The Hillwood Yearbook, 2009 – 2010

Below, you will find a sampling of Hillwood Academic Day School's Yearbook for 2009–2010. This was the first year for a school yearbook, and it was created by the staff of The Hillwood Herald: Brigette, Julian, Julien, Irene, Zach, Anya, Camryn, Lance, Brandon, Rubina (listed by grade).

The book both captures fun memories of the school year and gives the Hillwood community and prospective families a look into our school day. This year's highlight: Zack, the dog!

You can still order a Hillwood yearbook online at Blurb.com.

Hillwood Academic Day School by Hillwood Uppergrades 2009-2010 | Make Your Own Book

Hillwood Academic Day School by Hillwood Uppergrades 2009-2010 | Make Your Own Book

Music at Hillwood

Gayle Schmitt was the music teacher at Hillwood for a long time. She sings a lot of songs with the whole school. Gayle sings at the Randall Museum.Gayle mostly sings songs that entertain little children. Sometimes she invites children from Hillwood to come and sing with her at the Randall museum. We sing all sorts of songs with Gayle at music class. Gayle also composes her very own music! At the Randall museum, she mostly sings her own songs. Gayle has her own CD of songs with her singing with her band.

The talent show at our school is a very important event. Gayle is the main person in it. She chooses two songs for each classroom, then she practices, and then she preforms it with each class. We have music books in each class, then we chose a song to sing, and sing it.

Part of this article will appear in the yearbook.

Hillwood Academic Day School Yearbook

Cover: Brigette

Title page

2–3: Life at Hillwood [Brigette] (500 words)

3–4: Life at Hillwood [Irene] (250 words)

5–6: History of Hillwood [Camryn] (250 words)

7–8: Zack, the dog [Anya]

9–10: Muir Woods — the Cabin [Zach]
Hillwood Annual May Overnight [Anya]

11–12: Music at Hillwood [Rubina]
Miss Schmitt bio [Rubina]
First person: How music and art have affected my life [Brigette]

13–14: Art at Hillwood [Rubina]
Your mom's bio [Rubina]

15–16: Field Trips: City Hall (Zach), movie outing (Julian G.), Exploratorium [Brendon], De Young [Brendon]
June Talent Show [Brigette]

17–18: October outing [Lance]

19–20: Holiday Talent Show [Brendan]

21–22: Mrs. TKTK Day [Julian F.]

23–24: Giants Day [Julien G.]
First person: What sports has done for me [Julian G.]
Walk-a-thon [Zach]

25–26: Field Trips: theater show [Camryn], Academy of Science [Brendon],

27–28: Kindergarten/first-grade students [Irene, Camryn]
Miss Dawson bio [Camryn]
Mr. Grantz bio [Zach]
Mrs. Grantz bio [Zach]

29–30: Student Photos

31–32: Lower-grade students [Lance, Anya]
Miss Tom bio [Lance]
Miss Caine bio [Lance]
Miss Marta bio [Anya]

33–34: Student photos

35–36: Upper-grade students [Julian F., Julien G.]
Ms. Woods bio [Julian F.]
Spanish Miss Lidia bio [Brandon]

37–38: Student photos

1. Anya
2. Brendon
3. Brigette
4. Camryn
5. Irene
6. Julian F.
7. Julien G.
8. Lance
9. Rubina
10. Zach

39–40: Index [Zach]

Top stories:
Health care reform
Miep Gies
Obama's state of the Union
Martin Luther King

Yearbooks for Hillwood? Let's decide!

Wow! 2009–2010 was and is an exciting year! More students enrolling in Hillwood, The Hillwood Herald, and reading classic novels in class. Now, we have an idea of making a yearbook for the school.

Yearbooks are annual books that record the school year's highlights, popular past-times, and photos of the students. Most yearbooks have pictures of every class and also the graduating class of that year. There are also pages filled with major trips, projects, and school spirit weeks.

For Hillwood, the yearbook will be slightly different from other usual yearbooks. Of course, there will be the class pictures, but we will also include past blog articles, the history of our school, interviews with students, and teacher comments.

For the lower-graders, we can include popular singers, movie stars, lego updates, and sports news.

A Note to Students as We Sprint Off from the Starting Line in 2010

New year, new decade, and even better, a chance to start again with a clean slate. 2010 is finally here and as we enter the new decade we remember the good times we had in 2009, but greatly look forward to the exciting things we will do and see this year. However just because it is a new year doesn't mean we don't all still have work to do and lives to lead, especially us busy students.

Students, we may breathe a sigh of relief as we have now survived the first semester of school and wait expectantly for our grades, but we have to remember the work never ends, especially for all those eighth graders out there. You have to keep your wits about you as you progress towards high school. Even I, a high school-er already, have heard that I should already be looking at colleges, and I'm a freshman! This is just one of those reminders that keeps us on our toes to prepare us for the future. After all we are the future of this country, and by extent our planet, but that is still a while away. For now we are free to study up and express ourselves.

So remember to keep up the hard work and Happy New Year to all.

Hillwood's Fall Open House: Nov 12th, 5-7:30 P.M.

Hey everyone! Please mark your calendars for next week's Open House!

Next Thursday, the wonderful directors of Hillwood is hosting an Open House for prospective families. If you are also a prospective parent, here is a small description of Hillwood:

Hillwood Academic Day School has been in the Pacific Heights area of San Francisco for 60 years, starting in the year of 1949. School lessons are held in a Victorian house. True, it has a small amount of students but do you want your child/children to be cared for? Do you want your kid(s) to test averagely and above? Will you want them to have hot meals during lunch? If you answer yes to any of these questions, then Hillwood is right for your child/children. Mr. and Mrs. Grantz, the directors of Hillwood, truly care about the students here. They are friendly and can always make you smile and laugh.

Most Hillwood graduates have fond memories here. From the wonderful basketball challenges to the awesome over-nights at the Grantz family's cabin in Muir Woods. Also, most Hillwood students test well enough to get into the high schools of their choices. They have gone on to some of the best high schools in San Francisco such as Lowell, Saint Ignatius, and Sacred Heart.

For lunch, Mr. and Mrs. Grantz hired Ms. Martha to cook for us. It's all fresh, not frozen like those big schools. Some of the student favorites are hot dogs, pot stickers, and macaroni and cheese. It's all fresh off the stove straight from the pots.

Well, we hope very much for families to come. Once you're child is here, it is like he/she is part of a family... a very big family! Everyone is welcome to the Open House on November 12th, from 5 to 7:30 P.M.

There will be light refreshments served, along with provided child care. Hillwood students should come and in uniforms.

Well, I will see everyone at the Open House next week. It will be a pleasure to meet you!! ^^

*Photo Credit: Julian F.

Applying for High School?

Even if you aren't an eighth grader yet, you might want to consider reading Darien's tips and watching this video (with Irene interviewing) about applying for high school in San Francisco. Plus, there is Jessica, also a Hillwood graduate, and her video about life after Hillwood.