Welcome to Hudson Middle School! One of the top middle schools in Ohio, HMS focuses on meeting students’ needs, not only academically, but also socially and emotionally. With outstanding staff, students, and parents, individuals are what make Hudson Middle School truly great. We believe in the importance of relationships: connecting with each other, taking care of each other, and helping each other grow. At HMS, families, students, staff members, and the community are invited to come together to help all students reach and exceed their potential!

Communities

Hudson Middle School has over 1000 students in grades six, seven and eight. In order to address the large enrollment, the school has been divided into learning communities, creating a "school within a school" atmosphere. Our communities are academically balanced and consist of students and teachers in each grade. Students are redistributed among the communities, from year to year, so they have an opportunity to meet new students and form new friendships, while still having the social support of a middle school community. Community names (also called “team names”) are:

6th grade: Honor, Integrity, Respect, and Service
7th grade: Adventurers, Navigators, Trailblazers, and Voyagers
8th grade: Elm, Franklin, and Oviatt

Middle School Philosophy

In This We Believe, the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) states: “Every day, millions of diverse, rapidly changing 10- to 15-year-olds make critical and complex life choices and form the attitudes, values, and dispositions that will direct their behavior as adults. They deserve an education that will enhance their healthy growth as lifelong learners, ethical and democratic citizens, and increasingly competent, self-sufficient individuals who are optimistic about the future and prepared to succeed in our ever-changing world” (2010). The extensive research and guidelines in The Successful Middle School: This We Believe set forth by AMLE help shape our school and educational philosophy, as we continually strive to meet our young adolescent students’ unique needs, both academically and socially/emotionally.

Academic Support

Core Curriculum

Each community offers a balanced core curriculum in Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. In 8th grade, World Language courses (for students who qualify) and Unified Arts (Health & Wellness; and Service Learning & Careers), are also included in the core curriculum.
In 6th and 7th grade, each core period within a student’s schedule is about 60 minutes in length.
In 8th grade, each core period within a student's schedule is about 50 minutes in length three days per week, and most are about 100 minutes in length one day per week.
Please see our Hudson Middle School Curriculum Guide for a detailed description of our core courses at each grade level, our encore courses, and our FOCUS courses.

Encore Curriculum

During encore periods, which are 40 minutes in length, students are scheduled in a required Physical Education course each year.
Students have the exciting opportunity to participate in exploratory courses through our wide variety of elective programming. These courses help provide students with accessibility to areas of interest and areas they may just be beginning to explore.
The FOCUS period, about a 30 minute period daily, is an intervention/enrichment period. This individualized learning time for students truly models the middle school philosophy of addressing students’ academic, social, and emotional well-being. The FOCUS period includes 3 components: intervention, enrichment, and an advisor/advisee program.
Please see our Hudson Middle School Curriculum Guide for a detailed description of our core courses at each grade level, our encore courses, and our FOCUS courses.

FOCUS Period: Enrichment and Intervention

Enrichment: Students who do not require intervention participate in enrichment activities with their team, including a focus on literacy/reading enrichment. Time spent reading and interacting with student-choice texts has been shown to not only encourage students’ enthusiasm for reading but also to help them become better students (based on research from, among others, Donalyn Miller, Penny Kittle, Kylene Beers, and Stephen Krashen). In addition to reading-based activities, grade-levels and teams may choose to offer additional areas of focus at times. See the article about our program, published in AMLE Magazine in November, 2016: Joy in Reading: A Middle School Literacy Enrichment Program.

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Intervention: Based on academic/achievement data, if a student requires intervention at some point during the year, the teacher will communicate with the student and parents. The Language Arts or Math teacher will work with the student during FOCUS, to help students build important skills so that they can be successful in the classroom. The FOCUS teacher incorporates research-based interventions, monitors student progress, and utilizes that progress data to work with the student and family to help make informed decisions about how best to help the student succeed.

Studyhall/ Team Support/ ARC Room

Team Support and studyhall are both offered during encore periods each day. Studyhall is held in the commons during the morning encore periods, while Team Support is held in individual classrooms with a team teacher during afternoon encore periods. Depending on their schedule, students may be assigned to this study time to be used for homework assistance, studying, enrichment, and reading.
The Academic Resource Room (ARC) is available for any student during an encore or lunch period. Staffed by an HMS staff member, the ARC room provides for additional support with homework, organization, or study skills.

Mastery Learning: Redos and Retakes

As educators, our fundamental goal is that all students learn and demonstrate growth. Collaboratively, with this goal in mind, Hudson Middle School staff members have spent dedicated time reflecting and learning about mastery learning (student mastery of the learning standards) and how we can help students continually grow. To promote student learning through mastery of the learning standards, together we have developed these Mastery Learning Guidelines for our students.

Project Based Learning (PBL)

Together with families, our school's goal is to develop critical thinkers, deep thinkers, collaborators, communicators, creative problem-solvers, and students who understand that they can make a difference in the world. With that in mind, several HMS teachers, and teachers throughout our district, have started learning about Project Based Learning (PBL) and implementing it in their classrooms. As students seek to answer meaningful, engaging real-world questions, they not only learn the intended standards but they also develop critical life skills that will prepare them for future success. For more detailed information, please see Why PBL? from Buck Institute for Education, whose mission is to "help teachers prepare students for successful lives."

Social/Emotional Support

Teaming

At each of the 3 grade levels at HMS, the teams (also called “communities”) each consist of the following subjects/teachers: Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies. An Intervention Specialist is a member of most of our teams.
Supporting the whole child, these teams work with the same smaller group of students and meet weekly to discuss students and to plan instructional activities.
On each grade-level team, students attend classes with the students on their team and build relationships with both students and staff.
Each team of teachers (and each grade level) follows the same schedule. Because of this, the team has flexibility in planning and implementing team activities, interdisciplinary lessons and activities, and alternate schedules.
Team names (also called “community names”) are:

6th grade: Honor, Integrity, Respect, and Service
7th grade: Adventurers, Navigators, Trailblazers, and Voyagers
8th grade: Elm, Franklin, and Oviatt

Guidance Department

Students’ social and emotional well-being is a priority of our school and our district. When students enter Hudson Middle School, their grade level is connected with a school counselor, who loops with that class of students all three years they attend HMS. This allows the counselor to build relationships with the students and their families consistently throughout their middle school years. The counselor also has the ability to provide background information to each team of teachers, so the team can build on the students’ successes from the previous year.
Please see our Guidance Department webpage for thorough information, including support services and contact information.

FOCUS: Team Advisory Program

With a goal of developing relationships among students and between students/staff, our Team Advisory program is all about belonging, connections, and personal growth.
It is one of the many ways we at HMS ensure that each student feels cared for, connected, and supported. This social/emotional focus helps us address the needs of the whole child.
Team Advisory sessions are held once per week during FOCUS.
Themes throughout the year include: Know Yourself, Know Each Other, Know Your School Community, and Know Your World.
This program upholds the middle school philosophy and adheres to the state guidelines of a PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports) program. Overall, the HMS Advisory Program continues to evolve to meet the unique needs of the middle level learner and the unique learning needs of our students.
Team Advisory activities and lessons are designed to involve all students regardless of learning level, to appeal to their interests, to help build a sense of community, to help them make connections with each other and with their advisor, and to engage them in improving their academic, social/emotional, and physical wellness.

Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS)

Throughout our building, our focus is on teaching students the positive behaviors of Be Responsible, Be Respectful, and Be Ready, and providing interventions to those who need additional support. These three overarching themes can be evidenced in our hallways and in our classrooms, and they help instill a consistent sense of community and good character in our students. Our students and staff collaborated to develop common, positive expectations for Hudson Middle School, which are depicted in our HMS Positive Behavior Matrix.

Extracurricular Activities

Athletics: Interscholastic athletics are offered for students in the seventh and eighth grades. The following sports are available at Hudson Middle School: HMS Athletic Information. Each athlete is required to have a physical and proper medical insurance. Morning announcements and our school website, Final Forms, and posters on bulletin boards, keep students up-to-date on tryouts and season timelines.
Interest Groups: The following extracurricular activities are available at Hudson Middle School: HMS Clubs/Activities. We are incredibly grateful for the generosity of the Burton D. Morgan Foundation for providing grant funding to support the variety of extracurricular activities that we offer at HMS! Their support allows our students to explore and thrive in these programs! Students are able to learn of these opportunities through morning announcements and our school website, communication through the grade-level Google Classroom, posters on bulletin boards, and information from individual teachers, so that they can keep up-to-date on meeting times and events.
HCER: Hudson Community Education and Recreation (HCER) offers numerous athletic and interest-based opportunities for students of all ages and community residents. A booklet detailing program offerings is mailed to all Hudson residences and published electronically, three times per year.

Family Involvement

Parents are true partners in the Hudson City School District. From our established organizations of PTO, VIP, Hudson Community First (to name just a few!), to individual connections with teachers and classrooms, our families are involved, supportive, and dedicated to Hudson students and education. Our teachers recognize and appreciate this and seek ways to invite parents to collaborate regarding their child’s education. We are grateful for our HMS families!