming year, they will partner with Cathedral Urban Service Experience (C.U.S.E.) for weekends to serve in our urban community.

Our Middle School students make deep connections to our global society through their exposure to the Spanish language. Spanish is incorporated in cross-curricular activities and practical life situations. Students also use the online Scholastic ¿Qué Tal? magazine and online supplementary program. Middle School students are provided with the tools to become successful foreign language learners. After completing seventh and eighth grade Spanish with a grade of B or better, students may gain high school credit for Spanish I and II.

The Hightower Middle School Art Class is designed to address specific developmental stages and desires of creative and cognitive growth of art students in grades fifth through eighth over the duration of a school year. Throughout the year the students will enhance their skills in drawing, painting and 3D Art. The objectives of this course include: exercising and demonstrating the use and mastery of the elements of design, use of materials, tools and process from a variety of media (including printmaking, painting, sculpture, ceramics and photography), learning to handle materials effectively, creating original objects of art in a specific medium, selecting appropriate media relative to concepts and forms of art.

Explore the three fit principles, flexibility, strength and endurance with Coach Cooks. Topics will include the importance of hydration, nutrition and sleep. Interval training will be the method of training. Interval training is simply alternating short burst (about 30 seconds) of intense activity with longer intervals (about 1-2 minutes) of less intense activity. The class will include:

• understanding the fitness principles
• performing individual fitness assessments
• discussing fitness topics
• establishing goals and creating goal sheets

This is a project-oriented, horticulture and nature studies exploration guided by two master gardeners with decades of horticulture experience. Among other things, units will include vegetable gardening, landscape plant propagation, native habitat gardening (e.g. butterfly host garden, Monarch waystation, prairie restoration), pond habitat exploration, birdwatching skills and practice, composting theory and experimentation, textile manufacture from plants (we grow cotton on campus) and sheep through ginning, carding, spinning and weaving processes.  The class will keep journals that track growth, record observations, and provide the foundation for an ongoing campus calendar record of natural cycles and interesting events and creatures discovered on campus.  The class will engage as much as possible with new HMS building project’s landscaping plans from screening vines to participating in the design of the retention pond and bioswale.

Broadcast Journalism is a student-led news production class. We will be producing a weekly news show for HMS. We will have many different jobs such as script writer/anchor, weather, floor manager, director, teleprompter, video editor, journalist, writing editor, and more. The news programs will focus on current world events, upcoming school assignments and events, PSA’s on rules or current issues, and weather. 

Students will design a working model amusement park, including the theme, map, and rides such as Ferris wheels, roller coasters and water slides to explore the physics behind all the fun. Advanced students will create and build life-sized games for the Fall Carnival and playground. STEM and team building challenges will enhance problem solving skills. Hands-on building, Lego Mindstorm Robotics, and digitally designing in Tinkercad and Cospaces will combine technology and tinkering. 

In this class, students will learn to make a variety of foods and snacks while also exploring the science of culinary skills. Most of all, we will enjoy eating our creations (hopefully, a few of our creations will make it home to share!) This class will include learning to properly weigh and measure liquid and dry ingredients. How certain ingredients effect or change a recipe. Which ingredients are interchangeable and how to increase or decrease the yield of a recipe. We will discuss and learn about allergens and how to adapt a recipe for certain dietary needs. We will also learn basic cookie and cupcake decorating skills and icing recipes.

During this course students are instructed in creative expression through basic theater skills and theatrical performances. The focus of the class concentrates on the following: improvisations and scripted scenes based on personal experiences and heritage, imagination, literature, and history, developing basic acting skills, developing environments, rehearsals, cultural and historical information to support acting, analyzing, evaluating, and constructing meaning from acting, understanding the role of the theater, film, television, and electronic media. The course culminates in a school theatrical production. 

This is a new elective class which evolved from the popularity and success of last year’s After-School Enrichment program. The class is designed to introduce students to the behind the scenes opportunities of the theatre. Students will touch upon topics and projects such as, but not exclusive to, set design and construction, sound design, properties construction and gathering, lighting design, costuming components and design, backstage crew, and stage management. Students will help with these components for the school’s spring production. Some will have opportunity to operate lighting, sound, and mic boards, while others may help with back stage crew, and front of house duties.

As the historians for the school, yearbook members accurately cover the school year, as well as create a contemporary publication that will be enjoyable and relevant to our community for years to come.  Students will learn the requirements of publication: design, photography, writing, and project management.

Working with peers, using technology and project-based learning are among the qualities students note as essential to engagement. The Sequoia Project, a yearlong project involving fifth through eighth graders, integrates the subjects of science, technology, math, social studies, and language arts, and uses the 21^st century skills of collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving. Students not only collaborate with each other, but with their teachers, administration, and most of all, with experts in the field. Each year, students use a fictitious island, Sequoia, which they developed, to problem solve real-world issues, such as the discovery of oil and how it will affect their country, designing and building homes in their country during a water shortage, and researching the country’s past through the discovery artifacts in an archeological dig.

Middle School students learn best when they are actively engaged with the content. Lessons that include technology applications, provide teachers with ways to motivate students into becoming active, real-world learners. Computer-based strategies help students develop higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills. Participation in real-life applications included in technology-rich teaching environments promotes the ability to draw analogies, infer relationships, predict outcomes, and analyze data. In the Middle School, each student has their own laptop which they use daily. All Middle School students also bring a tablet or have access to a school tablet for use during the school day.Each grade level has focused technology skill lessons each week in technology class. All classrooms are equipped with interactive Promethean Boards for both teacher and student use.

Students acquire the knowledge and skills for movement that provide the foundation for enjoyment, continued social development and access to a physically active, healthy lifestyle.

• Students learn group games in which they develop behaviors which exemplify individual character and the sportsmanship to resolve conflicts with peers, including responsibility, best effort, cooperation, and compassion.
• Students actively participate in physical activities that address each component of health-related fitness including: strength, endurance and flexibility.
• Students follow activity-specific safe practices, rules and procedures.

Middle School students have participated in various service projects for the benefit of fellow humans, animals and the environment.Projects last year were incorporated in Sequoia.This coming year, they will partner with Cathedral Urban Service Experience (C.U.S.E.) for weekends to serve in our urban community.

Our Middle School students make deep connections to our global society through their exposure to the Spanish language. Spanish is incorporated in cross-curricular activities and practical life situations. Students also use the online Scholastic ¿Qué Tal? magazine and online supplementary program. Middle School students are provided with the tools to become successful foreign language learners. After completing seventh and eighth grade Spanish with a grade of B or better, students may gain high school credit for Spanish I and II.

The Hightower Middle School Art Class is designed to address specific developmental stages and desires of creative and cognitive growth of art students in grades fifth through eighth over the duration of a school year. Throughout the year the students will enhance their skills in drawing, painting and 3D Art. The objectives of this course include: exercising and demonstrating the use and mastery of the elements of design, use of materials, tools and process from a variety of media (including printmaking, painting, sculpture, ceramics and photography), learning to handle materials effectively, creating original objects of art in a specific medium, selecting appropriate media relative to concepts and forms of art.

Hightower Middle School (HMS) students can participate in a beginning band class. Students can choose between clarinet, saxophone, trumpet and trombone. Band will meet two days a week during the school day and may require a possible after-school time.  Please note, students will need to supply their own instrument.

Broadcast Journalism is a student-led news production class. We will be producing a weekly news show for HMS. We will have many different jobs such as script writer/anchor, weather, floor manager, director, teleprompter, video editor, journalist, writing editor, and more. The news programs will focus on current world events, upcoming school assignments and events, PSA’s on rules or current issues, and weather. 

Explore the three fit principles, flexibility, strength and endurance with Coach Cooks. Topics will include the importance of hydration, nutrition and sleep. Interval training will be the method of training. Interval training is simply alternating short burst (about 30 seconds) of intense activity with longer intervals (about 1-2 minutes) of less intense activity. The class will include:

• understanding the fitness principles
• performing individual fitness assessments
• discussing fitness topics
• establishing goals and creating goal sheets

This is a project-oriented, horticulture and nature studies exploration guided by two master gardeners with decades of horticulture experience. Among other things, units will include vegetable gardening, landscape plant propagation, native habitat gardening (e.g. butterfly host garden, Monarch waystation, prairie restoration), pond habitat exploration, birdwatching skills and practice, composting theory and experimentation, textile manufacture from plants (we grow cotton on campus) and sheep through ginning, carding, spinning and weaving processes.  The class will keep journals that track growth, record observations, and provide the foundation for an ongoing campus calendar record of natural cycles and interesting events and creatures discovered on campus.  The class will engage as much as possible with new HMS building project’s landscaping plans from screening vines to participating in the design of the retention pond and bioswale.

Students will design a working model amusement park, including the theme, map, and rides such as Ferris wheels, roller coasters and water slides to explore the physics behind all the fun. Advanced students will create and build life-sized games for the Fall Carnival and playground. STEM and team building challenges will enhance problem solving skills. Hands-on building, Lego Mindstorm Robotics, and digitally designing in Tinkercad and Cospaces will combine technology and tinkering. 

In this class, students will learn to make a variety of foods and snacks while also exploring the science of culinary skills. Most of all, we will enjoy eating our creations (hopefully, a few of our creations will make it home to share!) This class will include learning to properly weigh and measure liquid and dry ingredients. How certain ingredients effect or change a recipe. Which ingredients are interchangeable and how to increase or decrease the yield of a recipe. We will discuss and learn about allergens and how to adapt a recipe for certain dietary needs. We will also learn basic cookie and cupcake decorating skills and icing recipes.

During this course students are instructed in creative expression through basic theater skills and theatrical performances. The focus of the class concentrates on the following: improvisations and scripted scenes based on personal experiences and heritage, imagination, literature, and history, developing basic acting skills, developing environments, rehearsals, cultural and historical information to support acting, analyzing, evaluating, and constructing meaning from acting, understanding the role of the theater, film, television, and electronic media. The course culminates in a school theatrical production. 

This is a new elective class which evolved from the popularity and success of last year’s After-School Enrichment program. The class is designed to introduce students to the behind the scenes opportunities of the theatre. Students will touch upon topics and projects such as, but not exclusive to, set design and construction, sound design, properties construction and gathering, lighting design, costuming components and design, backstage crew, and stage management. Students will help with these components for the school’s spring production. Some will have opportunity to operate lighting, sound, and mic boards, while others may help with back stage crew, and front of house duties.

As the historians for the school, yearbook members accurately cover the school year, as well as create a contemporary publication that will be enjoyable and relevant to our community for years to come.  Students will learn the requirements of publication: design, photography, writing, and project management.

Working with peers, using technology and project-based learning are among the qualities students note as essential to engagement. The Sequoia Project, a yearlong project involving fifth through eighth graders, integrates the subjects of science, technology, math, social studies, and language arts, and uses the 21^st century skills of collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving. Students not only collaborate with each other, but with their teachers, administration, and most of all, with experts in the field. Each year, students use a fictitious island, Sequoia, which they developed, to problem solve real-world issues, such as the discovery of oil and how it will affect their country, designing and building homes in their country during a water shortage, and researching the country’s past through the discovery artifacts in an archeological dig.

Middle School students learn best when they are actively engaged with the content. Lessons that include technology applications, provide teachers with ways to motivate students into becoming active, real-world learners. Computer-based strategies help students develop higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills. Participation in real-life applications included in technology-rich teaching environments promotes the ability to draw analogies, infer relationships, predict outcomes, and analyze data. In the Middle School, each student has their own laptop which they use daily. All Middle School students also bring a tablet or have access to a school tablet for use during the school day.Each grade level has focused technology skill lessons each week in technology class. All classrooms are equipped with interactive Promethean Boards for both teacher and student use.

Students acquire the knowledge and skills for movement that provide the foundation for enjoyment, continued social development and access to a physically active, healthy lifestyle.

• Students learn group games in which they develop behaviors which exemplify individual character and the sportsmanship to resolve conflicts with peers, including responsibility, best effort, cooperation, and compassion.
• Students actively participate in physical activities that address each component of health-related fitness including: strength, endurance and flexibility.
• Students follow activity-specific safe practices, rules and procedures.

Middle School students have participated in various service projects for the benefit of fellow humans, animals and the environment.Projects last year were incorporated in Sequoia.This coming year, they will partner with Cathedral Urban Service Experience (C.U.S.E.) for weekends to serve in our urban community.

Our Middle School students make deep connections to our global society through their exposure to the Spanish language. Spanish is incorporated in cross-curricular activities and practical life situations. Students also use the online Scholastic ¿Qué Tal? magazine and online supplementary program. Middle School students are provided with the tools to become successful foreign language learners. After completing seventh and eighth grade Spanish with a grade of B or better, students may gain high school credit for Spanish I and II.

The Hightower Middle School Art Class is designed to address specific developmental stages and desires of creative and cognitive growth of art students in grades fifth through eighth over the duration of a school year. Throughout the year the students will enhance their skills in drawing, painting and 3D Art. The objectives of this course include: exercising and demonstrating the use and mastery of the elements of design, use of materials, tools and process from a variety of media (including printmaking, painting, sculpture, ceramics and photography), learning to handle materials effectively, creating original objects of art in a specific medium, selecting appropriate media relative to concepts and forms of art.

Hightower Middle School (HMS) students can participate in a beginning band class. Students can choose between clarinet, saxophone, trumpet and trombone. Band will meet two days a week during the school day and may require a possible after-school time.  Please note, students will need to supply their own instrument.

Broadcast Journalism is a student-led news production class. We will be producing a weekly news show for HMS. We will have many different jobs such as script writer/anchor, weather, floor manager, director, teleprompter, video editor, journalist, writing editor, and more. The news programs will focus on current world events, upcoming school assignments and events, PSA’s on rules or current issues, and weather. 

Explore the three fit principles, flexibility, strength and endurance with Coach Cooks. Topics will include the importance of hydration, nutrition and sleep. Interval training will be the method of training. Interval training is simply alternating short burst (about 30 seconds) of intense activity with longer intervals (about 1-2 minutes) of less intense activity. The class will include:

• understanding the fitness principles
• performing individual fitness assessments
• discussing fitness topics
• establishing goals and creating goal sheets

This is a project-oriented, horticulture and nature studies exploration guided by two master gardeners with decades of horticulture experience. Among other things, units will include vegetable gardening, landscape plant propagation, native habitat gardening (e.g. butterfly host garden, Monarch waystation, prairie restoration), pond habitat exploration, birdwatching skills and practice, composting theory and experimentation, textile manufacture from plants (we grow cotton on campus) and sheep through ginning, carding, spinning and weaving processes.  The class will keep journals that track growth, record observations, and provide the foundation for an ongoing campus calendar record of natural cycles and interesting events and creatures discovered on campus.  The class will engage as much as possible with new HMS building project’s landscaping plans from screening vines to participating in the design of the retention pond and bioswale.

Students will design a working model amusement park, including the theme, map, and rides such as Ferris wheels, roller coasters and water slides to explore the physics behind all the fun. Advanced students will create and build life-sized games for the Fall Carnival and playground. STEM and team building challenges will enhance problem solving skills. Hands-on building, Lego Mindstorm Robotics, and digitally designing in Tinkercad and Cospaces will combine technology and tinkering. 

In this class, students will learn to make a variety of foods and snacks while also exploring the science of culinary skills. Most of all, we will enjoy eating our creations (hopefully, a few of our creations will make it home to share!) This class will include learning to properly weigh and measure liquid and dry ingredients. How certain ingredients effect or change a recipe. Which ingredients are interchangeable and how to increase or decrease the yield of a recipe. We will discuss and learn about allergens and how to adapt a recipe for certain dietary needs. We will also learn basic cookie and cupcake decorating skills and icing recipes.

During this course students are instructed in creative expression through basic theater skills and theatrical performances. The focus of the class concentrates on the following: improvisations and scripted scenes based on personal experiences and heritage, imagination, literature, and history, developing basic acting skills, developing environments, rehearsals, cultural and historical information to support acting, analyzing, evaluating, and constructing meaning from acting, understanding the role of the theater, film, television, and electronic media. The course culminates in a school theatrical production. 

This is a new elective class which evolved from the popularity and success of last year’s After-School Enrichment program. The class is designed to introduce students to the behind the scenes opportunities of the theatre. Students will touch upon topics and projects such as, but not exclusive to, set design and construction, sound design, properties construction and gathering, lighting design, costuming components and design, backstage crew, and stage management. Students will help with these components for the school’s spring production. Some will have opportunity to operate lighting, sound, and mic boards, while others may help with back stage crew, and front of house duties.

As the historians for the school, yearbook members accurately cover the school year, as well as create a contemporary publication that will be enjoyable and relevant to our community for years to come.  Students will learn the requirements of publication: design, photography, writing, and project management.

Working with peers, using technology and project-based learning are among the qualities students note as essential to engagement. The Sequoia Project, a yearlong project involving fifth through eighth graders, integrates the subjects of science, technology, math, social studies, and language arts, and uses the 21^st century skills of collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving. Students not only collaborate with each other, but with their teachers, administration, and most of all, with experts in the field. Each year, students use a fictitious island, Sequoia, which they developed, to problem solve real-world issues, such as the discovery of oil and how it will affect their country, designing and building homes in their country during a water shortage, and researching the country’s past through the discovery artifacts in an archeological dig.

Middle School students learn best when they are actively engaged with the content. Lessons that include technology applications, provide teachers with ways to motivate students into becoming active, real-world learners. Computer-based strategies help students develop higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills. Participation in real-life applications included in technology-rich teaching environments promotes the ability to draw analogies, infer relationships, predict outcomes, and analyze data. In the Middle School, each student has their own laptop which they use daily. All Middle School students also bring a tablet or have access to a school tablet for use during the school day.Each grade level has focused technology skill lessons each week in technology class. All classrooms are equipped with interactive Promethean Boards for both teacher and student use.

Students acquire the knowledge and skills for movement that provide the foundation for enjoyment, continued social development and access to a physically active, healthy lifestyle.

• Students learn group games in which they develop behaviors which exemplify individual character and the sportsmanship to resolve conflicts with peers, including responsibility, best effort, cooperation, and compassion.
• Students actively participate in physical activities that address each component of health-related fitness including: strength, endurance and flexibility.
• Students follow activity-specific safe practices, rules and procedures.

Middle School students have participated in various service projects for the benefit of fellow humans, animals and the environment.Projects last year were incorporated in Sequoia.This coming year, they will partner with Cathedral Urban Service Experience (C.U.S.E.) for weekends to serve in our urban community.

Our Middle School students make deep connections to our global society through their exposure to the Spanish language. Spanish is incorporated in cross-curricular activities and practical life situations. Students also use the online Scholastic ¿Qué Tal? magazine and online supplementary program. Middle School students are provided with the tools to become successful foreign language learners. After completing seventh and eighth grade Spanish with a grade of B or better, students may gain high school credit for Spanish I and II.

The Hightower Middle School Art Class is designed to address specific developmental stages and desires of creative and cognitive growth of art students in grades fifth through eighth over the duration of a school year. Throughout the year the students will enhance their skills in drawing, painting and 3D Art. The objectives of this course include: exercising and demonstrating the use and mastery of the elements of design, use of materials, tools and process from a variety of media (including printmaking, painting, sculpture, ceramics and photography), learning to handle materials effectively, creating original objects of art in a specific medium, selecting appropriate media relative to concepts and forms of art.

Hightower Middle School (HMS) students can participate in a beginning band class. Students can choose between clarinet, saxophone, trumpet and trombone. Band will meet two days a week during the school day and may require a possible after-school time.  Please note, students will need to supply their own instrument.

Broadcast Journalism is a student-led news production class. We will be producing a weekly news show for HMS. We will have many different jobs such as script writer/anchor, weather, floor manager, director, teleprompter, video editor, journalist, writing editor, and more. The news programs will focus on current world events, upcoming school assignments and events, PSA’s on rules or current issues, and weather. 

Explore the three fit principles, flexibility, strength and endurance with Coach Cooks. Topics will include the importance of hydration, nutrition and sleep. Interval training will be the method of training. Interval training is simply alternating short burst (about 30 seconds) of intense activity with longer intervals (about 1-2 minutes) of less intense activity. The class will include:

• understanding the fitness principles
• performing individual fitness assessments
• discussing fitness topics
• establishing goals and creating goal sheets

This is a project-oriented, horticulture and nature studies exploration guided by two master gardeners with decades of horticulture experience. Among other things, units will include vegetable gardening, landscape plant propagation, native habitat gardening (e.g. butterfly host garden, Monarch waystation, prairie restoration), pond habitat exploration, birdwatching skills and practice, composting theory and experimentation, textile manufacture from plants (we grow cotton on campus) and sheep through ginning, carding, spinning and weaving processes.  The class will keep journals that track growth, record observations, and provide the foundation for an ongoing campus calendar record of natural cycles and interesting events and creatures discovered on campus.  The class will engage as much as possible with new HMS building project’s landscaping plans from screening vines to participating in the design of the retention pond and bioswale.

Students will design a working model amusement park, including the theme, map, and rides such as Ferris wheels, roller coasters and water slides to explore the physics behind all the fun. Advanced students will create and build life-sized games for the Fall Carnival and playground. STEM and team building challenges will enhance problem solving skills. Hands-on building, Lego Mindstorm Robotics, and digitally designing in Tinkercad and Cospaces will combine technology and tinkering. 

In this class, students will learn to make a variety of foods and snacks while also exploring the science of culinary skills. Most of all, we will enjoy eating our creations (hopefully, a few of our creations will make it home to share!) This class will include learning to properly weigh and measure liquid and dry ingredients. How certain ingredients effect or change a recipe. Which ingredients are interchangeable and how to increase or decrease the yield of a recipe. We will discuss and learn about allergens and how to adapt a recipe for certain dietary needs. We will also learn basic cookie and cupcake decorating skills and icing recipes.

During this course students are instructed in creative expression through basic theater skills and theatrical performances. The focus of the class concentrates on the following: improvisations and scripted scenes based on personal experiences and heritage, imagination, literature, and history, developing basic acting skills, developing environments, rehearsals, cultural and historical information to support acting, analyzing, evaluating, and constructing meaning from acting, understanding the role of the theater, film, television, and electronic media. The course culminates in a school theatrical production. 

This is a new elective class which evolved from the popularity and success of last year’s After-School Enrichment program. The class is designed to introduce students to the behind the scenes opportunities of the theatre. Students will touch upon topics and projects such as, but not exclusive to, set design and construction, sound design, properties construction and gathering, lighting design, costuming components and design, backstage crew, and stage management. Students will help with these components for the school’s spring production. Some will have opportunity to operate lighting, sound, and mic boards, while others may help with back stage crew, and front of house duties.

As the historians for the school, yearbook members accurately cover the school year, as well as create a contemporary publication that will be enjoyable and relevant to our community for years to come.  Students will learn the requirements of publication: design, photography, writing, and project management.