Signs of a New School Year At HMS

Signs of change for Hillsborough Middle School are evident upon driving up to the building. That’s because this school year marks the first year the school has a new sign in front of the building.

“We’re really happy to have it because I think we can put out more information and more timely information,” Joe Trybulski, school principal, said. “We can put more town-related information too”

The sign is the product of three years of fundraising by the school's Home and School Association, Trybulski said. Each year, the association would save a portion of the funds it raised, with the aim of replacing the sign. TD Bank also provided a $6,000 donation—half the $12,000 price tag.

The school will also look into getting landscaping for around the sign, Trybulski said.

“We think it is going to improve our communications a lot,” he said.

As with all district schools, Hillsborough Middle School saw its classrooms outfitted with interactive overhead projectors and whiteboards, as well as surround sound systems. It’s an improvement teachers are already anxious to try and incorporate into lessons and projects, he said.

“When you tap on the white board, it’s exactly like clicking on your computer screen,” he said. “A teacher’s lesson can incorporate a video from the Internet. It makes the traditional slate blackboard a visual screen for the classroom.”

“It’s going to change the dynamics in the classroom,” he added.

And teachers are already thinking of ways to use the projectors in the classroom.

“NASA is putting up two new satellites so we are going to watch and measure the gravity of the moon,” Lisa Kiel, a seventh grade science teacher, said. “We are going to work it into our astronomy unit.”

The projectors will also help teachers establish connections between lessons in various subjects, like connecting science and social studies, she said.

“It makes it a lot more interactive so they are not just looking at you at the front of the room,” Meredith Hart, one of Kiel’s colleagues said.

For the seventh-grade team, which includes JoAnne Getz, Kirsten Sandor, Kiel, Hart and Josh Evans, it’s an important year for students. They’ll start to bridge the gap between being a kid and a teenager, and become more established in their identities, the teachers said.

“They are so excited so they feel so grown up and you can see that in their faces,” Kiel said.

“They come into their own this year,” Sandor said. “They are sort of like kids and by the end of the year, their personalities are just oozing.”

While the teachers admitted to some jitters—mainly about the students feeling more comfortable with the new technology than they are—the middle school kids are something to take in stride. Luckily, it’s an age where the students are more flexible with humor in the classroom.

“You have to be as quirky as they are,” Hart said. “They appreciate quirkiness and goofiness and humor whereas maybe a later age would think that is dorky.”