Parent Hawk Talk

We have successfully completed our first two rounds of MAP testing, and students have had an opportunity to review their results. These assessments provide important checkpoints, but it is important to remember that academic growth is a yearlong process—not the result of a single test or moment in time.

Our Math and ELAR teachers use MAP results to identify each student’s strengths and areas for growth and to plan instruction and support. As part of this process, students work with their teachers to set individual learning goals and take specific steps toward reaching them throughout the semester. When students understand their progress and take ownership of their goals, we often see stronger achievement and academic growth.

MAP performance also provides valuable information about students’ progress toward end-of-year expectations. The middle-of-year MAP assessment in January will give us another important data point and help us determine how much students have grown, what support they may still need, and how we can adjust instruction for the remainder of the year.

If you have questions about your student’s results, goals, or progress, please contact their Math or ELAR teacher.

Have a wonderful extended weekend filled with positive purple power! We hope everyone has time to relax and recharge, and we look forward to seeing our students on Tuesday.

As always, your proud Principal

Greg Dyla

Praise, Promote, and Protect

• On Mondays we join our campus in celebration of college, career and military readiness. Join us in wearing our purple scrubs or a military connected or college t-shirt every Monday. Most scrubs were delivered this week with a few outstanding orders on backorder.

• Our 7th grade GT students enjoyed an afternoon of challenge hanging out with our campus GT specialist and Mrs. Stock.

• We are also looking to start our very own professional dress closet. Part of our career readiness program is to teach our students about professional dress. We will be hosting a drive next week to collect gently used business attire for our students. So if you have a suit jacket lying around that is a bit snug or a pair of dress shoes that were only worn once before someone outgrew them, we will gladly take them off your hands. Thank you for your support.

• Educator parents: We will be hosting a HOSA fundraiser this semester. If your student participates in HOSA and you are an educator we are looking for a few volunteers. Reach out to Mrs. Heye if you are interested in helping.

• Thank you to our 7th grade families that donated for our concession stand. If you still need to bring in your donations we will continue to accept donations in the Magnet office for the next concession sale.

First, a huge thank you to all of our amazing families for your support during our Beginning-of-Year MAP testing! Our students worked hard, and testing is officially complete. Please keep an eye out for your child’s MAP Family Report, which will be coming home with them soon (and no later than September 18th). This report will give you helpful insights into your child's academic starting point for the year.

Walking through classrooms this week, it has been wonderful to see our teachers and students hard at work. Across all grades, teachers are keeping learning clear, active, and engaging.

In our classrooms, we believe that when students can speak about what they are learning, they understand it deeper—and when they write about it, that learning truly sticks! We are making sure every student gets daily opportunities to share their ideas out loud and practice writing about what they are learning every single day.

Here is a fun opportunity! Texas State University will be offering SPARK!, a German enrichment program designed for middle school students. If you are interested in participating in this virtual learning opportunity, please contact Dr. Ewa Siwak, ewasiwak@txstate.edu.

We have enjoyed connecting with our Hobby Hawks this week through our introductory “Howdy” lessons through Social Studies classes, and we look forward to continuing to meet with all students throughout the upcoming week to introduce and/or refresh our Hawks on our comprehensive school counseling program.

Once we finish with our brief introductory lessons, we’ll be able to “officially” kick off our classroom guidance curriculum with our first content lesson focusing on Interpersonal Effectiveness, starting in mid-September and running through mid-October. More details to come!

We also would like to remind you that we are gathering parent referrals for our Fall Small Groups! These peer groups provide a supportive space for students to gain practical skills in areas such as (but not limited to) managing stress, organization/study habits, navigating friendships, improving confidence/self-esteem, processing grief, and goal-setting. If you'd like your child to participate in a small group or would like more information, please reach out to your child's counselor.

The school year is officially underway, and so is the Hobby Library! 💜📖 Students have completed or are wrapping up their library orientations, books are getting into students’ hands, and we are excited for everything coming up this fall!

The library is officially open for student visits! Students can use the library to check out and return books, renew books, read, work quietly, and participate in available library activities.

🌅 Morning Library Access: Morning library time has already been popular! Students who would like to visit before school should arrive at the cafeteria by 7:50 AM for the best chance of receiving a library pass.

🚌 Bus Riders — Library Passes Are Available!

We know students who ride the bus may not always arrive early enough to get a regular morning library pass. Bus Library Passes are available!

Students who ride the bus and would like to visit the library in the mornings should stop by the library during the school day to pick up a Bus Library Pass. This pass will help give our bus riders the opportunity to enjoy morning library time too! 📚💜

Please encourage your student to plan ahead and stop by the library if they need one.

As always, the library is a calm, positive space for reading, studying, checking out books, and quiet activities. Following library expectations helps us keep morning access available and enjoyable for everyone.

We are continuing our goal of having students keep at least one library book in their backpack so they always have something available to read.

And remember—reading is reading! 📚

Graphic novels, manga, fantasy, romance, nonfiction, mysteries, sports books, chapter books, and more all count. One of our goals this year is to help students discover books they genuinely enjoy while also encouraging them to explore new genres and build their reading stamina.

Students may also have opportunities to visit the library during enrichment!

Depending on the day and availability, students can use this time for:

📚 Book Checkout & Renewals • 📖 Quiet Reading • 🧩 Puzzles

These activities give students a quiet place to recharge while still engaging their brains and building positive habits around reading and the library.

LibraryPalooza is one of our favorite opportunities for students and families to celebrate books, reading, and authors!

Check out this year’s LibraryPalooza poster included in the newsletter to see the author lineup! Your student may recognize an author whose books they already love—or discover a brand-new author to read before the event.

Keep an eye out for additional LibraryPalooza information as we get closer!

Get those calendars ready! 🎉

The Hobby Middle School Book Fair begins OCTOBER 16!

Students will have the opportunity to browse the fair and discover new books to add to their reading lists. More information about shopping times, payment options, procedures, and other Book Fair details will be shared as we get closer.

💜 Want to Volunteer?

We would love parent and guardian support during Book Fair! If you are interested in volunteering, please reach out to the Hobby PTA for more information about volunteer opportunities.

📅 First Day of Book Fair: October 16

Thank you, Hobby families, for encouraging reading at home and helping students remember their library books.

Whether your student reads 10 pages, a whole graphic novel, a manga volume, or several chapters, every bit of reading helps build stronger and more confident readers.

Let’s keep those books in backpacks and keep our Hawks reading! 🦅📚