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LETTER OF INTRODUCTION
Hastings MIddle School, Upper Arlington, Ohio
Teacher: Barbara Hirsch
We are 80 8th graders in Mrs. Hirsch's English classes at Hastings Middle School. Our school mascot is the Golden Bear and our school colors are black and gold. Hastings Middle School is a large 2-story brick building. On the school grounds there are football, baseball, and soccer fields, tennis courts, and baseball diamonds.There are about 650 students in grades 6, 7, and 8 that attend Hastings. The school day is divided into nine 42 minute periods wtih the day officially beginning at 8:10 a.m. and ending at 3:20 p.m.. We change classes and teacher each period throughout the day, and during this passing time we often stop at our individual lockers to change books and supplies. Most of us take English, math, U.S. history, and science as well as exploratory arts
(physical education, music, health, industrial technology, and life skills). We also have the opportunity to study a foreign language: French, German, or Spanish.All 8th graders have the same lunch period. During this time we can buy food from the school cafeteria or bring our lunch from home. When we're finished eating, we can participate in intramural sports, inside or outside depending on the weather.
There are many school activities that we are involved in. Sports include: football, soccer, tennis, volleyball, cheerleading, wrestling, gymnastics, lacrosse, golf, basketball, cross country, track, field hockey, baseball, and softball. We also have a chance to participate in the drama, fishing, service, chess, ski, dance, and photography clubs, as well as student council, youth-to-youth, and the school newspaper and yearbook staff. Some of us enter Power of the Pen, Math Counts, and Odyssey of the Mind competitions. A group of science students travel to Kelley's Island, an island in Lake Erie, for further study. One of the highlights of our 8th grade year is our end of the year class trip to Washington, D.C. We spend four days in our nation's capital seeing all the historical sites that we've studied in our history class throughout the year. A few of us will be visiting France or Mexico this summer with our foreign language teacher.
We're lucky that we are exposed to a variety of subjects in our classes. Recently in science we made and then launched rockets out of 2-liter plastic bottles. Now that we have new iMac computers in all the classrooms, we're started research and exploration over the internet.
When we're not in school, members of our class enjoy shopping at the malls, eating out, going to concerts and movies, and attending high school (Upper Arlington), college (Ohio State) and professional (Crew, and next year Blue Jackets) sporting events. In our spare time we also like listening to music, watching T.V., talking on the phone and online, reading, playing video games, paintball and laser tag, and sometimes just relaxing. Since Columbus is centrally located with the state, We are close to all Ohio's major attractions: King's Island and Cedar Point amusements parks, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Professional Football Hall of Fame, Sea World, and Lake Erie.
Our classes have enjoyed reading the class introductions and are looking forward to learning more about students throughout the world as we read your descriptive essays.
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