8th Grade

Hello! My name is EmmaRae Hubener. I will be the new social studies teacher for 6-8th grade at Holy Family! I attended Silver Lake High School from 2015 to 2017. I earned a Bachelor's degree in History Education from Washburn University between 2017 and 2022. During my senior year, I studied abroad at Maynooth University in Ireland. For my student teaching experience, I was at Jeff West in the Fall of 2022. I have just completed my first year teaching at Holton Middle School. Recently, I went through RCIA and joined the Catholic faith. This transformative experience has inspired me to pursue a teaching career in a Catholic school. Currently, I am furthering my education at the University of Saint Mary's to complete my school counseling degree. God bless! 

English-Students spend time reading, writing, speaking and listening.  We begin to spend more time presenting our ideas to our classmates and use more project based learning.  Two different novels are taught in the eighth grade to sharpen the students skills of citing text evidence, supporting analysis, and writing summaries free from personal opinions and judgements.  

Each quarter students do a book project on a book of their choosing that ends with a presentation.  We also do a research project in which we sharpen our plagiarism skills, go deeper into MLA citations and eventually work in pairs to create a tri-fold board presentation which will end up on display at Germanfest.  Hopefully, these projects will get them ready for high school where they will be using these skills in multiple classes.  As a class we are always working to strengthen our grammer, punctuation and spelling skills as practice makes perfect!

Math-Students will be taught Algebraic Concepts with higher level critical thinking while continuing to build on the skills they have already learned.  They will continue to use their "Math" notebook for help on daily homework.  Again, assessments will be given at the end of each chapter with the possibility of using their math notebook for help.

Social Studies-Students will continue to explore and understand Kansas History, Government, and Social Studies standards.  Our main focus will be on US History from discovery to current times but we will utilize many other sources by continuing to expand on the use of Primary and Secondary sources and original works.  We will pay particular attention to current events and how todays events relate to the past and future.  Students will complete research projects that involve written and oral presentations and attend several field trips to historically significant sites and/or museums and libraries in Kansas such as the Kansas Museum of History, Truman Library, etc.

Science-Students will explore scientific methods to solve real world problems and will continue to expand their understanding of design processes as well as further understanding of biological processes.  They will continue to study and expand their knowledge of ecosystems and how human and non-human interactions affect the world that we live in utilizing textbooks, workbooks, and online resources.  Students will also be exposed to and understand the science behind conservation, agriculture, where food and other natural resources come from, and explore a variety of careers in scientific fields including but not limited to manufacturing, resource management and agriculture.

Religion-The focus of the eighth grade religion program is on cathechesis to confirmation.  The class also covers more in depth the seasons of the Church, evangelism, and the impact virtue and sin have in our lives.