Sound Bytes

8th grade band students at Hanes perform “Felis Navidad” and the “Nutcracker” at the winter band concert in December, 2006.

7th grade band students perform “Winter Wonderland” and “Hannakah Holiday” during the December, 2006 winter band concert.

Sixth Grade Band performs “Saint Nick Salsa” and “Quantas Celebrations” during the Winter, 2006 Band Concert.

Several sixth and seventh grade students at Hanes Middle School gather around the microphone to share their thoughts on the qualities needed in an ideal teacher. By their seventh grade year in school they have had over twenty different teachers, so they are savvy consumers and have definite opinions about teacher behavior and ways of handling classes.

In early October, Matt Talbert, band director at Hanes Middle School, led two sixth grade beginning band classes in a series of musical selections. Keep in mind that these students have never had band before. They have only been playing for a little over one month! Learning fingering positions, learning to read music, learning to play with a group and keep up the pace — it’s overwhelming! Check back with us around December for the “Winter Concert” and you’ll be amazed at their growth as musicians!

Sixth and seventh grade students gather around the microphone to share their after-school extra-curricular schedules during the week and then discuss their opinions as to whether they are “over-scheduled” or not. Opinions differ and some students offer a rare glimpse into their parents’ perspective in trying to juggle the after-school schedules of multiple children in the family. Are kids today really over-scheduled? Listen to the podcast and then you decide. Are Students Over-Scheduled? You Decide…

The “Cry Wolf Chronicles” is an on-line newspaper written by seventh grade students (and.. with a bit of help from some very talented 6th graders) at Hanes Middle School. Using CuteNews flat-file blog technology, the single sheet web page incorporates eight panels, each hosting a different blog window.

Topics for the newspaper include: News, Sports, Guess Who, Dear Abby, Reviews, Cartoons, Rants & Raves, and Riddles. The newspaper operates as an after-school club on Wednesday and Friday afternoons. Visitors to the newspaper can read current and past articles in each section as well as post “comments” about articles posted.

Student authors love to read the “comments” about their articles and often guage the effectiveness and timeliness of their article by the number of comments that visitors post. To visit the on-line newspaper click on this title:

Cry Wolf Chronicles

Seventh grade students on the Wolf Team held a farewell celebration today for their favorite social studies teacher, Jeannie St. Clair, who is retiring this year. Students gathered outside after lunch to present Mrs. St. Clair with flowers, a singing balloon, and a plaque expressing their appreciation for her thirteen years as a social studies teacher with the seventh grade HAG team.

During the morning students made farewell cards and created a giant door decoration. After working on the giant card students gathered around a microphone to share comments about their year in social studies.

Catherine Hayes acted as the moderator for this “Sound Bytes” broadcast. Student contributors included: Frankie Opperman, Kaity Anstrom, Virginia Campbell, Shannon Hildebrandt, Hannah Jackson, David Harrison, and Max Cullen.