"Speaking truth gives youth great power"

BCMS Parents;

One important announcement prior to my post this week:

We have an important Date Change.  Our Leadership and Personal Responsibility Assemblies for students have been shifted from February 24^th to March 3^rd. 

Parents who would like to attend can RSVP to the link here:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1cSUvnUd05Ml5v5cgvFicTGAa7AVjkzOtK6Fv8CZwbhI/viewform

"Speaking truth gives youth great power" 

inspired by David Suzuki's blogpost of the same title (linked below)

I had a wonderful High School teacher (Mr. Gravel) my Senior year who taught my public speaking course.  I took a full course load so I figured this would be my one ‘gut’ course and to this day I’d swear it’s the one course that has done me the most good (from my senior year). 

Our first observation of Mr. Gravel was that he was intensely serious in a professional way about ensuring the integrity of the mission of his course. Before we could get scared or disappointed that the work load might have been more than we hoped he also showed us how what we would be learning would be fun, engaging, and personally inspirational.  The only speech he allowed to be irrelevant was our first so he could get a baseline for each student. 

Like most 18 year old males, I stayed in the ‘shallow end of the pool’ and thought my eloquence in speaking about the finer points of Yankees players was world class.  Little did I know how absolutely horrendous I was!

Two things proved this; the first was the topics that we selected to speak about and the second was how those topics made one feel about leadership, about responsibility and about being an 18 year old who was about to assume a step toward joining the ranks of the adult world.  I separate these to make an important distinction. 

Talking about Don Mattingly’s (baseball) hitting style, while relevant to my world, was not relevant to others’, and in no way could be considered to instill any sense of responsibility.  However, when I gave a speech about nuclear disarmament amidst the hey-day of the escalation between the United States and Russia (when there still was a Russia) I was surprised that my cheeks got red, that my hands shook, and that, as I am still sometimes prone to do, talked so fast I lost so much annunciation that many couldn't understand all that I was saying. 

If one wasn’t scared of nuclear war in the 80s s/he wasn’t paying attention.  More importantly, I chose this topic.  My teacher didn’t choose it for me.  The prompt our class was given was to speak about our greatest political, cultural, or social fear at any level of community organization.  

I spent hours upon hours researching (learning factual and historical information) without being graded for my research. We didn’t even have to do research.  It wasn’t a necessity of the speech.  The only goal, other than following a rubric for speaking mechanics and the organization of our speaking points, was to create an emotional response in our audience (my classmates).  I didn’t set out to do all this research. It just happened.  I got sucked in because of how much I enjoyed the process.

Long before I knew I’d be a teacher Mr. Gravel taught me so much about great teaching and about teaching students to find their voice.  Their real, authentic, genuine, impassioned, and not superficial voice.  It wasn't about 'cause of the moment activism' but rather about identifying how our fears, pride, and compassion caused us to resonate with world events.

As a tribute to the Mr. Gravel’s of the world I thought I’d share the message below that I sent to our District-Wide Green Team earlier today.  When we empower our students to great oration we send a force out into the world whose impact is amazing.

Happy Friday and have a great, hopefully warm, weekend.

...my note to the Green Team...

Good morning everyone,

I thought I’d forward the attached (see link below titled "Speaking truth gives youth great power") because it’s a nice nexus between our Green Team’s mission and our educator mission of serving children.  Perhaps more inspirationally it reminds us of what great things children can lead when entrusted with leadership!

I agree with the premise that when children give impassioned speeches to adults on serious cultural issues, it causes an emotional response and greater engagement by those adult listeners.  I think I know why that is, but I won’t share because I am not sure.  What I do know however is the response by adults is profoundly different when they hear this message from a child. 

If you need a little inspiration check out the links in the article to see some great (child) orators!  For greater ease I have copied two links below.

Mike

“If a child on the streets (of Brazil) who has nothing is willing to share, why are we, who have everything still so greedy?”

Severn Cullis Suzuki, age 12, 1992 Earth Summit in Rio

Severn’s speech

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_O1Au8vZLA&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRols63MZKXonjHpfsX56uskWqa2lMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4ES8JiI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFS7jNMbZkz7gOXRE%3D

Ta’Kaiya Blaney’s speech

http://www.takaiyablaney.com/?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRols63MZKXonjHpfsX56uskWqa2lMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4ES8JiI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFS7jNMbZkz7gOXRE%3D

The rest can be viewed here:

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/science-matters/2015/02/speaking-truth-gives-youth-great-power/

Next Week's Calendar

Monday, Feb 23

• Welcome Back!

Tuesday, Feb 24

• Late Buses
• BCCF Meeting 6:30

Wed, Feb 25

• Late Buses
• Staff Character Committee Meets 3:00
• BOE meets 7:00

Thurs, Feb 26

• Late Buses
• Student PAC meet 3:00
• BOU spelling Bee 7:00

Fri, Feb 27

For the most effective learning habits… ask a brick mason!

Middle school is the time when most students figure out they don’t know how to study and even more importantly, they don’t know how to store larger and larger amounts of information. 

Curriculum in elementary school primarily consists of two types; sequential skill building (as in ELA and math) and discreet units of study (as in Social Studies and Science).  When students enter Middle School a third type of learning, long-term information assimilation and synthesis, is introduced.  Students who are really strong memorizers often need help becoming successful when this latter type of learning is crucial.

Consider John, who has an amazing memory, and who through elementary school, when his science and social studies units are only a few weeks long, is able to soar through his assessments with high scores.  Next consider Sally, who seemingly learns more slowly, more deliberately, and who has to have facts ‘make sense’ in order to be able to recall them.  Sally does well in elementary school but not quite as well as John.  John and his parents naturally assume that when he gets to middle school he will continue to distinguish himself.  This is true for the first few months of the year, but as time goes on, John’s scores decline and his frustration increases. 

Sally, on the other hand, continues to roll along actually getting stronger as the year progresses. 

What’s going on?

The best analogy that describes the difference between John and Sally is a comparison of two brick masons.  The first is rather unprofessional and only builds walls that are three courses (levels) high.   His courses are uneven and poorly laid but because he never builds them very high, his walls suffice. The second is a master craftsman who builds walls that support buildings.  He builds more slowly, ensuring that each course is perfectly laid to serve as a strong foundation for the next.  His joints distribute the load of the bricks above evenly and his mortar beds are exact due to his use of a level to ensure perfection.  When the first mason, whose foundations are weak, tries to build a larger wall, it quickly crumbles. 

John is like the mason who builds weak walls because of his weak foundations.  John tries to simply memorize all information like a set of flash cards, ‘putting away’ information as unrelated facts.  When the number of facts John needs to know is small (like the low walls of the weak brick mason) his deficiency is hard to see.  Sally, on the other hand, ensures that every piece of information that she puts away is connected to other pieces of information.  She seeks and creates understanding between facts and understands how they interplay conceptually.  Sally, understands for example, why density is a foundational concept of both weather and of plate tectonics.  She understands that both processes are driven by density gradients, while John, conversely, never makes this connection.

The good news for John is that his teachers recognize this.  The bad news for John is that he does not!  With many students like John, they are resistant to creating meaning like Sally as they are learning, until they experience failure.  (For more about the psychology of this resistance read Carol Dweck’s book about Mindset) When John finally sees the error of his ways, usually long after a teacher or parent has tried to show him, he begins to accept and try things differently.

What should a parent do in this equation?

Because every student is different it’s important for parents to realize that the time in a child’s life when he finally hits his wall (when he can no longer rely upon memorization to succeed in conceptually dense subjects like Social Studies and Science) can be different for each student.  For some it happens in 6^th grade while for others it’s not until 10^th grade. 

The two things to be on the lookout for are a decline in performance, like John’s, and opportunities to explain these different types of learning to children when they arise.  These teachable moments can be used to develop both types of learning and to hopefully prevent ‘hitting any walls.’

As we enter the third quarter of the year teachers will naturally make connections between concepts taught now and those taught earlier in the year.  The BEST thing parents can do is learn along with your child. Have them simply review what they are learning and ask them questions where it seems like their concepts are disconnected.

An Example:

I was talking with a student in Biology and asking her about gene replacement therapy.  She explained that gene replacement therapy was a technique used to fix broken genes in people.  As an example she described how someone with diabetes could be cured by having his DNA fixed through gene replacement therapy.  Here is the rest of our conversation:

(Me) “Is this in use now?”

“Um, I think so.”

(Me) “How sure are you?”

“I’m not sure.”

(Me) “So I get the concept, but how does it work?”

“They fix your genes.”

(Me) “I get that but how do they do it?  Do they literally go in with really small tools and fix all one trillion cells in your body?”

“No they only fix the cells that need to be fixed.”

(Me) “But all of your cells have the same bad DNA, so how do they fix only some cells and not others.”

“I guess it’s like a medicine.”

(Me) “You mean you ingest in and it knows what cells to fix?”

“Yes.”

This is where I stopped the discussion.  There were major flaws in her understanding so I helped her to understand these.  In similar situations I have had this same student write down questions to go back to her teacher with, I have had her find basic articles online that explain the concept, and I have had her read aloud passages of a textbook that we both subsequently analyzed for meaning.  I happen to know a little about biology to help her, but we use these latter tactics frequently in subjects that I am not as knowledgeable about.

And so, like the deliberate brick mason, children often need to appreciate the purpose of being deliberate when crafting knowledge.  More importantly, they need to understand that memorization is a form of learning but it’s not a panacea that solves all needs. 

Lastly, as parents, the most important thing we can do in these situations is compel our children to seek the help of their teachers.  Learning how to study is a skill that we work on a great deal in our curriculum but because of the differences between students sometimes students need fix-up strategies.  It is in these times when spending as little as 5 minutes with a teacher (outside of class) can remedy the issue.

Now that we have begun our third quarter I encourage all of our students to become skilled brick masons of learning!

Mr. Klugman

End of Week Notes

Quote of the Week...

• "The time is always right to do what is right."  Martin Luther King Jr. 

Middle School Report Cards

• When any changes are made to report cards they are automatically re-posted to Aspen.
• Last week some of our staff and parents discovered that (only) some classes had miscalculations in students' grade point averages.  These have been corrected and report cards re-posted.

For More about the Common Core Standards...

• www.corestandards.org (the site of the standards)
• New York State's homepage for the Common Core (https://www.engageny.org/resource/new-york-state-p-12-common-core-learning-standards) this is published and maintained by the New York State Education Dept but it is important to realize that the standards were not authored by New York.  They were adopted by New York.
• A short 3 minute video about the need for the CCLS  http://www.commoncoreworks.org/page/378
• The wisdom of Linda Darling Hammond:  http://dianeravitch.net/2013/10/24/linda-darling-hammond-on-the-common-core-standards/

US Senate agrees that Climate Change is real in 98 to 1 Vote

• http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/22/7870261/us-senate-votes-climate-change-is-real-98-to-1
• Is this finally a tipping point for domestic policy that will effect climate awareness?

Parents and students - Please be sure to check our announcements online for Important Dates related to Clubs and Extracurricular Activities 

• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH3fAvfE9hFJnlMtmBJz_6A/videos

Monday, Feb 9

• Snow Day - No School

Tuesday, Feb 10

• Late Buses

Wed, Feb 11

• Late buses

Thurs, Feb 12

• Late Buses

Fri, Feb 13

• We will have FASS (Friday Support for Students (LMC 3:00 to 5:00))
• Happy Friday
• Enjoy Vacation! (No school next week)

Just Stop! … Bashing the Common Core Learning Standards!

There is a sure way to sound like either a layperson (where education policy is concerned) or a politician; get caught bashing the Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS).  In other words, the only people who are consistently complaining about the Common Core are those who are uninformed about what the standards are and what they are NOT, or people who are trying to manipulate public opinion.

The Common Core Learning Standards are not only GREAT for Bethlehem students, they are great for all students!

The standards are not the test! 

Most New Yorkers and many political figures have suffered from an enormous misdirection.  Magicians use this tactic purposefully to get us to watch the wrong thing while the “magic” happens somewhere else.  Many elected officials, the media, and yes, even many educators (I’ll get to this group momentarily) have manipulated this same misdirection tactic on New York parents.  While I have every confidence that we parents and educators in Bethlehem see through such transparent attempts at manipulation, the National stage is one where this is still alive and thriving. 

We might ask why various stakeholders continue to decry the CCLS.  I genuinely believe that in many cases it’s simple ignorance.  The CCLS are dense and complex to process (for any person), but they are BETTER than what New York had previously.  They are CLEARER for educators and they SPECIFY learning tasks and expected PROFICIENCIES better than documents used by other states.  Equally important, the CCLS are the FIRST set of standards that create equity for students across our country.  

Why bash the standards?

• Pander to an easily swayed public: Our political reality is that we exist in an era where it is has become a political norm to chase voters’ emotional hot buttons even when they aren’t the important issues of the day.  While some issues have been mainstays for decades, the CCLS have become a trend that parties and individuals use to distinguish themselves (wrongfully) from opponents.  There is no better way to make constituents think that one is a ‘champion of the people’ than by drumming up some issue that isn’t really impacting, taking a firm stand that is driven by whatever the consensus is, and then self-promoting oneself as the ‘champion of the day.’  Ethical political figures distinguish themselves from their counterparts by refraining from such transparent tactics.

• To understand the Standards takes time… As mentioned the standards are a long and dense document.  That does not mean they are difficult for students.  It is difficult for a set of directions to be clear AND brief at the same time.  This is where many sets of standards fail.  In an effort to be ‘easy to read’ other standards have fallen short because they are too brief and not descriptive enough.  The CCLS are certainly not brief.  They elicit clearly what expectations are of students and how students can demonstrate their proficiency.  Further, they suggest integration strategies into other disciplines and are progressive in nature, clearly laying out how each grade level builds upon the previous.

• People (all stakeholder groups) continue to confuse the STANDARDS and the TEST(s)… Many people are shocked when they find out the assessments used by states to test the CCLS are NOT written by the same body that wrote the standards.  The amazingly talented group who wrote the CCLS have nothing to do with the assessments that are designed to measure them.  Kentucky and New York thus far are the only states that aligned their ELA and Math assessments in Grades 3-8 assessments and the results in both states saw the performance of students of all abilities dip substantially.  Those in support of the exams state that this is evidence that our previous standards were not as high as they should have been, while many others state that the exams are not a fair translation of the standards.  Fueling this debate is the lack of evidence to prove that the exams are in fact fair. 

• Note: Psychometrics is the study of how assessments should be designed and whether they are valid.  It won’t come as a surprise to most that this field has made the interpretation and analysis of assessments as complex as our federal tax code, so most educators are not in a position to speak to the validity of state assessments (and wisdom would dictate that we refrain from doing so unless we understand the deep psychometric analysis that it takes to truly do so).  Further complicating this domain is the outsourcing of the creation of these exams to a third party vendor and a mandate that keeps much of these exams secure from scrutiny from experts in education.

A word about educators who attack the CCLS

They too need to stop.  Unfortunately and embarrassingly these educators claim that all testing is bad and that kids need to be kids.  This sounds nice, but the reality is that great teaching is always assessing where kids are in their growth with concepts.  The best assessments are those that are “formative,” meaning they are embedded into instruction and great teachers use a multitude of this type of assessment on a daily basis to assess how they need to change instruction or if feedback needs to be given to students so that they (students) know where they are in their progress.  Any educator who claims that all assessment is bad is a novice in their skill at best.  What many mean to state is that ‘bad tests are bad’ and this is absolutely correct.  Evidence demonstrates that teachers who have weak assessment skills underserve their students (Marzano is a leading researcher in this domain).

The next step for New York State is NOT to dispose of the CCLS.  It should be to evaluate our assessments to ensure that they accurately assess the standards at the appropriate level of rigor.  This will no doubt be the charge of our next New York State Commissioner.

End of Week Notes

Thank you(s)!

• To all who participated in our first ever PTO sponsored Chicken Parm Dinner Fundraiser.  We placed over 480 orders for dinner and ALL proceeds go to the Field Trip Fund for all grades.  WOW!
• To all who attended and will attend our Middle School Musical... another amazing production by our students and Mr. and Mrs. Dashew!
• To all of our parent volunteers who have made events (like our 6th grade social, and our Musical) possible!  Without you these events couldn't possibly be the success they are!

BCMS Announcements are now ONLINE

• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH3fAvfE9hFJnlMtmBJz_6A/videos

An Invitation to Parents to a Special Presentation for Students
On February 24th BCMS is conducting a Leadership Assembly for each of our grade levels whose theme is PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.  Parents who would like to attend will be able to sit in our balcony or in our overflow seating in the Library.  As the date gets closer we will share more details.

As of next week I will post a form for parents to sign up to attend!

An Awesome Pay it Forward Act

For those who didn't catch the story of about a select group of students who decided to "Pay Forward" small acts of kindness that yielded a huge impact check this out:

http://www.bethlehemschools.org/sticky-notes-bring-positive-messages-smiles-bcms/

While many parents have commended the adults in our building for our efforts in this, it really was our students who conceived of and implemented the entirety of these acts!  Outstanding!

Calling All Spring Athletes!

The deadline for handing forms for Spring Sports is fast approaching and students who have not initiated this process (or their parents) can email Mrs. Watson in the Health office for more information (kwatson@bcsd.neric.org)

Thank you to all in our community for making Bethlehem an outstanding place where community can be found easily!

Have a great weekend!

Monday, Feb 2

• Faculty Meets - ice cream provided by SADD and Fran Vincent (Thank you!)

Tuesday, Feb 3

• Late Buses
• Open PTO Meeting (Financial Planning for College workshop for all interested) 7:00 PM Library Media Center (specifically for Middle School parents but all are welcome)

Wed, Feb 4

• Character Breakfast
• Late buses
• BOE meets

Thurs, Feb 5

• Late Buses

Fri, Feb 6

• Spring Sports signups and paperwork due to health office in one week (Feb 13)
• Happy Friday

How Much Does One Person Matter

How Much Does One Person Matter?

There are many things teachers can do to engage students with difficult lessons.  One of the most difficult lessons to grasp for adolescents is the cumulative impact of many small actions. 

Whether it be voting in elections, participating as a part of a larger team, or doing small acts of community service (like our Green Team’s initiatives) adolescents (and some adults) so often want to see immediate feedback and impact of their small act.  When they cannot get this, as is often the case when doing small positive things, they too often and too easily disengage from participating.

This is one of the core reasons for our Spirit “competition” between teams.

Today we announced that our P1 team had the most students turn in forms from our Chicken Parm Fundraiser.  They, with 86% participation, beat out P2 by 1% and Mohawk by a bit more.  Please note that to participate, students did not need to make a purchase but needed to simply turn in their sheet.  We have a little more than 1150 students and only 1/3 of our students placed orders for dinners.  This means that many more students participated who did NOT order dinners.

I put quotes around the word competition above because there aren’t huge consequences attached to winning and losing our spirit contests.  We have a ‘house cup’ we’ll award to the eventual overall team winner at the end of the year and that’s it!

We minimize the overall reward in this instance to underscore the importance of the larger intrinsic message; to be a part of a community and to have community one must be communal.  That’s hard enough when one’s community is more than a 1,000 people, and even harder when they are adolescents whose intellectual smarts are way ahead of their emotional smarts. 

Community is what spirit, participation, and engagement are about.  When a person fully joins with his or her community it’s never easy.  There can be as much bad as good and as much dysfunction as teamwork.  But the teachable lesson for our students is that dealing with any of the sad or negative aspects in any community are better than being isolated and not having a community.  This too is a lesson that can be enormously difficult for many children whose personal circumstance leads them to see more of the negative aspects of community than positive, which is all the more reason why we make every attempt to build in safe opportunities for students to participate.

While I offer congratulations to our P1 students for their small victory, the ultimate prize for all of our students comes to those who make the effort, who try regardless of success or failure, and who receive positive support from their community for engaging!  While our P1 students gave a small cheer this morning, our Mohawk and P2 students felt a little more unity in making the effort communally!

Well done and have a great weekend!

Mr. Klugman

...and as to the title of this piece... it was one participant that pushed P1 ahead of P2.  How much does one person matter?  A great deal!

End of Week Notes

Reminder: Semester Change

• Mr. Warford reminded all students today that they should check their schedules to confirm their rotations through exploratory classes (Art, Music, and Technology).  For 6th graders Technology offerings are either ATM (Academic Technology Management) or CL (Computer Literacy)
• There is never a better time to work on expectations for organization than at quarter breaks. Parents can check students agendas, have students show you their homework and all in an affirmative tone where we, as parents, compliment them for getting back into, or continuing their positive practice.

It's not what you'd expect...

• The BCMS musical is absolutely not what you'd expect from a middle school musical.  It's so much more!  Thanks to the direction of Jason and Lynsdey Dashew and our amazing cast this year's production will far exceed any expectations!

What is FASS?

• FASS is Friday After School Support
• students can either be assigned to it or can voluntarily opt into it to receive support in the form of math or ELA help, in the form of a quiet place to do work, and in the form of having access to computers if needed.
• We routinely have a math teacher, an ELA teacher and any combination of Mr. Klugman (science support), Mr. Warford (ELA and SS support) and Mr. Zadoorian (ELA and SS support) to work with students
• Parents and students who would like more information can call our counselors
• We meet every Friday from 3:00 to 5:00 PM

Wow, We were really impressed by our 8th graders!

• Our snowflake 8th grade dance was a huge success and largely due to the behaviors of our 8th grade students who were appropriate to a person.  Thanks to Mrs. Vincent, Health teacher and SADD coordinator for her support and organization, to our SADD students, to Mr. Warford and Mr. Zadoorian for their work behind the scenes to support students, and to our parent and staff chaperones!  Well done!

Monday, Jan 26

• 1st day of Semester 2 - HB and exploratory transitions

Tuesday, Jan 27

• Late Buses

Wed, Jan 28

• Late buses

Thurs, Jan 29

• OPENING NIGHT - Bye, Bye Birdie - BCMS Musical
• Late buses

Fri, Jan 30

• Bye Bye Birdie continues
• Q2 report cards published to Aspen

Sat. Jan 31

• Bye, Bye Birdie Matinee and Evening Shows ...last day to see a great production

Teenage and Adult Grieving

January 16, 2015

I shared sad news with our 8P2 students and their parents yesterday that the husband of our Social Studies teacher Kristen Burns, died this week in a snowmobile accident.  What follows is an excerpt from the note I sent out to parents.  For reasons of sensitivity I will be editing this post in the coming weeks to remove the reference to the event, but will be keeping up the helpful reminders below, but I certainly hope that parents do not have need to revisit these.

As a school community we are extraordinarily careful in setting up an environment that shares information discreetly and in a way that diminishes students and parents hearing about a tragic event like this one through surprise, through rumor, or any inappropriate medium.


I have asked that our staff and students please refrain from expressing comments, sentiments, or sharing of this information through social online media.  I clarified that we want to provide Mrs. Burns and her daughters a safe, private, and secure space to have time to themselves and that despite our best intentions, if we post information through our friend networks it is very likely that it will cause interruption and disruption to Mrs. Burns’ family.  I would ask that parents also abide by this request.

As parents, please understand that adolescents, like adults, grieve in different ways.  Some need quiet space and time, while others want to talk and open up. 

Some helpful reminders for talking with students about an event like this one:

• Normalize a child’s feelings by assuring them that their reaction is fine.   It is also reassuring for adolescents to know that our feelings can be unpredictable, inconsistent, and diverse and this is all within norms of how people respond to a tragic event. 
• As a coping strategy it is often easier for an adolescent to write than to speak.  Students were encouraged to leave cards and letters in our counseling office and we will continue to deliver written messages to Mrs. Burns’ family.  As parents, employing a journaling mechanism with our children is also a tactic that can help teens more effectively communicate.
• I shared with our students that they will see our teachers continue to teach in their classes, or that they may see me on the morning announcement sharing a positive message about some event in school.  I told students that this doesn’t mean we are being insensitive to Mrs. Burns, or that we have forgotten what happened.  Many adults and teens cope through routines and I shared what while we, as adults, will continually be thinking about the Burns family, we will maintain our routines as a benefit to all in our community.
• For students who have experienced a prior loss in their own families this may revisit feelings from those events or an even stronger empathetic response.
• Any parents who have concerns about how your child feels are welcome to contact us so that we can monitor and support students and work with you to help them.

We also shared that students should continue to uphold plans to attend the 8^th grade dance if it was their original plan.  Being together in a community may provide a strong coping strategy for students who need a sense of connection.  I also welcome and encourage any parents who would like to attend the dance as a chaperone to do so.

On behalf of our staff I want to thank all of you for your continued support and I welcome any questions parents have.

Sincerely,

Mr. Klugman

End of Week Notes

• One Week Left (in the 2nd quarter)
• Our 2nd quarter grade books close on January 23rd
• Students should be focused on attending to any missed work due to absence and print an updated copy of their schedule so they are aware of course changes at the onset of the 3rd quarter.  Students who are unsure about course changes can see their counselors
• No school Monday - Recognition of Martin Luther King Jr. Day
• Enjoy the 3 day weekend

• 8th Grade Scheduling
• As of today, 8th grade students have had presentations by Department Supervisors, by Counselors, and have received their course recommendations.  Students were directed to bring home their course recommendation sheets for parents review.  Parents should be discussing these recommendations with your student and you are welcomed to send questions to our counselors or Department Supervisors
• 7th Grade Scheduling
• Parents and students will soon receive letters about the lottery process for 
• Studio in Art (a 9th grade course that carries High School Credit)
• Introduction to Engineering and Design (IED) (also a 9th grade course)
• Parents and students DO NOT get a course request sheet because all other courses are sequential and students simply move on to the next level
• 6th Grade Scheduling
• Like 7th grade, courses are sequential so no course recommendation sheet is necessary
• The one exception (to 6th and 7th grade sequencing)
• 6th & 7th Grade Math teachers will notify students of opportunity to challenge to a higher level in the coming weeks.  We will also post a letter detailing this process to Aspen and notify parents. To clarify, this would apply to students who want to accelerate to a grade level beyond their current grade and it involves taking an exam to qualify. More information to come

Welcome to 2015!

Welcome to 2015!

In my notes to our staff this week I mentioned that it is either perhaps because of my age or perhaps some other force that this year seems to be flying by.  As our High School Administration and K-12 Supervisors presented to our 8th grade students this past Tuesday about their transition to 9th grade I couldn't help but remember this same group when they were in 5th grade and our counselors visited their elementary buildings to talk about their 5th to 6th grade transition.

I was struck by how enormously proud we are of this group but also reminded of how easy it is to lose sight of staying grounded in celebrating the time we have right now.  Our 6th graders surely no longer feel like outsiders to the middle school and our 7th graders are beginning to see themselves as the 'big kids' in the building.  As these transitions occur we seize the opportunity to make sure that our students recognize the positive and negative potential of their leadership.

An example of how we do this will occur on February 24th during our Homebases and you, parents, are invited to attend.  Last year, through the leadership and planning of our counselors, we conducted a day where we focused on positive relationship building.  Our girls and boys watched gender specific documentaries and had post-viewing discussions focused on positive relationships with friends, focused on leadership, and focused on being active advocates of others.

This year's presentation has all students by grade together to hear a special message about personal responsibility and how this translates to a growth mindset and success.

Our students will fill the lower level of our auditorium but parents will be welcome to sit in our upper level and if we run out of seats in the upper level we will have overflow seating in our Library.

We ask parents to save the date of February 24th and note our homebase times below.

Thank you and have a great weekend!

Mr. Klugman

6th grade homebase (12:33 - 1:17)
7th grade homebase (10:33 - 11:17)
8th grade homebase (11:18 - 12:02)

End of Week Notes

BCMS Announcements are now ONLINE

• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH3fAvfE9hFJnlMtmBJz_6A/videos

8th Grade Parent Reminder

• No students can schedule classes without parents seeing their course request forms
• Our counselors are meeting with 8th graders this week and on Monday and students will bring their forms home for parent signature next week 
• This process is timed so that parents can attend the transition meeting next Tuesday prior to signing off on the course requests

BCMS Begins its Telescope Loan Program!!!

• All students who attend an Astronomy Club meeting where they are trained in the care and handling of our new telescopes are allowed to sign them out on an online calendar for a weekend.  The program begins this weekend and promises to provide students a great opportunity to engage with astronomical events!

Chicken Parm Fundraiser

• Parents, please don't forget to place orders by the January 21 deadline
• A great way to support our Field Trip fundraising while reaping the benefits of a great dinner for 4 and all for only $24.00 ($6.00 per person)!!
• For more information please refer to the email I (Mr. Klugman) sent earlier this week that included an order form (students were also given forms at the onset of the week)

Next Week's Calendar

Monday, January 12

• No late buses today
• Dept meetings for teachers

Tuesday, Jan 13

• PTO bd meets 1:30
• 8th grade PARENT transition night (HS 7:00)

Wednesday, Jan 14

• BOU meets 7:00

Thurs, Jan 15

• Lab school 8th grade parent presentation 6:30 (MS Auditorium)

Friday, Jan 16

• Snowflake Dance (8th grade) 7:30

A Special Thank You

December 22, 2014

Our PTO has seemingly grown each year throughout the past four years.  While they have a similar number of officers and volunteers, the impact they have on our middle school is tremendous and continues to grow each year.  I am reminded of this by our staff and by the many events we have in our building that they sponsor and support.  I want to thank not only our officers for their great work but also all of our parents for the support you give our PTO through membership and / or participation as a volunteer in the many events they contribute to.

Our PTO has supported the following:

• Fundraising to help reduce the cost per student of our field trips
• Funding for so much of our Garden Program including composting, raised bed materials, and support for our “Salads for Kids” days         
• Funding for much of our Character Programming including our hallway banners and our breakfast and lunch recognition programming
• Support of our teams for annual initiatives and mentoring programming
• Support for our PE department in their acquisition of equipment
• Support for our Social Events in all of the volunteers they coordinate

Great schools have great connections to their community and many opportunities for parents to participate to see the internal workings of their schools.  Our American Education Week was exemplary of this and our PTO once again was instrumental in making this event a great one for our community.

On behalf of all our staff at BCMS I offer our gratitude and appreciation to our parents and our PTO for all that you do!

Sincerely,

Mike Klugman

Principal, BCMS

Read more about our BCMS PTO by visiting their website:
http://www.bcmspto.org/

___________________________________________________________

Big News of the Week
The big news this week comes from BCMS' very own TV Studio!   Our morning announcements are now online.  Parents can see more here (every day): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH3fAvfE9hFJnlMtmBJz_6A/videos

WOW- Another Great Concert(s)!
Our 7th and 8th grade winter concerts took place last week and once again our musicians demonstrate a level of discipline and commitment that is exemplary.  Our middle school students exceed what my high school band, orchestra and choir was capable of and it's due to both participation and to level and caliber of play.  Well done!

An Invitation to Parents to a Special Presentation for Students
On February 24th BCMS is conducting a Leadership Assembly for each of our grade levels whose theme is PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.  Parents who would like to attend will be able to sit in our balcony or in our overflow seating in the Library.  As the date gets closer we will share more details.

Next Week's Calendar

Monday, December 22

• Regular day of school - no late buses

Tuesday, Dec 23

• Regular day of school - We will have late buses for students who want to stay with teachers

Wednesday, Dec 24

• NO SCHOOL 
• OFFICES Closed 

Thurs, Dec 25

• NO SCHOOL 
• OFFICES Closed 

Friday, Dec 26

• NO SCHOOL 
• OFFICES are OPEN 

Week of December 29-January 2
Offices will be closed on December 31 and January 1

Have a great week!

Mr. K