Crusader Times
October 2017
Words From Our Principal
Dear Parents,
It is hard to believe that this will be my last message as principal of BVM. As you may know, I was appointed principal for San Ysidro High School, starting on November 1st. It has been a privilege to have served as principal of BVM for the last three years. I am honored to have worked alongside dedicated and committed teachers and staff, great and involved parents, and AWESOME students. It has been amazing having the opportunity to serve as principal of the school I once attended as a student. I will treasure my time at BVM and it will always have a special place in my heart. I wish all of you the very best. Once a Crusader, always a Crusader!!!
Eduardo Reyes, Ed.D.
Knowledge Bowl Practice Meet
HAUNTED BOOK FAIR - A SPOOKY SUCCESS
Our Librarian, Terry Funk, Library Media Technician, Carmen Colin, and PTSA President, Kathleen Yetter, want to thank the parents, teachers, students and community members who supported our Haunted Book Fair this year. The Book Fair started off with a Friday the 13th event which included a haunted house on the newly refurbished patio outside of the Library. Students who dressed in costume received a discount at the Book Fair. The whole next week, our Haunted Book Fair continued with volunteers helping students find great books and develop a love for reading. All together, the Book Fair sold enough books to add 200 new library books to the Bonita Middle Library!
A huge thank you to Michelle Loya, Karla Finch, Alma Coogan, Julianne Haslett, and Arlene Acosta for creating a spooky, scary haunted house. Future Bonita Vista parent, Amy Candelario, gave volunteer students their scary faces. Thank you to our ASB and friends of the Library for dressing up, scaring people and helping customers find just the right books. Thank you parents Jaime Dimas, Alma Coogan, Julianne Haslett, Arlene Acosta, Patricia Sandoval, Kathleen Yetter, Karla Finch, Roxy Garcia, and Jean Schiele for helping in the Book Fair. Student helpers all week included: Sebastian Apodaca, Santiago Apodaca, Santiago Verdugo, Javier Cuevas Navarro, Luis Cuevas Navarro, Laisha Lopez, Venizio Dimas, Jerrod Figuracion, and Naomy Preciado.
These fun events help make our school special. We look forward to hosting another Book Fair in the spring!
Fall Sports Teams
Our baseball team has made it to the finals and will be battling for the Metro Championship Banner against Eastlake on Nov. 1st at 10am. We want to wish you the best of luck and lets bring that banner home!
Cheer Team Bonding Picnic
Exciting things are happening at BVMS! For the first time our middle school has a Cheer team! 28 Crusaders are BVMS Cheerleaders this year. They kicked off their season with a fun Team Bonding Picnic at Mountain Hawk Park on Saturday, September 30th. They enjoyed painting and poster making for their upcoming Blanket Drive. There were many fun games (hula hoop contest, water balloon toss, pie eating contest) and water balloon fight! Everyone also enjoyed yummy food. Parents, cheerleaders and coaches had a great time getting to know each other. They make an awesome team! Go Crusaders!!!
Tri-M Music Honor Society Donation Drive
The Tri-M Music Honor Society held a donation drive for the people impacted by hurricanes Harvey and Irma. All items were given to the Salvation Army and loaded onto a truck headed to Houston and Florida. Thank you, Crusaders, for your generosity.
“Rangoli” Project
Diwali is the five-day festival of lights, celebrated by millions of Hindus, Sikhs and Jains across the world. The festival, which coincides with the Hindu New Year, celebrates new beginnings and the triumph of good over evil and light over darkness. The actual day of Diwali is traditionally celebrated on the festival's third day, which this year falls on Thursday, October 23. While each faith has its own reason to celebrate the festival, one of the most popular stories told is the legend of Lord Rama and his wife Sita returning to their kingdom in northern India from exile after defeating the demon king Ravanna in the 15th century BC.
Ms Alonso’s class took a part of the celebration by drawing “rangolis” which people in India often use to decorate their homes during the celebration. Rangoli is an art, origin in India in which patterns are created on the floor in living rooms or courtyards using materials such as colored rice, dry flour, colored sand, or flower petals.
Bonita Fest
On Saturday, September 16th, the 6th Period “Advanced Choir” from Bonita Vista Middle School joined “Lady Tones”, “Music Machine” and “Sound Unlimited” in their 1st performance at our community’s 2017 Bonita Fest, held at Bonita Vista High School. These students represented our school well and were very well received by the audience. Seventh Grader, Kieler Muller was a featured soloist at the event.
Music Machine Student Assembly
Music Machine performed was happy to perform for the 7th Grade Assembly on October 6, and for the 8th Grade Assembly on Oct. 13. At least ¾ of the Vocal Music Department at Bonita Vista High School went to school at Bonita Vista Middle School. We are so thankful to have such talented students feeding our high school. Go Crusaders!
SCREAM
Student Art Work
Staff of the Month
Counselors Corner
On Saturday, October 21st, we had our annual field trip to San Diego State University for Compact for Success. It was such a great experience for everyone that attended, from our students, to parents to staff. Compact for Success is an agreement that Sweetwater Union High School District has with San Diego State University in which our students are guaranteed if they fulfill the requirements which are as follows:
Maintain a 3.3 GPA through 12th Grade
Continuous enrollment at SUHSD
Complete A-G requirements with C or Higher
Demonstrate College Readiness in ELA and Math
Take SAT/ACT exams
Meet all SDSU admission/enrollment deadlines
The field trip was informative, engaging, well organized and put together. Students had the option to attend a workshop, of which they had many options, take a campus tour and were given free lunch. One of the workshops attended was an Engineering one, in which the audience was engaged by a Faculty Lead, as well as current and past students of the program. Engineering at SDSU has 7 different majors to choose from and they are all doing innovative and amazing things, including building a car from scratch, which they get to race at a later time. The workshops not only engaged our students, but they got them excited about College and all of the possibilities.
We encourage all of you to partake in these types of experiences in the future, as it is important to know what is out there and begin to envision what your futures hold. Start dreaming now to make your dreams a reality.
Sincerely,
BVM Counseling Team
Digital Citizenship
This month I am going to write about a topic that has a long library history: The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) or Dewey Decimal System. This system was first invented and published in 1876 by Melvil Dewey and has been revised numerous times over the years. Today the DDC is the world’s most widely used way to organize library collections. Because the DDC is easy to use, librarians can increase the visibility of materials quickly and efficiently. Here at BVM we have an Online Library Catalog called the BVM Researcher. When you want to look for books by subject, you can begin with the Catalog. Type in your subject term, e.g. Castles and books about the subject Castles will come up. Some books are fiction and will be labeled FIC. Others are non-fiction and are assigned a DDC number, such as 940.1. This number is used to locate books on the shelf. Dewey shelves start at 000 and end at 999.
The 10 Main Classes in DDC are as follows:
- 000 - Computer science, information & general works
- 100 – Philosophy and psychology
- 200 – Religion
- 300 – Social sciences
- 400 – Language
- 500 – Pure Science
- 600 – Technology
- 700 – Arts & recreation
- 800 – Literature
- 900 – History & geography
Under these main classes are thousands of subjects. Here are some examples:
Warfare (Social Science) 355
Robotics (Technology) 629.8
Elephants (Pure Science) 599.6
Buddhism (Religion) 294.3
Kevin Durant (History & Geography – Biography) 921
Students who like non-fiction books are more likely to use DDC than students who prefer fiction books. However, as teachers require more research in Jr. High, High School, and College, the more students use the DDC to access the titles they need. DDC is available in both print and web formats. For more information go to: http://www.oclc.org/en/dewey.html
Technology Corner
Digital Citizenship Resources
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/
•Digizen
•Crusader Times Newsletter
https://bvm.sweetwaterschools.org/news/
•BVM Parent Tech Support
https://sites.google.com/sweetwaterschools.net/bvmparenttech
•SUHSD Digital Citizenship Course https://sweetwaterschools.instructure.com/courses/863571
Important Dates
10/25 - School Site Council Meeting
10/27 - Dia de Los Muertos Festival
10/28 - Saturday School and Saturday Scholars
11/04 - Saturday School and Saturday Scholars
11/08 - PTSA Meeting
11/10 - No School - Veteran's Day - VEX Robotics Competition
11/14 - Turkey Trot Competition
11/15 - School Site Council Meeting
11/16 - Band Pageant
11/20 - 11/24 - No School - Thanksgiving Break
12/02 - Saturday School and Saturday Scholars - VEX Robotics Competition
Bonita Vista Middle School
Email: Eduardo.Reyes@sweetwaterschools.org
Website: http://bvm.sweetwaterschools.org/
Location: 650 Otay Lakes Road, Chula Vista, CA 91910, United States
Phone: (619) 397-2200
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bonitavistamiddleschool