Hockaday Highlights
I have enjoyed meeting many of you this fall and reacquainting myself with others, and I understand that choosing the right school for your daughter and your family is a big decision. As you spend time with family and friends over the holiday, I encourage you think about this.... Why Hockaday? I hope we have started to answer that question through various meetings, events, tours, and newsletters. We love sharing our story. If you have not yet had a chance to visit Hockaday, we have a few more opportunities in January and will have campus tours continuing through May. In the meantime, I hope you will enjoy some Hockaday Highlights from December! Recently, the First-grade class performed their reader’s theatre titled A Christmas Party in the Black Box Theatre and have enjoyed using the app, Poplet to demonstrate their knowledge of story elements in The Polar Express. In the Lower School garden, the girls threw the wildflower seed balls they created onto the berm and then were instructed to “stomp them like buffalo” to get them buried. We hope for a wonderful wildflower garden in the spring! Currently, the lower school is gearing up for the Prekindergarten – Fourth grade Holiday Program next week. In Middle School, The First Lego League team, the Hockanauts, just won the Project Award and are headed to the Super Qualifier in January. The Shooting Space Daisies won the 2nd place Champion award and are headed to the championship in February. Some of the Sixth grade robotics team members recently visited Joe May Elementary and taught students about STEM while others in the Sixth grade class are looking forward to Skyping with author Caroline Starr Rose in the library. Another sixth grader is busy with a project of her own. In an effort to kiss hunger goodbye, Stella Wrubel and three friends, The Mistlecrew, orchestrated an event at Klyde Warren Park that broke the Guinness Book of World Records for couples kissing under mistletoe. They sell mistletoe every December and all proceeds benefit the North Texas Food Bank. Read more on NBC’s website. Fifth grade art students have been busy in a film workshop of late and Seventh graders have been learning about visual thinking strategies. Meanwhile in Upper School, four time SPC Cross Country Champion, Adoette Vaughn, placed 6th place in the Foot Locker South Regional and advanced to the National Championships. A week after we returned from Thanksgiving, the boarding students and staff celebrated the holiday season with their annual ornament hanging ceremony and dinner. We’ve enjoyed performances from the Middle School and Upper School choirs and orchestras in the last few weeks. The Institute for Social Impact has been busy in the classroom and facilitating the service efforts of our students this month. The AP Human Geography class is learning about agriculture and food issues and the class participated in a food desert simulation at T.R. Hoover Community Center followed by a panel discussion with community members about their experiences living in a food desert. The Middle School and Upper School Advisories each gathered together to donate gifts for a gift drive this week. Last Wednesday alone, 60 Hockadasies went out in the community to tutor DISD students, visit with the elderly, and socialize with animals at a shelter. And just last night our faculty sorted gifts at the Angel Tree Warehouse. Though this is a just a small sampling of the recent activity at Hockaday, there is never a dull moment in our hallways or in our community! From our Hockaday family to your family, we wish you the very best during the holiday season and look forward to seeing you in the new year!
All my best,
Maryanna Phipps
Director of Admission and Enrollment Management
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Perks of Being a Hockaday ParentHockaday's next speaker for the Parent Education Series is Dr. Wendy Mogel. She is a renowned speaker, parenting expert and New York Times bestselling author of The Blessing of a Skinned Knee, and The Blessings of a B Minus. In her most recent book, Voice Lessons for Parents: What to Say, How To Say It, and When To Listen, Dr. Mogel offers an essential guide to the new art of talking to children and shows how a change in voice can transform conversations and ease the relationship between parents and children. In her talk, Dr. Mogel will elaborate on a novel clinical approach she began talking with parents who were struggling with their kids, demonstrating how a shift in tone, tempo, and body language led to a surprising outcome: the children responded by cooperating with greater alacrity, and communicating with more warmth, respect, and sincerity. As the parents found their voices, so did the children. Dr. Mogel also addresses an obstacle that flummoxes even the most seasoned and confident parent: the distraction of digital devices, how they impact our connection with our families, and what we can do about it. Learn more here.
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Upper School ScienceThe Comparative Anatomy Students are currently dissecting the Mudpuppy which is used as a representative for the amphibian class of vertebrate organisms. During the dissection, they will compare the embryonic development, digestive system, circulatory system, respiratory system, and reproductive system of the Mudpuppy to the vertebrate classes of fish and mammals, increasing their understanding of evolutionary adaptations and homeostasis within animals. AP Biology students are currently exploring how various factors can influence the rate of enzymatic reaction. Each group chose a different variable, and they are designing and carrying out their own student-designed experiments in the lab this week. Anatomy, Evolution, and the Zoo class of students went out into various areas within the community this week to survey consumers about the choices they make and feelings they have regarding sustainability and eco-friendly product accessibility. They will compile their data and use it to inform the next step in their Design Thinking process inching them ever closer to the production of a prototype and presentation aimed at improving some ecological or biological problem facing our world today.
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Can you Print in 3-D?The second-grade girls designed Greek temples on paper while studying Greek architecture in social studies. The girls were tasked with creating their own temples, paying close attention to the column sizing. They took their hand-drawn designs to the computer lab and replicated them in 3D designs in TinkerCad. This was challenging, as some of the design elements that worked on paper did not work in 3D. Once they finalized the designs in Tinkercad, they were sent to the 3D printers! They had a lot of fun.
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NASA Engineer Visits Fifth Grade for a Q and ASarah Elizabeth McCandless works for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) as a navigation engineer. She performs trajectory analyses for a variety of flight projects including MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Mission), Mars 2020, and InSight, NASA's most recent mission to Mars that landed Nov. 26, 2018. Ms. McCandless met with our Fifth-Grade students and she enjoyed answering their questions about working for NASA. She encouraged our girls to consider working in the STEM field by reminding them to "be willing to fail, own your own self, make a network, ask questions and never give up."
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It's the Most Wonderful Time of the YearWe enjoyed celebrating this holiday season through song and dance! The Hockaday Dance Department hosted guest artist, Kevin Jenkins last week. In addition to teaching master classes for all Upper School dance students, Mr. Jenkins will stage a work to be performed by students in Hockaday Dance Theater in the spring dance concert and at ISAS Fine Arts Festival 2019. Additionally, The Hockaday Show Choir and Dance performed last Tuesday at NorthPark Center. The Upper School Choir performed its winter concert on Wednesday in The Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Family Theater as well as today at NorthPark Center. Enjoy learning more about our performing arts, visual arts and other classes in our fine arts department by watching this short video.
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Curious About an All-Girls Education?
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