It is time for 8th grade students to start the process of registering for high school courses. Here are some important dates regarding Newton North High School’s course registration process:

• Monday, March 8 – Monday, March 29
  Teachers begin entering course recommendations into Aspen.
• Thursday, March 18
  Virtual 8th Grade Student and Family Night. You can access a recording here.
• Friday, March 19
  Newton North High School Opportunities books are available online. This book contains Newton North course descriptions and elective choices. You should begin to read this catalog with your student!
• Wednesday, March 24
  During the school day, Jessica Pierce (Grade 8 Counselor) will present information regarding the registration process for Newton North to 8th grade students.

• Thursday, March 25
  Grade 8 Parents/Guardians are invited to a virtual “Coffee” with NNHS Principal, Henry Turner and Kathleen Duff, Career Technical Education Department Head (9:00 AM -9:30 AM). Zoom Link: https://newton-k12-ma-us.zoom.us/j/89655020927?pwd=dnlZeFYxU1pKano2MEVvZS9xVEcydz09 – Passcode: 650548

• Monday, March 29 – Sunday, April 11
  8th Graders enter their elective choices into Aspen. Individual teacher recommendations will be available in Aspen to Bigelow students starting at 5:00 PM. You will also be able to log into Aspen to view the course recommendations and selections your student has made, however, classes can only be entered through the student portal. Please review this information with your student.
• Sunday, April 11
  Course requests MUST be entered into Aspen by 8:00 PM. Counselor will be checking all student course registration requests in Aspen.
• Months of March and April
  Special Education Courses will be determined with you and your student at the scheduled IEP/Transition meetings. Your student will participate in his/her meeting and you will be notified of the time and date. Please do not cancel this appointment- we are not on a flexible schedule.

From the Principal’s Office

On Monday, March 22, 2021, during advisory, the attached message was communicated to all students.  Powerpoint Message.   Powerpoint Message in Mandarin. 

On March 23,  staff gathered on the front steps before school with  a banner that denounces racism and supports our AAPI community.  We will be gathering again on Thursday and Friday mornings this week and invite students to sign the banner and to join the staff in a show of unity.  If your child is a distance student, they may stop by before school or during lunch to sign the banner outside, or they can contact their school counselor to sign for them.

In addition, we are developing lessons for our advisory program which will give students an opportunity to channel their energies into making a positive difference for the community, and we are also planning a celebration of Asian-American culture during AAPI Heritage Month in May, similar to our past Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations.

We  abhor the recent violence against Asian-Americans in Atlanta and the rise in racism against people of Asian and Pacific Island descent during the pandemic, and we stand united in fighting against it.  As always, our approach is to educate our students,  to help them deepen their understanding of the harm that racism in any form can cause, to give them venues to express their voices and feelings,  to connect with and support one another, and to be pro-active in reflecting and making a difference,

If you have concerns about your own child, please contact  your child’s school counselor. Asian-American students are also welcome to attend our Asian-American Affinity Group, led by ELL teacher Stacy Zheng, on Tuesday afternoons. Information and links for this group can be found on our website.

We thank the Bigelow FORJ Chapter for sharing information in their recent email about opportunities for families to get involved.  I have reprinted their list of online resources below.

Stand strong, Bigelow.

Best regards,

Todd

Bigelow is excited to announce a 6th Grade ONLY Basketball Club on Fridays in the gym from 3-4:00pm. Students will be organized into short cross-court games of 4 on 4. All COVID protocols for playing sports will be followed; students must wear a mask while playing. If you are interested in signing up your sixth grade child, please complete the google form below.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc255-5ZdJsgHG5THz1eaGUA_QbicK7bZQqiVue8F7Kv0dpvQ/viewform

If you have any questions, please contact our EEE After School Coordinator, Stefanie Dalfior, at dalfiors@newton.k12.ma.us

From Todd Harrison, Bigelow Principal:

Our planning for the full return of all in-person students, beginning April 28, is now in high gear.  We look forward to having all in-person students back in the building soon!

If you are interested in changing your child’s learning model for this final phase of the school year, you may do so.  You will receive a google form with a personalized link for each middle school child early next week to indicate if you want to make a change.  This form is totally optional.  You only need to return it if you want to change your child’s learning model from distance to in-person, or from in-person to distance.  The deadline to return this optional form is Sunday, April 4.  We will hold an optional information meeting for all parents on Tuesday evening, March 30, about the plan for having all in-person students in the building. More details to come.

There has been a change in the schedule for hiring the next principal of Bigelow Middle School.  The visitation days to Bigelow for the finalists will now occur on March 31 and April 1.  During these two days, parents will have an opportunity to meet the final candidates and to give feedback on them.  Superintendent Fleishman will email you with more information in the next few days.

From NNHS FORJ:

I am writing to you on behalf of the planning committee of Families Organizing for Racial Justice (FORJ) at Newton North. We would like to invite parents whose children will be starting at Newton North next year to attend our general meeting next week, to see the work we do at North, and with the hope that you will join us next year.

The theme of our FORJ NNHS General Meeting on March 24th at 7.30pm will be: ‘RACIAL JUSTICE WORK AT NNHS: WHERE ARE WE NOW? WHERE ARE WE GOING?’

The agenda will include:

• Principal Henry Turner, who will give an overview (including an update on grading and the C.A.R.E fund)
• Kathy Lopes, who will discuss her role as Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Newton Public Schools
• Michele Leong, who, along with student representatives, will speak about the Human Rights Council at NNHS
• Special activity led by Renande Loayza, FORJ NNHS Planning Committee

There will be opportunities to ask questions. Please RSVP here to receive the zoom link for the meeting. We also have a website, Instagram feed and Facebook page (links below), if anyone is interested in following us. Thanks so much, and we hope to see you next week!

Samantha

Instagram: @forjnnhs  Facebook: FORJ NNHS Website: FORJ NNHS

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Please save the date for the PTO’s biggest fundraiser of the year – Bigelow Big Night Online Auction 2021! The auction goes live beginning May 14, 2021 at 5 pm and will run through May 23, 2021 at 11:59 pm.

Funds raised from this event support many curriculum-enriching programs that are not covered by the public school budget, such as the Creative Arts and Sciences Program, field trip scholarships and special events, classroom supplies, advanced teacher training, the purchase of gym, performing arts and technology items, and more.

Once again, we will not be able to host our in person social event this year due to COVID-19. Typically, we raise a significant amount of money through ticket sales and sponsorships of our social gathering. Therefore, we will rely solely on our auction to raise funds for the PTO so we need your help more than ever!

Can you donate a gift certificate to your favorite restaurant, spa or hair salon?  Or would you be willing to ask a local business for a donation? Do you have tickets to a sporting event or sports memorabilia? Do you have a vacation house getaway you can donate for a weekend or a week? Would you like to donate a wine basket, artwork, an Italian Dinner basket, Lottery Card Wreath,  Game Night Basket?

Additionally, we are incorporating the theme of Ten Tables (canceled also this year due to the pandemic) into our auction. Our goal is to have 12-14 auction items that are each a three course dinner, for 4-6 people. This can be either prepared by you or purchased from a local restaurant, which is a great way to support our local businesses! So far, we have a Lebanese themed dinner, French, and Italian, which all sound fantastic!

Please fill out the form below to let us know what you are able to donate.

In the coming weeks we will share the list of auction items with all information needed to bid.

Thank you very much for your help and support of the Bigelow Middle School – the students, staff and faculty.
 Please feel free to email with any questions.

Warmly,

Alexia Giannakopoulos(alexiag5@yahoo.com) and Ruth Somers (rsomers201@yahoo.com)

Big Night 2021 Co-Chairs

 Big Night Auction Donation Form

From Todd Harrison, Principal:

Due to voting taking place at Bigelow and other schools for the city-wide special election next Tuesday, all Newton elementary and middle schools will be swapping their Tuesday and Wednesday schedules next week on March 16 and 17.

This means that Tuesday’s usual schedule will take place next Wednesday and Wednesday’s usual schedule will take place next Tuesday.  This is for March 16 and 17 ONLY.

Student schedules have been updated in Aspen, and teachers have sent students the correct zoom invitations to their google calendars.

Tuesday, March 16

• All classes are remote
• We follow the usual Wednesday ( day 5) schedule, 8:15am-1:40pm
• Only hybrid A plus or B plus students who are in-person on Wednesdays should come to Bigelow

Wednesday, March 17

• We will follow the usual Tuesday (day 1) schedule. 8:15am-2:50pm
• In-person classes for hybrid A in the morning until 11:30am
• Remote classes for all students in the afternoon , 12:50-2:50pm
• All hybrid A students should come to Bigelow
• Also all hybrid A plus and B plus who attend in-person on Tuesdays should come to Bigelow

The bus schedules will be changed accordingly.

Please contact the main office if you have any questions.

Julie Berry – Adventures with Books
Tuesday, March 16,  9:00am – 10:00am

Where do ideas come from? What six things does every story need? What does “Star Wars” teach about storytelling? Julie Berry provides a nuts-to-bolts program about what it means to be an author, the process of writing, and getting published. She touches on her upbringing and her favorite books at different stages of her life, and how those books shaped her into an author as an adult. In “Adventures with Books” Julie will walk students through the journey of starting out to write, overcoming the creative roadblocks we all face, and finding ways to tap into creativity and see it through to a finished, revised, publication-worthy end. She will talk about where ideas come from, how to brainstorm, and how to start. Best of all, she teaches kids a lesson on story structure, character, motivation, and plot that uses Star Wars as its textbook. With humor, lots of pop culture references, and questions and answers throughout, Julie engages the students and is as passionate about reading as she is about writing.

Julie Berry is the author of the 2020 NCTE Amelia Walden Award and SCBWI Golden Kite Award winner Lovely War. She is also the author of the 2017 Printz Honor and Los Angeles Times Book Prize shortlisted The Passion of Dolssa, the Carnegie and Edgar shortlisted All the Truth That’s in Me, the Odyssey Honor The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place, and many others. Her first three picture books, Long Ago, on a Silent Night; Don’t Let the Beasties Escape This Book; and Happy Right Now, released in 2019. Her newest middle grade fantasy adventure novel, Wishes and Wellingtons, was recently released from Sourcebooks. Julie is a board member of the California School Library Foundation. She holds a BS from Rensselaer in communication and an MFA in creative writing for children and young adults from Vermont College. To learn more about Julie and her work, visit her website at https://www.julieberrybooks.com/.

This CAS program is sponsored by the Bigelow PTO thanks to your contributions!

Ruby Bridges is living history. She was the first African American child to enter the newly desegregated New Orleans school system in 1960.

During Ruby’s virtual program on March 18, 2021 at 1:10 pm, the 8th graders will have the privilege to have a live discussion with Ruby about the civil rights movement in the 1960’s as well as her ongoing commitment to the idea that if all of our children refuse to allow hatred and racism to be passed down to them, social justice for all will be the outcome.

This is a closed session for Bigelow 8th graders.

This CAS program is sponsored by the Bigelow PTO thanks to your contributions!