Hartford Middle School

August 26, 2010

Hartford Welcome 2010-2011

On behalf of the Hartford Administrative Team and staff, I would like to welcome our students and parents to the 2010-2011 school  year.  Our goals remain the same, and our mission is to ensure our students are reading, writing, speaking, and most importantly, Thinking.  We Strive to Excel is our school’s motto.

                Our theme for the 2010-2011 school year is Hartford to Infinity...  With this in mind, we will continue to be purposeful about preparing our students for a successful future.  This will be accomplished by continuing our annual college visits and tours, and by exploring career options while focusing on life skills.  Our students will participate in activities that allow them to work with legislators and city council.  Last year our students visited Albany, NY and met David Patterson, Governor of New York.   Additionally, members of our 8^th grade class addressed Canton City Council to advocate for a water park for the Southeast Community area.

                We were also fortunate to have many Hartford alumni come back last year to talk with students and walk the halls of the building that gave them their foundation academically, socially, and personally. The students and our staff plan to continue to collaborate with the alumni in an effort to inspire and encourage our current students.  Hartford alumni have served in the capacity of Mayor of Canton, as judges, lawyers, professional athletes, and in a variety of other civic and professional occupations.  Dr. Kim Crenshaw of UCLA is a Hartford Alumni and the daughter of one of the greatest music teachers in Canton City School history, Marian Crenshaw.  Mrs. Crenshaw taught at Hartford as well.  We want to ensure that our students are aware that they can achieve anything and go anywhere in the world, starting from Hartford Middle School.

                Last year we focused a great deal of time on improving our students’ reading fluency and comprehension, and it paid off.  Our Language Arts Department and cooperating teachers are to be congratulated on the improvements we saw as a building on our Local Report Card.  Our 7^th grade reading scores improved by 10 points, and our 8^th grade improved by 9 points.  We also saw a 13-point increase in our science scores.

This year our staff and our administration team have designed a series of interventions to assist our struggling readers, and our students struggling to master concepts and algorithms in math.  Students who need additional support in mastering math concepts will be assisted by Title I interventions in our math lab.

In addition, we have been awarded the ARRA Title II D Technology grant which will provide our teachers opportunities to explore and implement the latest in technology. This grant has allowed us to hire Carmella Johnson as our technology coach. She will be working with our staff to facilitate professional development and implementation of Web 2.0 tools that will increase our students’ instructional engagement and readiness for the 21^st century.