Focus On Education

Congratulations to our Hobart Middle School Band and Orchestra students for their amazing performances at ISSMA this weekend! All four ensembles played wonderfully, earning GOLD in 7th and 8th grade Band AND Orchestra! Way to #BEOP, Brickies!

Congratulations to Hobart High School juniors, Ian Kelly and Zach Felty, and freshmen Samuel Clady, Maverick Becerra, and Michael Klaich for being named two of the winning teams at last week's 2025 Northwest Indiana High School Pitch Competition at Purdue University Northwest's Westville campus.

Five winners were selected from 17 student teams that presented their startup pitches. Student teams each had four minutes to share their pitch, followed by questions from the judges.

Each winner was awarded $200 to invest in their business idea. Prize seed funding was sponsored by Unity Foundation of La Porte County and Vibrant Communities of La Porte County.

Congrats to Ian and Zach for their pitch: LEVEL. A better addition to education, LEVEL is using AI to make schoolwork feel less of a chore for students and teachers. Through an AI-driven gamification system, LEVEL helps students earn rewards for completed assignments and provides teachers with an engaging tool to monitor and customize their follow-up with each student’s work.

Another big congrats to Samuel, Maverick, and Michael for their pitch: The SolarFlare. The SolarFlare Cooker is a portable, solar-powered camping heater.

Be sure to click "Subscribe" on YouTube here or click "Follow" on Spotify here to follow the podcast series and get notified of new episodes! Please note, to see the video on Spotify, you must be logged in to a Spotify account and make sure your settings have “Download Audio Only” and “Stream Audio Only” disabled.

Khanmigo is an innovative AI-powered tutoring tool that can support your student around the clock. Khanmigo offers personalized assistance, making learning engaging and accessible anytime, anywhere. Click HERE to learn about Khanmigo from our very own Mrs. Higgason.

Khanmigo Writing Coach is designed by teachers with the purpose of producing better writers. Instead of just generating AI feedback or grading essays, Writing Coach supports students during each stage of the writing process without doing any of the writing for them. Click HERE to learn more about Khanmigo Writing Coach.

Registration for the 2025 Brickie Makers & Innovators Showcase is OPEN! Remember, the Showcase is for ALL innovators, whether your creations are scientific, artistic, musical, culinary, or otherwise! We love to celebrate what your Brickie minds dream up!

Don't wait, visit the link below to register! 💜💛
www.hobart.k12.in.us/makerregistration

(IMPORTANT: Students must be logged into their SCOH Google account to register!)

Check out the SEL page for great tips and advice for Social Emotional Learning for students, parents, and families! Lots of great information with what we do in school with students and what you can do at home.

Parents are a model for their children. THINK before posting and sharing information. Be kind and considerate of others and yourself. Click here for an article from All Pro Dad about things to consider before posting to social media.

All feelings are ok. We are human; however, what do we do when, as a parent, we set a boundary for our child and they are mad at us? Do we brush it off? Do we try to fix it? Do we work through the “upset” or “angry” feelings? Here’s advice from Dr. Delaney Ruston, MD. Her advice may resonate with you as well.

How to Cope When Our Teens Are Mad At Us

100 Coping Strategies to Support Adults and Children

THINK Before We Speak and Post

Appreciation Rituals: Reframe thoughts from negative to gratitude

Let’s get our kids back in the habit of screen-free fun. When kids give up tech, they use their brains in other ways. And once they get going, they might not want to quit. Here are 40 screen-free activities to challenge your kids for an hour today.

The Home Depot offers free workshops and classes. Each first Saturday of the month between 9am - 12pm, a free in-person Kids Workshop is available! Sign up here!

Parents, begin with reviewing the podcast below from All Pro Dad about emotions. Then use the resources linked below to talk through what you and your child/ children notice. Talking through what they notice and how to address the emotions is healthy conversation. There are tips below to recharge your mind and body along with 100 coping strategies to choose from!

All Pro Dad Podcast

All Pro Dad Tips

Emotions: Noticing them and talking about what our brain and body senses.

Match the Mood

Recharge Your Mind & Body

100 Coping Strategies

Research challenges idea that vaping could be healthier alternative to smoking, say authors of research. Read more here!

It’s no wonder a person becomes addicted to vaping so quickly with the amount of nicotine being ingested!

Indiana has several FREE resources for adults and students.

Additional information and resources:

*Contact the SRO officer at each school

*Vape Free Indiana
in.gov/vapefreeindiana

*Indiana High School Athletic Association and Indiana Department of Health partnership

https://dontpuffthisstuff.com/

Click here for the latest edition of BricksCenter!

IronWorkz, based in Gary, capped off a few years of accolades with a Community Impact Award during the 2025 Mira Awards gala Feb. 27 at the Allied Solutions Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel. Read more here!

Click here to check out the HHS Alumni Association website

Click here to hear the definition of a Brickie!