Dear Julian families,
Please take some time to read about all of the outstanding things going on here at Julian Middle School. This is a time of year when we get to showcase some of our extracurricular and co-curricular programs. Congratulations to all of our students and sponsors/coaches that have been experiencing great success in these different activities.
You will also notice that I have aspects of the district's vision statement in bold next to each topic. This will highlight how the district vision is being put into practice here at Julian Middle School.
District 97 Vision
Oak Park Elementary School District 97 will create a positive learning environment for all students that is equitable, inclusive and focused on the whole child.
International Baccalaureate (IB) Mission Statement
The International Baccalaureate® aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.
To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment.
These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.
IB in Action (Whole Child, Positive Learning Environment, Inclusive)
Eighth grade IB community projects are underway here at Julian Middle School! A central part of being an IB student is learning to look at the world through multiple perspectives and appreciate all human experiences similar and different from your own. The community project allows students to apply this type of learning while making positive change within a local or global community. During students’ last trimester of Integrated Studies class they plan and conduct a project that makes a positive change in an area they are passionate about.
This week two students, Sunita Chand and Abby Donarski, put their project into motion, and it was a huge success! Sunita and Abby raised over $500 for the Udaan India Foundation, an organization that empowers impoverished children in India with the school supplies they need to make attending school a reality. They were able to raise such a large amount of money by knowing what motivates their peers… embarrassing teachers and administrators! The girls held a funds drive during the lunch periods this past Tuesday. Every time a benchmark amount of money was raised the girls got teachers and administrators to karaoke. This motivated the students to dig deep and donate to such an important cause.
A huge thank you to everyone that picked up the mic for the cause: Mr. Kannan, Mr. Goodwin, Ms. Carr, Superintendent Dr. Kelley, and Mr. Colucci.
We are looking forward to seeing what projects students come up with during third trimester. Please be on the lookout for ways to get involved and participate!
VEX Robotics Success Continues (Whole Child)
The Vex Robotics season reaches its finale on March 4th when Oak Park Education Foundation and Julian host the Vex Robotics State Championship for the first time. Needless to say, the students have upheld the Julian tradition by placing nine robots into the event only one short of the all-time record.
Future engineers and coders are working diligently to build, rebuild, and refine their robots in anticipation of the upcoming event. However, no matter how the event turns out, the season has been a success. Here are some highlights of the 2016-17 season.
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Team Deadlocked and Team Gladiator won the Elmwood Park Tournament in December to qualify for the state championship
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Team Gladiator did it again in February by winning the Battle of the Bots hosted by Julian
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Seven additional teams qualified for the state championship through the statewide skills competition. Two Julian robots, Team Kryptonite and Team Jackalopes, scored the highest and second highest totals, respectively, in the entire state.
The teams hope to continue their success on March 4.
The school is very proud of the 70 plus students who over the past five months have learned valuable lessons not only in engineering and coding but also communication, teamwork, and perseverance. If possible, please come out and support these students on March 4th at the state championship.
Julian Codes (Positive Learning Environment, Equity, Inclusive, Whole Child)
Over 3 days, every Julian student had the opportunity to code for a class period in the Library with the support of student coding experts. During this second year of Julian Codes, students determined their coding level as beginner, intermediate, or expert and then picked from hand-selected coding challenges. Students experimented, made mistakes, persisted, problem-solved, and worked together to achieve coding success. By and large, the IB learner profile Julian students reported using the most was THINKER, followed closely by KNOWLEDGEABLE and then OPEN-MINDED.
Learn more about the importance of coding through this video and explore with your student at Hour of Code.
A special thank you to Brady Walters, who was the mastermind behind this year’s Julian Codes event. Thank you to our many student coding assistants: Zane Maggio, Michael Drobot, Will Crosby, Belle Martin, Janae Hill, Michael Sensat, Abbey Mullen, Zach Wachtel, Senja Peters, Ryan Floody, Astrid Brunk, Emily Hseih, Mia Rossbach, Nina Cleofe, and Lev Working. Check out these great photos!
West 40 Speech and Drama Festival (Whole Child)
For the 7th consecutive year, District 97 took first place at the West 40 Speech and Drama Festival, which was held at Elmwood Park High School this past Saturday.
The team is made up of Brooks and Julian students and coaches. If you have any of these students, please congratulate their efforts:
Caz Badynee, Brigid Barrette, Lili Cleaveland, Luke Finn, Kevin Hartman, Alex Hymson, Wes Morrison, Heidi Pikul Enger, Amelia Quintero, Dox Raskin, Maddie Ruland, Ruhi Saliga, Juliana Sosa, Gwen Theis, Nick Woods and Jack Zylstra
Mr. Boyle, Mr. McGlynn, and Ms. Santos are very proud to be their coaches.
Julian Varsity Boys Basketball (Whole Child)
Congratulations to the Julian Varsity basketball team on an amazing 2016-17 season. The Jayhawks have compiled an impressive record of 33-5 on the season and have received a number of accolades. They were the champions of the Fenwick Tournament, the OPRF Al Allen Invitational Tournament, the Kenwood Academy Shootout, and the West Suburban 12 Conference regular season and conference tournament. They also finished as the Consolation Champions of the Battle of the Titans Event held at Collins High School. Joshua Smith and Rashaad Trice were named Team Co-MVPs and also were all-tournament team in the OPRF event along with teammates Jaden McGill, Sidney Peterson, and Malik Finley. Other team members include: Graham Eldred, Diego Garcia, Jack Greenwald, Amarion Jones, Michael Stamm, Jacob Rallings, Naahlyee Bryant, Nuri Banks, Ammar McLeod, Anton Harris, Ryan McFadden, and Tyler Burgess. Good luck to all the Jayhawks as they continue their careers in high school!
Homework Club (Positive Learning Environment, Equity, Inclusive, Whole Child)
Homework club started up a few weeks ago. This has been great opportunity for students that have chosen to stay after school to get academic support from Julian Middle School teachers. The teachers have been assisting students with school work and providing support in a positive and interactive manner. There is plenty of room available for additional students to take advantage of this opportunity.
Program Details are as follows:
Days - Tuesday and Thursday
Time - 3:35-4:30
Location - 6th Grade-Room B208, 7th Grade-Room C308, 8th Grade-Room C408 and Room C407
Please email Ms. Carr at [email protected] if you have questions.
Author Visit (Positive Learning Environment, Equity, Inclusive, Whole Child)
Brittany Cavallaro visited the 8th grade during advisory and part of 1st period on Thursday, February 23. She shared her background as a writer, her love of Sherlockiana (did you know there are 243 versions of the Sherlock Holmes stories?), and her reasons for casting Sherlock as a sassy, witty teen girl. She read aloud from A Study in Charlotte, showed the book trailer for book 2 (The Last of August), and took thoughtful questions from the audience.
A special thank you to 8th grade students Leo Angelini, Lyla Stanislaw, Sarah Frickx, Molly Courtois, and Alessa Oltman for introducing our special guest and helping coordinate this event. This author visit came to us through Anderson’s Bookshop. Check out these great photos!
Support Oak Park Education Foundation (Equity, Inclusive, Whole Child, Positive Learning Environment)
Last year, 610 of our Julian students engaged in one-of-a-kind, hands-on projects in VEX robotics, visual arts, spoken word, and science -- all free of charge thanks to the support of the Oak Park Education Foundation. Click here to read more.....
The Kids Project (Whole Child, Equity)
Does your student enjoy volunteering and helping others? If so, please click here read about this great opportunity.
Referenda Information Sessions
Below are the dates, times and locations for the community sessions:
- February 27 at Hatch Elementary School from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
- March 1 at OPRF High School from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Upcoming Events
- Robotics State Championship at Julian-March 4
- PARCC Testing starts March 20
- Spring Break-March 27-31
Sincerely,
Dr. Todd T. Fitzgerald