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Blackhawk has a Gardening Club meeting bi-weekly even though the ground is freezing and might be covered with snow. This club originated prior to the onset of Covid and then took a few years off but now has regained momentum. Last school year some students and staff joined together to create a modest outdoor garden of peppers and tomatoes behind our school as part of this club's return.

This year, Ms. Navar, Mr. Georgopoulos, and Ms. McGraw have restructured this club around the goal of demonstrating the educational value of gardening and nutrition. The Gardening Club is intentionally planning activities that exemplifies the therapeutic value in gardening.

The Gardening Club has plans for another outdoor garden in the spring as well as planting flowers for students to take home and enjoy over the summer. In these colder months, this club has plans for decorating flower pots to be used in the spring as well as begun taking care of and maintaining some the plants in the school's main office. Other future plans for the Gardening Club include learning about and use hydroponic growing towers that Blackhawk already owns.

This week the club created homemade bird feeders to support our feathered friends during these winter months.

District 2 now calls eLearning Days when closing schools due to extreme weather or other emergencies. eLearning Days will begin an hour later than normal school days to provide teachers planning time to adjust their instruction for eLearning.

On eLearning Days, Blackhawk students will log into their Chromebooks and go to their Google Classrooms through their Classlink page, and join eLearning from the Google Meets link(s) posted there. Attendance will be taken, and students will then be engaged in live instruction for the entire five-hour school day.

An eLearning Day counts as a regular school day, and does not require the District to use a built-in emergency day at the end of the school year. Parents will then be notified no later than 6 AM if the District is closing its schools and holding an eLearning Day. (No announcement means it will be a normal school day.)

Teachers will be available to support students with the content being presented for learning during live instruction or through email. Assistance with any technology issues may be addressed by contacting members of the District’s technology team. The Blackhawk Middle School Technology Support Specialist is Mr. Manny Manago who can be reached at 630-521-2347

This month, the Blackhawk Alumni Spotlight shines on Samina Hadi-Tabassum. Ms. Hadi-Tabassum was promoted from Blackhawk in 1985 and attended Fenton High School where she later graduated in 1989.

Ms. Hadi-Tabassum shared that she loved the teachers at Blackhawk and how supportive they were of her in her middle school years. She recalls always going to the library next door to the school and working on her homework there. She shared that the librarians were always quite helpful to her. While attending Blackhawk, Ms. Hadi-Tabassum was on the cross country team and took on that hill with perseverance. She says she keeps thinking of Kate Bush's famous song "Running Up That Hill!"

While at Fenton, Ms. Hadi-Tabassum was involved in many activities. Since she knew that colleges were looking for well-rounded applicants, she participated in sports such as cross country and badminton. She was also involved in the Orchesis dance troupe, the service club as well as theater and speech. One high school honor she achieved was being a state winner in the Extemporaneous Speech competitions.

Ms. Hadi-Tabassum was born in India and did not know the English language when she immigrated to Bensenville in 1976. She and her siblings had the unfortunate experience of facing racism and bullying daily. By middle school, she and her siblings understood the English language and the American culture better. She worked hard in high school and did not give up. She shared she had amazing high school teachers who pushed her to go to college. She eventually earned a full scholarship to Northwestern University where she majored in English and got a minor in Biology.

In middle school, Ms. Hadi-Tabassum was quiet and often invisible to her teachers. Today, she is more self-confident and quite vocal about her thoughts and ideas. She advises that finding good friends and supportive teachers is very important in middle school. Mrs. Gibbs was Ms. Hadi-Tabassum's 8th grade math teacher who spent time afterschool helping explain challenging concepts to her like probability and ratios. Ms. Hadi-Tabassum describes Mrs. Gibbs as sweet, kind and patient with her. Ms. Hadi-Tabassum's advice for current Blackhawk students is, "You have to be your best advocate. Even when others close to you may not have high expectations, you need to be make sure you have high expectations for yourself."

Currently, Ms. Hadi-Tabassum is the Dean of Education at Elmhurst University where she has reconnected with Blackhawk teachers and administrators providing professional development around best practices for English Learner students.

The Illinois State Board of Education annually releases school report cards that show how each school, each district, and the state is performing on a wide range of educational goals.

The report cards also include summative designations that account for each school’s overall performance, as well as the performances of seven demographic subgroups of students. This designation takes into account students' growth and proficiency levels in English/language arts, math, and science, as well as schools' attendance rates and their results in the Illinois 5Essentials school climate survey.

While Blackhawk Middle School’s cumulative score ranked well within the “Commendable” range, it received a “Targeted” designation indicating a need to increase support for our English Learners (EL) student subgroup.

Math Club every Monday

Art Club every Monday

Podcast Club every Monday

Jewelry Club every Monday

Choir every Tuesday or Thursday 7am

Muscle Laboratory every Tuesday or Thursday 7am

Robotics Club every Wednesday or Friday 7am

12/1 Boys' BB practice

12/1 BMS Cheer and Dance practice

12/4 Boys' Basketball vs. Jefferson 7H/8A

12/5 Soccer Club-8th

12/5 Jazz Band

12/6 Show Choir Club

12/6 BMS Cheer & Dance practice

12/6 Boys' BB practice

12/7 Sewing Club

12/7 We Belong Club

12/7 Boys' BB vs. CHMS 7A/8H

12/8 BMS Cheer & Dance practice

12/8 Boys' BB practice

12/9 Churchville Tournament TBD

12/11 BMS Cheer & Dance practice

12/11 Boys' BB practice

12/12-14 Book Fair

12/12 Soccer Club-6th

12/12 Jazz Band

12/13 Gardening Club

12/13 Show Choir Club

12/13 Boys' BB vs. Indian Trail 7A/8H

12/13 PTO Book Fair Night 6pm-8pm

12/14 Band @Castle Towers & Bridgeway of Bensenville

12/14 Fashion Club

12/14 PALS Club

12/14 Spanish Club

12/14 Boys' BB vs. Bryan 7H/8A

12/15 Boys' BB vs. Sandburg 7H/8A

12/18 BMS Holiday Assembly

12/18 Boys' BB vs. Jefferson 7A/8H

12/19 Soccer Club 8th

12/19 Jazz Band

12/20 Boys' BB vs. Hinsdale 7A/8H

12/21 - 1/5 Winter Break- No Staff/No Students

The next Blackhawk PTO meeting is Thursday, December 7th, at 6:30 PM in the cafeteria. Please enter through door 10 by the cafeteria and the small gym off of the circle drive at the front of the school. Be on the lookout for an RSVP for this meeting and please let us know if you have a need for language support at the meeting.

One of the ways our PTO raises funds for student events and activities is through partial funds from book fairs. The next Blackhawk book fair will be December 12th through the 14th. Students will be able to visit the book fair during their ELA class at one point during this time period.

We are excited to announce a book fair parent event on December 13th from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. This event will allow for parents to come up to the school to peruse the books for their children from the book fair and hear presentations from three informative speakers. We are proud to announce presentations about The Importance of School Attendance--Every Day from the DuPage County Regional Office of Education, Safe Tween Choices from the DuPage County Health Department, and Awareness of Human Trafficking from the Rose Petal Project. All presentations are for parents only with no students allowed in presentation rooms. Each presentation will be offered in English and Spanish.

For families that have childcare needs, we will have small children supervision available. For families that need transportation, we will be offering transportation.

Please look for an RSVP form to reserve your spot and give us information to make this night the best it can be for you and your family.

If you can't wait a week to support the PTO, you will have an opportunity to do so next Tuesday at Boba Heaven located at 573 N. York St. in Elmhurst. Ten percent of sales fromm 4:00 PM to10:00 PM will go to the Blackhawk PTO to support Blackhawk events for our students. Please see the below flyer for all the details.

This week on Tuesday morning when the temperatures dropped very low, students were allowed to enter the school prior to the 7:40 AM bell. This morning on Friday when the rain was excessive, students were again allowed to enter the school prior to the 7:40 AM bell. As a reminder, students should expect to remain outside until the 7:40 AM bell unless the temperature goes below 15 degrees including wind chill or there is excessive rain. Please make sure students have a warm coat, scarf, gloves, and boots on days when they will be outside prior to entry.

We also want to thank everyone who responds and respects our morning safety procedures and crossing guards' directives. We greatly appreciate the dedication to student safety these security personnel provide our school each morning. Please abide by their requests and directions in the mornings at drop off to keep everyone safe.