The Bigelow PTO meeting with Superintendent David Fleishman and School committee members (Rajeev Parlikar and Paul Levy) will take place via Zoom on Wednesday March 23 at 9am. Open to all Bigelow parents/guardians.
Zoom link: https://newton-k12-ma-us.zoom.us/j/5452808903
Password: bigelow
Interpretation:
If a family needs Interpretation for this meeting, please complete this Google form at least 3 days before the meeting: https://forms.gle/daA8qQjm61BJDocD7.
Please join the Newton Public Schools for an informative community forum with guest speaker Phyllis Fagell. Ms. Fagell is a licensed clinical professional counselor, certified professional school counselor, journalist, and author of the best-selling book “Middle School Matters: The 10 Key Skills Kids Need to Thrive in Middle School and Beyond—and How Parents Can Help.” She is also a Ward, Day and North grad! This will be a terrific night filled with important information and dialogue, including how families can help their students navigate through the pandemic. You can take a sneak peek at her work on her website.
Here is the Zoom link for this virtual forum:
https://newton-k12-ma-us.zoom.us/j/88476468856
Meeting ID: 884 7646 8856
Passcode: 090547
Please RSVP to the forum using this form. You can login without an RSVP, but it is helpful for us to have a general sense of attendance to plan accordingly. Here is the RSVP form:
More details on the forum can be found on the NPS website here: https://www.newton.k12.ma.us/Page/3988 See below for a description of the presentation.
Building Middle Schoolers’ Resilience and Confidence
Through stories, research and her professional experience, Phyllis will offer parents a menu of practical strategies that will help tweens and teens acquire the key skills they need to manage the social complexity, academic challenges and intense emotions that characterize this critical phase. The added challenges inherent in raising our children through a pandemic, the influence of social media, and the increase in mental health issues will also be covered.
Phyllis is the school counselor at Sheridan School in Washington, DC, a therapist who works with kids and families in private practice, and an author and journalist. She’s the author of “Middle School Matters” and a frequent contributor to the Washington Post. She also writes for Psychology Today, CNN, Working Mother, U.S. News & World Report and Your Teen, and her ideas have been shared in outlets including The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker and NPR. Phyllis lives in Bethesda, MD with her husband and three children. She grew up in Newton and attended Ward Elementary School, Frank A. Day Junior High and Newton North High School.
Your student was provided with a test kit just before February break. We recommend that you use one of the tests on Sunday, February 27, 2022 (prior to returning to school on Monday.) Please use the second test on Tuesday, March 1, 2022.
The PTO would like to thank the Bigelow Counseling team for hosting a Bigelow family educational session on Friday morning about “Understanding the mind of a middle schooler“.
A lot of interesting and useful information was shared, and we are truly lucky to have such a dedicated and professional team at Bigelow.
If you were not able to join, please find the presentation here and the recording here.
Stay tune for another informative session next month. All parents/guardians are welcome.
A family in our school needs financial help from the community. Please help if you can through this Gofundme campaign.
The PTO donated $2,000 from the “Todd Harrison Bigelow Cares Fund”.
JOIN US for FAMILY EDUCATION and REFLECTION
As we are all learning about what we can do to build an anti racist school, community, world– we hope you can join us for a week long school-wide learning activity -called the 7-Day Anti-Racism Equity Challenge–originally sponsored by Brandeis University.
The purpose of the week is to engage in reflection and practical thinking on how to integrate racial equity into our work and daily habits– for ourselves, our families, and our school. Even if you think you/your kids have “done that–” we want to encourage all our families to take part.
Bigelow’s 7 Day Challenge will take place (all on your own time) during Black History Month- February 21-27, 2022. Each activity takes about 15 minutes to complete.Then, on March 1 join us on ZOOM when we will come together as a school community to reflect on what we are learning. Hope to see you there!
To register for the Bigelow FORJ Anti-Racism Challenge, please complete this form.
The Bigelow PTO Family Directory is hosted online at Membership Toolkit. The access is free and it can be used by all Bigelow families. The directory is run and funded by the PTO thanks to your support!
The online platform is a secure and easy to use tool that organizes contact information from all Bigelow families unless they specifically opt out. It is a convenient, environmentally conscious system, that can be updated throughout the school year.
If you are unfamiliar with the platform, if you have forgotten your directory access login, or if you are unsure about whether or not you are in it, please email us with your name and your child’s name(s) at bigelowbulldog@gmail.com.
The success of the system is dependent on every family logging in and updating their information. Families can edit their name, address, and phone numbers, and each family can decide which pieces of information will be available for others to view through the privacy settings.
Have great ideas for what friends will bid on?
Join us in planning the Bigelow Big Nights Online Auction Committee! A relaxed group of Bigelow parents looking to plan the largest funding event of the school year!
We need your thoughts!
Please reach out to Julie Landesman (madamelandesman@gmail.com) or Alexia Giannakopolous (alexiag5@yahoo.com) with your ideas.
A big thank you to all who participated in Bigelow Family Trivia Night! We battled it out with questions ranging across music, sports, literature, pop culture, history, and Bigelow factoids. A special thank you to the very competitive teachers team and Principal Coston for joining in such a fun evening! And thank you to all who showed their Bigelow spirit! We hope to do it again next year but in person!
First Place: Bigelow Blizzards
2nd place: Straight Outta Pencils
Bigelow Spirit Award: Mega Minds
Bigelow Counseling presents a family educational session entitled, “Understanding the mind of a middle schooler”. The virtual event will take place Friday, 2/11 from 9-10am.