This Week at BMHS May 1 - 8, 2018

Final Exam Dates Finalized

Final exams will begin on Monday, June 18 and conclude on Thursday, June 21. Friday, June 22 will be the last day of school and will be a full day for students. Buses will follow the same schedule that was used during midterm exams. All bus routes will run in the morning at their regular pick-up times. Bus departure will commence at the end of the second exam (11:30 a.m.).




FIRST World Championships

Team 4909, Billerica Bionics, returned from this weekend's World Championships held in Detroit, Michigan with another strong showing against the best in the world. The team competed against 400 teams and finished in 53rd place. The team earned a finalist recognition for a Safety Award and Nick Benjamin was recognized for Pit Safety.


DECA International World Championships

Billerica DECA descended upon the International Career Development Conference in Atlanta, Georgia last week looking to continue its presence as a premier high school in the development of future business leaders. This was the largest competition in its illustrious history with over 20,000 competitors. Once again BMHS DECA did not disappoint as juniors Danielle Flaherty and Libby Hawkins placed in the Top 10 in the world in Entrepreneurship, Franchise, and Business Plans. Senior Olivia Smith placed in the Top 16 for Hospitality, Tourism, and Professional Selling and sophomores Olivia Rogers and Tina Tailor also placed in the Top 16 for Buying, Merchandising Operations Research. In each of these competitions 


VEX World Championships

Freshmen Christian So successfully competed at the VEX World Championships in Louisville, Kentucky on April 25-28, 2018.  Christian competed for 3 days for the qualification matches and advanced to the single elimination rounds (playoffs) as the 5th seed with a team from Arizona. He made it all the way to the semifinals before losing to the eventual the team that won the world championship from China. He had previously beaten the Chinese team in the qualification match earlier that day. Christian was the lone competitor from Massachusetts to advance that far in the competition. Overall it was a very successful competition year for Christian 81118P Team PARAGON and a lot of people in the international VEX community now recognize  Billerica, MA as a top programafter this seasons challenge.  We also learned that only 7% of all the VEX robotics team  registered in the world make it to the world championships and he came on top.  

The Red Sand Project

If you happened to be walking or driving through Billerica Center on Thursday, April 26, or the days afterwards, you may have seen what looked like red sand in the sidewalk cracks.  Art History, Photography, and Audiovisual Club students from Billerica Memorial High School participated in the Molly Gochman Red Sand Project. Often times we do not take the time to look at our surroundings.  Students and teachers from BMHS had the opportunity to participate and pay attention to our environment during this “art happening”. The Red Sands Project draws attention to modern day human trafficking and exploitation.

Ms. Davidson, Ms. Fredericks, and Ms. Bouhanda took the students to public spaces within the town to create participatory Earthworks.  The students were able to pour red sand in between cracks of the sidewalk, use sidewalk chalk, and incorporated different parts of the environment such as fallen leaves, flowers, and twigs.  Collaborative and individual creative skills were used to design artwork, taking video and still images. After taking photos the students and teachers used social media to share the project promoting effective use of the internet and while raising awareness of the vulnerabilities of human trafficking and exploitation.  

The students from these groups at BMHS were able to explore this creative outlet while also learning about human rights, social justice, and student empowerment.  Highlighting the tiny cracks in the sidewalks symbolize the way in which we step over what is not always visually obvious to us when we ignore our surroundings. Today more than 40.3 million boys, girls, women, and men live as slaves. If you are interested in learning more about this project please visit https://redsandproject.org/.

Gochman, Molly. “Molly Gochman.” 2018, mollygochman.com/about/.

Red Sand Project, Commune Projects Foundation, 2018, redsandproject.org/about/.


Another Record Falls

Our BMHS Girls 4x800 A team won the Division II State Relays with a new outdoor school record time of 9:45.70! Sophomores Nicole Anderson, Hannah Doherty, Deidra Anderson and junior Sam Maffeo earned the win and set the record.







Emergency Drill (Shawmut Construction)

Shawmut Construction, in conjunction with Billerica Police and Fire, will be conducting an emergency drill on Wednesday, May 2 at approximately 7:30 a.m. As a result you may see emergency response vehicles behind the high school during the morning hours. The drill should be concluded by 8:30 a.m. and will not interfere with high school operations.

WWII International Museum

Mrs. States brought her students to the International Museum of World War II last week to review primary source material and authentic artifacts in support of her class - WWII Eyes of a Soldier. Her students had the pleasure of working with the museum's curator  gaining insight into the life of a soldier during the our nation's greatest conflict. 

SENIOR TASK:  COLLEGE APPLICATION RESULTS

For every college that you’ve applied to, we need to know what your status is:  accepted, denied, deferred, or waitlisted.  You will need to add the results of each application to your Naviance account and set your attending college.  If you haven't heard from all your colleges yet, or if you haven't yet made a decision on where to attend, that is OK.  However, this task will need to be completed for all of your college applications in Naviance before you sign out of school at the end of the year.  

There are 7 easy steps to do this!  Please do the following:

1. Log into Naviance.  If you need assistance with your username or password, please let your guidance counselor know.  Click HERE for the link to Naviance. 
2. Click on the College top tab.
3. Click on the Colleges I’m Applying To Link, and your college list appears.
4. Look towards the right-hand side.  There is a column titled “Edit”, and pencils in the column.  Click on one of the pencils and your entire college list comes up, with boxes you can edit. 
5. Under each of your colleges, there’s a drop down menu called “Result”.  When you click on it, you can set your college result to Accepted, Denied, or a few other options (most people will only use the Accepted and Denied functions.)  If you were waitlisted or deferred, please set the field to “Unknown” and check off the “waitlisted” or “deferred” box next side of the result area.  If you chose not to apply to a school that you have on your list, please set the field to “withdrawn”. 
6. Once you have set the results for all of your colleges, scroll to the bottom of the page and click Update Applications. This brings you back to your original college page.
7. Lastly, scroll to the bottom of your college page, under the heading College That I Am Attending.  Click on the dropdown menu, select the college you will be attending, and click the update button.  Please make sure to set this field correctly; it tells us where to send your final transcript to confirm for your college that you have graduated! 

• Students will not be able to sign out at the end of the year until your data in Naviance is complete. If you have any questions about how to add the results of your college applications into Naviance, please contact your guidance counselor.  

This Week at BMHS April 23 - 30, 2018

Important Dates

• April 26 - Term 3 Report Cards are available on Aspen
• April 26 - College Panel 5:30 p.m. (Lecture Hall)
• April 26 - College Fair 6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. (Back Gym)

FIRST Robotics

At the start of vacation last week, our robotics team competed in the New England District Championship at BU.  The team got in by finishing 31st out of 209 teams in all of New England.  We are one of only 12 teams in New England that have qualified for this event ever year since it started.  

The team performed well but not up to our best.  Luckily it was enough to qualify for the FIRST World Championship in Detroit.  They will be traveling to Detroit on the 24th to compete with 360 of the best robots in the world.  It is an exciting experience, one that many kids still talk about four years since the last time we qualified.

I have attached our match schedule and a link that gives a bunch of information about the event and a link to the live stream if you want to watch us compete.  The team is in the Archimedes Division.   

https://www.firstchampionship.org/detroit-home

VEX Robotics

VEX Robotics World Championship 2018 in Louisville, Kentucky. The competition will have 600 teams from 44 countries. Christian won 5 tournament champions out of 6 regional competitions he attended, 1 excellence award and 2 skills champion award.  He is currently ranked 10th in the world. He will be representing our High School in Billerica, MA  USA . We will leave on April 24 and competition starts from April 25th to 27th.

Winchester High School Model United Nations Conference I

Billerica Memorial High School's Model United Nations Club under the direction of Mr. Carey will be attending the inaugural Model United Nations Conference being hosted at Winchester High School. Winchester Model United Nations Conference, or WinMUN, is a one-day simulation of the United Nations hosted by THE Winchester High School for New England-area high school students, with committees tailored for both experienced delegates and beginners ready to dive into international affairs. WinMUN I will be hosted on Sunday, April 22nd at the brand-new Winchester High School campus. This conference will be WinMUN's inaugural event and the entire Secretariat is delighted to throw this event for the surrounding community, hoping it will be the first in a lasting tradition.

The BMHS Poetry Slam Team Advances to the Semifinals!

L-R Alisha Taha, Gianna Owirka, Kat Christakis,
Amanda Malnati

“The point is not the points, the point is the poetry!” This is the chant that rings through the Louder than a Bomb Poetry Slam Festival and this was echoed in the group piece that was performed by the BMHS Poetry Slam Team. The BMHS Poetry Slam Team participated in an all day slam poetry workshop three weeks ago and then competed at the Preliminary Competition against schools throughout Massachusetts last Saturday. All four team members (Amanda Malnati, Alisha Taha, Kat Christakis, and Gianna Owirka) have been practicing hard and gave their strongest performances in the individual and group rounds to finish second in both poetry slam bouts.The BMHS Poetry Slam Team is one out of only eight teams in Massachusetts to advance to the Semifinals being held at the Edward Kennedy Institute this evening. They have shown amazing poise and presence in their performances and were one of the loudest teams cheering on each other as well as all the other poets who competed. The team is hoping that their poetry and strong voices will continue to be heard and will propel them to the Finals next Saturday!

Path to Wellness

Click here to register for Path To Wellness

Please make checks payable to Billerica Memorial High School in the amount of $250.00.Checks can be left in the mail box of Jennifer Flynn located in Mr. Murphy's office. The student will be considered registered when both the registration form and payment have been received. the student will receive confirmation by email along with a link to Path To Wellness Google Classroom. 

If you have any questions regarding Path To Wellness do not hesitate to contact me  Jflynn@billericak12.com

Reader Run 5K

This Week at BMHS April 9 - 16, 2018

BMHS Extended Tuesday Schedule

Extended Tuesdays schedule

Beginning Tuesday, April 24 BMHS will be ending the school day at 3:02 p.m. All current school day protocols will remain in place until the end of the day, including dismissals. We will be using this time for a number of different purposes, but primarily to ensure uninterrupted teaching time through the end of the year. We have identified all of our school assemblies that would have disrupted class time between April and the end of the school year and will be adjusting those events to the additional hour. This will ensure uninterrupted teaching time in our regular school day through June. We will also be prioritizing our Advanced Placement courses due to the lost time ("New England disadvantage") and the inability of those tests to be moved to a later date. All other students will be following their regular schedule for each additional hour on Tuesdays where their teachers will be assisting them in their respective subject. The schedule for the next 8 weeks is as follows:

• April 24 - Block 1A
• May 1 - Block 1B
• May 8 - Block 2A
• May 15 - Block 2B
• May 22 - Block 3A
• May 29 - Block 3B
• June 5 - Block 4A
• June 12 - Block 4B

Game Change

Last week Ms. Tracy and Ms. Clark supported a group of sophomore and junior students with completing the Game Change Training at BMHS, an Anti-Violence Partnership program between the New England Patriots, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, and Northeastern University. The students participated in a two-day seminar focused on healthy relationship education and prevention of gender-based violence. This is a sample of the feedback we received from students after the training:

"I learned that bystanders have a lot more power than they think."

"I learned how easily consent can be confused."

"I got so much information from this program and I now know what to do in different situations."

"It was educational, informative and entertaining at the same time."

BMHS Musical

The curtain closed on another outstanding musical production this past weekend. The students' performances in Sweeney Todd were terrific. The set designs were complex and drew the audience deeper into the performance. Seniors Dylan Loftin and Jackie Wyatt capped a remarkable four year career with their performances as Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett.

BMHS Winter Guard

Billerica Memorial High School's Winter Guard continued their impressive performance this season capturing first place at the New England Scholastic Band Association's Winter Guard Finals held yesterday at Salem High School. BMHS received top honors in the Nationals Scholastic A with a final score of 95.94. 

Team 4909

The Bionics completed a successful weekend at the Greater Boston Regional hosted at Revere High School. The team finished 5th at the end of the two-day qualifier before bowing out in the semifinals. The team captured the Quality Award sponsored Motorola which celebrates concept and fabrication. The team's collaboration led to a beautiful electronics board, a wall-riding winch, and a two-cube autonomous. The team also captured the Safety Award sponsored by Underwriters Lab.

Team 4909- Bionics, is having a fundraiser at Blaze Pizza in Burlington, MA on Wednesday, April 18th from 5:30pm to 9pm. They are located at 91 Middlesex Turnpike, Burlington.
Paper and electronic (pull-up on your phone) copies of the flyer are accepted. Blaze Pizza will donate a percentage of their sales to the team. Please support your local robotics team and dine at Blaze Pizza during the Wednesday of April Vacation! Attached below is a copy of the flyer needed to participate.

United Sound

This past Saturday our United Sound performers under the direction of Dr. Cardella took part in the ABLE Assembly: Arts Better the Lives of Everyone. The ABLE Assembly is an exceptional professional development opportunity in the field of arts education and special needs, bringing together educators, artists, researchers, policymakers, school administrators, program administrators, and students to share best practices, engage in hands-on experiences, explore new research, and learn from each other. 

BATV Summer Offerings

GUIDANCE NEWS

Guidance will host Advanced Placement pre-administration sessions on Monday, April 9^th in the Lecture Hall of BMHS.  Every student taking an AP class MUST pre-register on MONDAY. 

It is expected that students will choose an appropriate time to come to the Lecture Hall for their preadministration.  As a reminder, appropriate times are during your study, during lunch (if you wish), or before school starts at 7:00 AM.  Please be prompt in your arrival to the lecture hall (no matter if you come during study, lunch, or before school) as we have much to do together for pre-registration, and only a short amount of time to complete our tasks.  

If you have questions, please feel free to reach out to me directly at 978-528-7925 or you may email your child’s guidance counselor directly.

Billerica Memorial High School’s 3rd Annual College Fair has been RESCHEDULED!

SAVE THE DATE AND MARK YOUR CALENDAR!  The Billerica Memorial High School Guidance Department will be hosting our Third Annual College Fair on Thursday, April 26 from 6:30-8:00 p.m., to be held in the BMHS Gymnasium.  This is a free opportunity and open to students in all grades.  We encourage students and their parents/guardians to come and explore the many opportunities available for college and post-secondary education!   We will share a list of attendees as we get closer to the event. In past years, this has been a tremendous event for our students and their families.  This is a night you won’t want to miss!  Also, join us for the College Panel, to be held immediately prior to the college fair. Please see details below.

^7th Annual College Panel

The Billerica Memorial High School Guidance Department will be hosting our 7^th annual College Panel on Thursday, April 26 from 5:30 pm to 6:15 pm in the BMHS Lecture Hall, immediately prior to the college fair.  This event is open to students and parents in all grades. The panelists are admissions representatives from four different colleges, and they will discuss universal tips and components needed for a successful college application, which includes:

• The importance of high school transcript

• How GPA is used in the admissions process

• The use of standardized testing (SAT, SAT subject tests, ACT)

• The importance of the college essay and letters of recommendation

• The significance of extracurricular activities

• Tips for application management 

ATTENTION JUNIORS: SAT DEADLINE

The deadline to register for the May 5 SAT at BMHS is APRIL 6.   Click HERE to register. 

COLLEGE FAIR IN BOSTON: There is a college fair in Boston on April 12 & April 13.  Please click HERE for more info. 

ATTENTION SENIORS:  Please make sure to come by the Guidance Office and fill out a pennant to proudly display your post-secondary decisions! 

SENIOR TASK:  COLLEGE APPLICATION RESULTS

For every college that you’ve applied to, we need to know what your status is:  accepted, denied, deferred, or waitlisted.  You will need to add the results of each application to your Naviance account and set your attending college.  If you haven't heard from all your colleges yet, or if you haven't yet made a decision on where to attend, that is OK.  However, this task will need to be completed for all of your college applications in Naviance before you sign out of school at the end of the year.  

There are 7 easy steps to do this!  Please do the following:

1. Log into Naviance.  If you need assistance with your username or password, please let your guidance counselor know.  Click HERE for the link to Naviance. 
2. Click on the College top tab.
3. Click on the Colleges I’m Applying To Link, and your college list appears.
4. Look towards the right-hand side.  There is a column titled “Edit”, and pencils in the column.  Click on one of the pencils and your entire college list comes up, with boxes you can edit. 
5. Under each of your colleges, there’s a drop down menu called “Result”.  When you click on it, you can set your college result to Accepted, Denied, or a few other options (most people will only use the Accepted and Denied functions.)  If you were waitlisted or deferred, please set the field to “Unknown” and check off the “waitlisted” or “deferred” box next side of the result area.  If you chose not to apply to a school that you have on your list, please set the field to “withdrawn”. 
6. Once you have set the results for all of your colleges, scroll to the bottom of the page and click Update Applications. This brings you back to your original college page.
7. Lastly, scroll to the bottom of your college page, under the heading College That I Am Attending.  Click on the dropdown menu, select the college you will be attending, and click the update button.  Please make sure to set this field correctly; it tells us where to send your final transcript to confirm for your college that you have graduated! 

****Students will not be able to sign out at the end of the year until your data in Naviance is complete. If you have any questions about how to add the results of your college applications into Naviance, please contact your guidance counselor.