Illustrations of the amazing culture created by our students and staff can be found everywhere. A few noticeable examples include...

• A year-long Anti-Bullying/Awareness Program was kicked off in October (Bullying Awareness Month). Various clubs and teams have volunteered to each cover a month and promote the message, “Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated over time. Go to www.stopbullying.gov for more information.
• Each month, students and staff members are nominated and recognized for the great things they do around Darby High School. Throughout the months of August to October, 73 students and 32 staff members were honored as ‘Student/Staff Member of the Month’.
• Homecoming Week was filled with fun events geared at promoting school spirit, including different themes each day, lunchtime competitions, and an evening bonfire.
• Staff members competed in a 'Culture Challenge,' facing off against other Hilliard schools. Additionally, teachers are working on becoming members of the '20/20 Club'--a program focused on positive parent interaction.
• Members of the Student Athletic Council traveled to nearby elementary buildings to read to 2nd grade students. In partnership with the Second and Seven Foundation, every student was given a book of their own to keep.

​The Darby Social Studies Department continues to implement the Hilliard City Schools Blended Learning model, applying our teachers’ best practices on a daily basis in the classroom, while allowing for Personalization through student choices in their paths and assessments of their learning. Our government, history, and psychology students have taken part in a variety of rigorous and engaging activities ranging from political polling analysis in U.S. Government classes, to an activity that requires students to apply critical thinking skills by solving psychology-related problems in AP Psychology class. Students in all of our courses have been required to use technology, collaborate with other students, show independence, and analyze primary source documents in order to discover historical and social truths. Examples of such activities are use of online polling application, Kahoot, for collaboration, as well as both formative and summative assessment, and Canvas-based forum discussions.

Personalization of learning during our classroom activities has been achieved through the application of learning menus, individual reflections, and peer evaluations. In order to make lessons meaningful and maximize their effectiveness, our teachers have applied student Lexile data to lesson design and student groupings. Exposure to such rigorous expectations have resulted in our students developing the 21st Century skills needed to overcome the challenges the future will bring, while –at the same time – ensured that Hilliard Darby students leave our school with a heightened sense of civic duty, knowledge, and responsibility.

In Mr. Dougherty’s Scientific Principles of Sustainability A classes, students have been learning about various materials with a focus on metals. What are metals? What properties do metals have that make them useful? How can metals best be used? How do we mine metals in a sustainable way? These are some of the questions students will investigate throughout their Metals Unit. Scientific Principles of Sustainability A is a course that focuses on the sustainable use of Earth’s materials. Throughout the semester, students will learn about the practical applications of major science topics that include the study of the composition, structure and properties of various materials—crystals, metals, ceramics, polymers and composites.

Science teachers continue to work in Data Teams to transition courses to Canvas, the district’s learning management system. Teachers are collaborating to create opportunities to personalize learning experiences in science.

The English Department has been working on a lot of different activities throughout the first quarter to get students reading for the next level. Here are some things you might see our students doing in class.

Learning Menus: Learning Menus allow students the opportunity to choose from a variety of activities to demonstrate understanding of a novel. Different point values are assigned to different tasks, which students then have to complete to get to a set number of points. Students can demonstrate knowledge through art, or music, or more traditional tasks like writing.

Independent Reading: In addition to read novels as a class, students this year will have the opportunity to read books that they have self-selected from our media center or brought from home. While students are reading they will demonstrate their understanding of key concepts like plot, characterization, and theme.

Workshops: In a workshop approach students are working at their own pace on a variety of tasks. Some students might be reading, some might be researching, and some might be writing. Students might be preparing for an essay this way, or ending a unit of poetry.

The kilns are fired up, the pencils have points and the technology is charged! Join the Hilliard Darby Art DepARTment as we welcome you over to the right side of the brain to explore some of our most recent creative collaborations & endeavors. The rumors are true...We love pictures! We hope you do too. Please check out our DepARTment Twitter Account @DarbyArtAttack & our Instagram Living Student Gallery #DarbyArtAttack to see what we do on the daily and how we do it.

Super charged Selfies!! This semester 100 new students enrolled into beginning photography, and 40 students returned to take advanced photography classes. Our photo two and three students, along with members of the photo club, are cleaning and testing a large collection of recently donated cameras and photo equipment for use in the studios. We have also created a photo equipment lending library for beginning photo students.

We like to practice smART Art. So, besides getting our hands dirty and working within our own school walls to produce authentic art opportunities we have also been busy thinking about the future of our many young artists. Knowledge is power, right? Right! Representatives from a variety of Art Colleges, including our own local Columbus College of Art & Design, have come into our studios to present art related careers, college options and review current student work & portfolios. This collaboration initiates opportunities early in the year that high school students might not even know exist - such as the numerous ways Art reaches out into the "real world" through career options and setting themselves up for success after graduation in one of the many art fields from Fine Art to Advertising. Our depARTment values the relationships we have formed with our higher education partners and are proud to share our studios with them throughout the year. Stay tuned for more exciting Art Adventures as we prepare for shows, contests, awards and collaborations that will show off our students' hard work. See you on Twitter!

​The first quarter of the school year has brought many changes to the Darby Math, Computer, and Engineering Department. First of all, we welcome three new math teachers to Hilliard Darby High School. Andrew Ozbolt is a Darby graduate who is in his first year of teaching. He is a graduate of The Ohio State University with a degree in mathematics and earned his teaching license at Capital University. Mr. Ozbolt is teaching Geometry at GAC 1 this year and is also a member of the baseball coaching staff. Rebecca Maddox is also in her first year of teaching. She graduated from Miami University with a degree in Math Education. Miss Maddox is teaching Algebra 1 and GAC 2 as well as coaching JV girls tennis. Melissa Jaeb is a familiar face at Darby HS. She has been a substitute teacher for a number of years and has had three children attend Darby. She is teaching Algebra 1 and Algebra 2. We welcome all of our new staff members and are very excited to have them as part of Panther Nation!

​We also welcome Mr. Pagnanelli back to Darby as a substitute teacher after his retirement last spring. Our staff is excited to have such a knowledgeable and compassionate teacher to sub in our classrooms!

​The Darby Mathletes, our Math Club, have gotten off to an exciting start this year. We had the opportunity to learn about point-mass geometry problems from Dr. Shapiro of The Ohio State University Math Department. Dr. Shapiro spoke to all three high school math teams at the ILC on Thursday, October 8. The Mathletes are preparing for three district competitions as well as the OCTM Statewide Math Tournament and AMC 10/12 national math contest. We will begin practicing about once per week in November. If you are interested in joining the Darby Mathletes, text @hdmathlete to 81010 to receive Remind announcements about upcoming events. The Math Club also has $10 annual dues to cover the expenses of contest registrations.

It has been a productive and busy start to the year for our performing arts department! Students in band, orchestra, choir, and theatre have been hard at work since before school started and have shared their talents with the community in multiple ways. The Darby Marching Band hosted the annual Hilliard Marching Band Invitational on Sept. 19 at Bradley High School, and qualified for State level in their first adjudicated performance. They have since earned top awards at subsequent competitions, and are gearing up for their final adjudicated performance at OMEA State Marching Band Finals on Oct. 31.

Darby's Choir program hosted a successful fall retreat in September, and held its annual "Supper with the Singers" concerts at Der Dutchman Restaurant in Plain City on Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 26 and 27, to full houses both nights. The Symphonic Choir will welcome Grammy Award winner Dr. Craig Jessop, former conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, as guest conductor for the "Through the Eyes of a Child" concert, to be held Monday, Nov. 16 at 7:30 pm in the Capitol Theater at the Vern Riffe Center in downtown Columbus. The Symphonic Choir will join forces with Una Voce, a choir comprised of Darby Choir alumni, and the Columbus Children's Chorus. Go to www.Darbychoir.com for information on purchasing tickets.

The Darby Orchestras held their annual Fall Concert and Spaghetti Dinner with the orchestras of Heritage Middle School on Oct. 6 in the Darby Commons, to a standing-room-only crowd. The audience enjoyed performances by 6 different orchestral ensembles, 3 from each school, plus chamber music provided by Heritage Orchestra musicians. Six Darby Orchestra members were selected for the 2015-16 OMEA South Central Region Orchestra, an honor orchestra comprised of the top high school musicians from throughout central and southern Ohio. The students are: Hannah Lee, Jinsoo Lee, Anna Wallace, violins; Avedis Escandon, Charles Vazquez, violas; and Sarah Bryant, string bass. This orchestra will perform on Sunday, Nov. 22 at 3:00pm at Gahanna Lincoln High School under the baton of Grammy Award winner William Boggs, former conductor of Opera Columbus and currently on the faculty of the Conservatory of Music at Capital University. For more information about the Darby Orchestra program and upcoming events, visit www.darbyorchestra.org.

Darby's theater season is off to a running start with a successful production of Maxwell Anderson's The Bad Seed, held Oct. 23 and 24 in the Darby Performing Arts Center. future productions include H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds, with performances Friday and Saturday, November 20 and 21, in the Darby Experimental Theatre, and !Artistic Inspiration, by Don Zolidis, slated for Friday and Saturday, January 29 and 30, in the Darby Experimental Theatre. For more information on Darby Theatre events, go to www.darbytheatre.com.​

TRANSITION RESOURCE FAIR - There was a free Transition Resource Fair for students with developmental disabilities and their parents hosted at Hilliard Darby High School on Wednesday, October 21.The agencies involved assist families in mapping their child’s way through high school and beyond. If you were unable to make it, you missed out on the therapy horses and dogs!

TOLLES - Hilliard has agreed to bring ALL sophomores to Tolles for a visit on December 3. This is the first time for this total exposure to all students and Tolles is very excited to host all sophomores that day. Each student will select two programs of interest they would like to explore and will spend approximately 40 minutes in each program that day. Students should complete their “backpack” from www.OhioMeansJobs.com and choose two programs offered at Tolles that fall within their interests and abilities.

PROJECT SEARCH - There is a Project Search information night at Dublin Methodist Hospital on November 17 from 6-7pm. Project Search is a one-year internship designed to enhance employability skills in an Ohio health agency. Six of the ten participants are currently from Hilliard. For more information, please call Kristen Welch or Jeff Feathers, our Transition Specialists, at 921-7396.

PSAT - If your child is planning on taking the PSAT with accommodations as a sophomore or junior, we need to apply for accommodations through the Collegeboard. Please contact Cindy Large, Intervention Specialist, at 921-7335 to help initiate the process.

In Mr. Apel’s sports medicine 1 classes, students are currently learning proper techniques of taping the ankle, the arch and Achilles.

In Miss Noble’s Health classes, students are currently participating in a Family and Social Health Unit. This unit includes decision making, peer pressure, relationships and dating violence.

In Mr. Fugitt’s Strength & Conditioning for Athletes, students are actively involved in their physical development through strength training. Mondays and Thursdays, students work on the development of the upper body and Tuesdays and Fridays students work on the lower body. On Wednesdays, students are involved in agility, balance and core exercises. Students will be tested in the following areas beginning October 19; bench press, parallel squat, high pull, vertical jump and 40 yard sprint.

In Mr. Geers’ Sport and Fitness classes, students are participating in fitness activities as well as team sport activities. In his BUD’s classes, students are working on physical conditioning through running, burpees, tire flips and stadium stairs. In addition, students work in groups to help develop team work.