Pioneer Post
BJHS Newsletter for Incoming 6th graders
UPCOMING EVENTS
August 14 - 6th Grade Packet Pickup - MPR - 8:00am - 1:00pm
August 15 - 6th grade orientation - Gym - 8:30am-12:30pm
August 16 - First Day of School (Minimum Day) - 8:10am-12:11pm
August 17 - 6th grade Chromebook deployment
August 23 - Student Pictures - Gym- PE classes
August 30 - Back to school night - 6:30pm
PRINCIPAL'S LETTER
Dear Future Pioneer Families,
Welcome to Bidwell—and the big jump to the junior high world! The Bidwell Team is here to help your family make the transition as smoothly as possible. It’s paramount to us that your students feel physically and emotionally safe at school. If you ever feel like your student doesn’t feel safe at Bidwell, I need you to contact me immediately. You can email me at dmckay@chicousd.org or call/text me at (530) 521-9228. It’s rare that we can’t quickly resolve a developing issue when parents reach out proactively to me. That’s part of The Bidwell Way: how we all treat each other in order to bring out the best in all of us—safe, respectful, responsible.
6th grade parents tend to worry about the bigger, older students bothering their little ones. If your student is having a social problem, though, it is almost always the result of a conflict with another 6th grade student. In almost every case, it turns out that both students have been less than respectful in their words and actions towards each other—and it’s almost always “messing around” that has gone awry.
With 1,000 kids, we also need help reinforcing the need for students to respect all school rules: including dress code, off campus food/drink, and electronic devices. Please check out the Pioneer Guide for more details about these rules. They’re all there because they have been shown to help us run a safe, orderly school with 1,000 students.
If there’s a defining junior high challenge, it’s helping students learn to develop an appropriate level of independence while still remaining under the watchful eye of their parents. It’s a delicate balance. With six different classes with six different teachers, organization is paramount. You don’t need to be able to do Common Core Math. We’ve got plenty of help on campus to cover that. What we really need your help with is monitoring your students’ weekly progress on Aeries Parent Portal. It’s really easy to use and you will find info on how to set up your account in your enrollment packet. Keep an eye on their grades and ask them questions about specific assignments as they appear in the Portal Gradebook. Just a few minutes every few days for the typical student really helps them stay on track. If your student tends to struggle with organization, tell them up front that you’ll be checking in every day at least for the first couple of months of school. But encourage your students to email their teachers. Encourage your students to show you their grades on the Student Portal. Let your students get a non-suit for PE if they forget to bring their PE clothes. One non-suit won’t kill them and they’ll learn some responsibility. Plus, they can make up those points during after school PE makeups. There’s an example like that for just about every class: let your kiddo stumble a bit and learn from natural consequences, but keep a close eye on them as they do so.
Just like we have many fun classes, clubs, and activities for thriving Pioneers, we also have a ton of interventions and supports for your kiddos when they struggle with a social or academic issue. Reach out to your student’s counselor or to me if you need more info. Communication is key. Again, please reach out proactively the moment you feel like something’s not right. Together, we will make it right. That’s just how we do it at Bidwell.
I look forward to getting to know you and your students as they begin this exciting chapter of their school careers. Welcome to the Bidwell Family!
Respectfully,
David McKay
Principal
Bidwell Junior High School
Chico Unified School District
(530) 521-9228
WEB (WHERE EVERYBODY BELONGS) ORIENTATION
The staff and students of Bidwell Jr. High would like to invite you to our third annual WEB orientation day! The purpose of this orientation is to make the transition from elementary school to middle school a positive one. Eight graders will be serving as constructive leaders and mentors to the 6th graders. You will be receiving a formal invite/informational letter mailed to your home address. Please plan on joining us for this amazing day to kick off next school year right! See you on Wednesday, August 15th @ 8:30am in the Bidwell gym.
JOIN REMIND!
GET YOUR BIDWELL SUPPLIES EARLY!
Welcome to our New BJHS online Student Store! Click HERE to enter!
Register and activate your account in our new Webstore.
Add your student(s) using their Student ID# to the My Family link.
From Thursday, August 2nd through Friday, August 10th, the student store in Room 406A will be open from 10am – 2 pm.
Any purchased items will be ready and available for pick-up the next business day or during packet pick-up.
BEAT the packet pick-up lines and purchase ASB card, PE clothes, Yearbook or any other Bidwell Spirit items early!
For instructions on how to sign up for an account, click here.
All major credit cards are accepted.
*Allow 24 hours for order fulfillment
*ASB and Staff Discount prices will appear in the cart if an ASB card was purchased
at the beginning of the year.
SUMMER NUTRITION
Bidwell Junior High Summer Feeding Program
Kids Eat Free
June 11th to August 9th
Monday - Friday
Lunch served 11:30-12:30
MATH DEPARTMENT SUPPLIES
Binder paper
Graph paper
Pencils
Scientific Calculator (TI-30XIIs is the most popular)
Ruler
Colored pencils
BLAST (Best Life After School Team)
The BLAST after school program is a FREE, federally-funded program open to all Bidwell students. BLAST offers a highly structured environment that is designed to further students both academically and as responsible young adults. After school program staff members are highly qualified and passionate about encouraging all students to work hard, have fun, and be the best Pioneer they can be. The program fills up quickly and a waiting list is put into place at the beginning of the school year; please sign your student up early. We look forward to meeting you!
BACKPACK ESSENTIALS
In response to the many valid concerns about the weight of student backpacks expressed by families and staff alike, the Bidwell Team did some consolidation work to lighten our kiddos’ loads for the 2018-19 school year. As you prepare for August 16, here is the recommended contents for your students’ backpacks:
- Chromebook (without charger)
- Planner (if you prefer to use a pencil and paper version)
- Binder with dividers
- Two interactive notebooks (spiral-bound notebooks)
- AR/SSR book
- Calculator
- Pens/pencils
- Colored pencils/markers
- Paper/graph paper
- Water bottle
- Lunch (if not getting lunch at school)
- Earbuds/Headphones
I just loaded up my own daughter’s backpack with these contents and it weighed 13 pounds exactly. If your student weighs around 100 pounds, experts recommend a backpack weigh no more than 20 pounds—preferably closer to 10. Ergonomically, It’s also recommended that heavier items—like your Chromebook—be packed next to your back.
Please periodically check the weight of your student’s backpack over the course of the school year to ensure it stays close the 13-pound target. As always, please contact your student’s counselor or me if you have any concerns. I know I speak for the entire Bidwell Team when I say I’m looking forward to seeing you and your students soon!
Respectfully,
David McKay
Principal
Bidwell Junior High School
Chico Unified School District
(530) 521-9228
DON'T FORGET TO SIGN UP FOR PARENT PORTAL!
SCHOOL DANCES
Middle School Dances, OH MY!
Welcome to Bidwell Jr. High! As Activities Director, I have the privilege of working with some pretty amazing students to plan our dances. I figured out that in my 22 years at Bidwell Jr. High I have attended over 100 dances! I know that, as a parent of a 5th grader entering middle school, you probably have some apprehension about your son or daughter attending one of our dances. I completely understand that. But please rest assured that a lot of planning goes into making sure that your student is in a safe, well chaperoned, fun activity when they walk through the gym door.
We have four dances each year that are open to all 6th, 7th and 8th graders. The dances run from 6:30-8:30. The cost of our dances is $6 without an ASB card or $5 with an ASB card. These are sold the week of the
dance at lunch. No tickets are sold at the door since our tickets are also permission slips and must be signed by parents. Chaperones are provided by PTA as well as teachers. I have been using the same DJ for the last 15 years. Elite Sounds is owned by a former Pioneer, Mark Morris, and they do a great job playing edited and appropriate music for our kids. PTA also sells pizza, drinks and treats at each dance.
If you are interested in attending the dance either to chaperone or just to poke your head in for a bit, please contact me at bbattaglia@chicousd.org. I would love to have you be a part of the fun.
As a parent of a 6th grader myself, I hope my daughter has a lot of fun at these dances. I recently came across a blog entry that I found funny and appropriate. I would like to share it with you as you are deciding whether or not you want your child to attend our dances.
Tips for my tween attending her first middle school dance
By Shannan Younger
The middle school dance is a right of tween passage. I'm willing to bet that you remember something about one of your middle school dances, be it the gym full of unwieldy limbs, hormones and awkwardness. If you think hard, you can probably recall a few songs from those events. For me, it's Every Rose Has Its Thorn by Poison and for some reason the awful Walk the Dinosaur by Was (Not Was). Sad, I know.
But this isn't about me. My sixth grade daughter has her first dance this afternoon. She's technically in a junior high (which the principal insists is different than a middle school but my efforts to discern exactly how have been unsuccessful) but regardless, it's a tween dance. Although she wasn't interested in my tips, I felt compelled to give my tween some advice.
1. Be Kind.
This applies to everyone. People who ask you to dance, people who look lost or lonely standing along the wall, boys who are much shorter than you are. I know that school said no dates were allowed, but I also know you've been asked by boys to attend the dance with them. I respect that you have politely turned them down, and I ask you to remember that hearts are still fragile and should always be treated with both honesty and care.
2. Don't hang out in the bathroom.
I'm 99.9998% certain that none of the best moments in my daughter's life will happen within 10 feet of a hand dryer in a public restroom. I was surprised to hear that the girls were hanging out in the bathroom at the Totally Tween night in fifth grade. How do girls know to do that? And why do they do that? I've just never understood. I completely relate to feeling overwhelmed or overstimulated and needing an escape, but the bathroom shouldn't be that space. There's not much solace in there. Trust me.
3. Behave and dance as if your grandparents are watching.
Please dear God, let my child exist in a twerk-free bubble. Also, please let no classmate feel compelled to bump and grind, or whatever it is the kids are calling it these days. By all means, she can get her groove on, I just want her to do so appropriately. I don't care that I've paid for years of dance class, I'm good with the stiff, arms-length sway.
4. Have fun.
Dance. Yes, it seems scarier to do that than standing along the walls, but doing is more than watching. Enjoy it, soak in the experience, the sights and sounds, and make some memories.
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BIDWELL JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL
Email: lgizzi@chicousd.org
Website: http://bjhs.chicousd.org/
Location: 2376 North Avenue, Chico, CA 95926, United States
Phone: (530) 891-3080
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BidwellASB/?fref=ts
Twitter: @BidwellASB