Computer Science Week

Welcome to Computer Science Week.  All across the country schools are recognizing the importance of computer science in education.  Click on this link to see activities that you can do with your children.  Let the coding begin!  

Mr. Vergiels' class watching the video on coding.

Students working on programming 

Food Drive 2013

Thank you to the families that supported our annual food drive at BJHS.  All food collected goes to families in the community. Thank you to the students that participated.  Thank you to Mr. Lopinski and the student council for sorting and prepping the boxes.  Thank you to the Bedford Lions for making the deliveries.  This is just one example of why we have such a great community.

Bedford Lions loading ham and potatoes

Student Council sorting food

Reading Time

Reading is the foundation to everything that we work on at BJHS.  We have excellent teachers that share their love of reading with the students.  As you can see below, our students read a lot at school.
We also have the opportunity to get books at our book fair in the media center. Students can visit during lunch time, parents can visit during conferences, and you can also visit the online book fair at this link.

Students working in a lit circle in Mrs. Wood's class.

Students shopping at the book fair.

Parent/Teacher Conferences

This is just a reminder that we are having Parent/Teacher Conferences this Thursday and Friday. 6th grade parents should of already been contacted by their homeroom teachers for times. 7th & 8th grade parents have open visits from 4:00 to 7:30 on Thursday and 11:55 to 2:25 on Friday. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Happy Thanksgiving

The students are extremely excited for our upcoming break.  It was fun to see all of the students dressed up in their spirit wear today.  I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving break!

Michigan Vs. Ohio

Career Cruising

It is never to soon to start to look at what careers that you may have an aptitude for.  Mr. Vanwormer's 7th grade computer classes are researching careers with the Career Cruising website.  Students answer questions and are given a set of potential careers based on their answers.

The Giving Season

The holiday season is coming up fast.  Once again, our junior high school students, in partnership with the Bedford Lions Club, will be sponsoring the BJHS Annual Holiday Food Drive, for families who are in need of community support this season. Please consider donating to our food drive by having your child bring in a non perishable food item during our food drive 11/20 to 12/6.

We are currently collecting gently used coats to take to the Lions' Den in Temperance.  Just have your children drop off the coats with a NJHS member in the back of the building.

Our Charity Club and Bible Study Club are currently collecting hats and gloves in the cafeteria.  

We are also going to have a pop can drive during lunch to help fund groceries for the food drive from 11/18 to 11/27.  The Charity Club will also be collecting the pop tabs for the Ronald McDonald House.

As you can see, we have many great causes for our students to support the community this holiday season.
Thank you Mr. Lopinski, Mrs. Currie, Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Samson, and the Bedford Lions for all of your behind the sciences work.

Our Hat-Glove Tree

Here are NJHS Students working on posters. 

Learning Together

We are getting really excited about our use of Google Apps and our 1 to 1 Initiative at BJHS.  We will have chromebooks in the students hands soon.  We will be having an informational night for 6th grade parents on 11/21 at 7:00 in our gym.  I am looking forward to seeing everyone.

Mrs. Pridgeon's class learning about file management at the end of the day. 

Mrs. Currie blogging about being in a class about blogging. 

The End Is Near!

As you can see with Mr. Allison's Halloween outfit, the end of the quarter is near.  Grades are available online.  Contact Mrs. Brieschke if you have any questions at 734.850.6200 or linda.brieschke@mybedford.us. 

Weather Time

When you work in a school, you are forced to become a fan of the weather.  Students saw all of the fog this morning and are getting excited for the potential of a future fog delays.  Meteorology is a large part of our 8th Grade Earth Science curriculum.  Our teachers are doing many great activities on the weather.

 I encourage parents and students to go to their smartphone/tablet app store and download the WeatherBug app.  This app gives live data collected directly from BJHS.

Mrs. Gossard's class is making weather balloons to launch outside.

Mr. Hasley's class is using charts to learn about weather patterns.

Friday Night Fun

We had a lot of fun last Friday at the dance.  Thank you parents and Mr. Lopinski for all of your hard work.  Here are some photos of the great time. 

Haunted Dance

Our annual Halloween Dance is this Friday from 7:00 to 9:00 for BJHS Students.  This is a fun time where we will have food, dancing, a haunted house and more.  Mr. Allison made the Haunted Outhouse for the party below. I am sure Mr. Lopinski and Student Council will have a lot of fun surprises for the students.

Bedford Junior High Sweetest Day

Bedford Junior High Sweetest Day

Flower Sale
Wednesday, Thursday, &
Friday, October 16, 17 & 18th
Our sixth grade students will be having a carnation sale during all lunch times. Carnations will be for sale for $1.00 each. A variety of colors will be available. Please support our sale which will benefit the World Wildlife Fund.

Rapping and Dancing Queens

Yesterday I had the privileged of listening to two wonderful mathematical music performances on order of operations.  The students from the Tillman/Dukate team performed for the class their songs.  Great job class and enjoy the pictures!

Bullying Stops Here

Creating a comfortable environment for your children is a top priority at BPS.  A huge concern of students is bullying.  Students can report bullying through our link on the website by clicking the picture below.

The Monroe County ISD is offering this program:  

The Monroe County Anti-Bullying Task Force is hosting a special presentation on October 21st from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. entitled “What Parents Can do to Reduce Student Cruelty and Enhance Caring and Kindness” given by Dr. Marcia McEvoy, nationally renowned as an expert in bullying prevention. The public is invited to attend at no cost, which will be held at the ISD Professional Development Center, 1101 S. Raisinville Rd., River Raisin Rooms 1-4.

Fall 2013 MEAP Testing

On October 8, 2013 through October 25, 2013, all 6th – 8th grade students at Bedford Junior High School will be taking the Michigan Educational Assessment (MEAP) Test. Grade 6 will be tested in Reading, Math, and Social Studies. Grade 7 will be tested in Reading, Math, and Writing. Grade 8 will be tested in Reading, Math, and Science. Therefore, the following testing schedule will begin at approximately 7:50 a.m. each day.

Gr. 6 - Reading, Day 1 – Oct. 8

Reading, Day 2 – Oct. 9

Math – Oct. 15

Social Studies - Oct. 16

Gr. 7 - Reading, Day 1 – Oct. 8

Reading, Day 2 – Oct. 9

Writing, Day 1 – Oct. 10 **Only 7th graders are testing this day.

Math – Oct. 15

Writing, Day 2 – Oct. 16

Gr. 8 - Reading, Day 1 – Oct. 8

Reading, Day 2 – Oct. 9

Math – Oct. 15

Science – Oct. 16

**The days of October 17 – 25 will be used as “make-up days.”

In addition, there are two alternative assessments that will be given during this testing window to those students with IEPS or 504 plans. The MEAP Access and Mi Access will be given to those qualifying students during the same schedule as above. So that each student can perform optimally, please help your child prepare by considering the following:

• Make sure your child is well rested and ready to begin the day. Testing begins very early.

• Make sure your child has a good breakfast each morning.

• Schedule any appointments for after school hours.

• If your child wears glasses, make sure he/she wears them.

• If you transport your child to school, make sure he/she arrives on time (by 7:25 a.m.).

• Do not send your child to school if he/she is ill. Arrangements will be made to test him/her at a later date.

Should you have any questions or concerns regarding MEAP, MEAP Access, or MI Access, please call Mrs. Eltschlager (Assistant Principal) at 734-850-6202 or Mr. Majewski (Guidance Counselor) at 734-850-6212.

NJHS 2013/14

Congratulations to our members of NJHS.  NJHS is an organization that promotes leadership, scholarship, service, character, and citizenship. To find out more about NJHS, click here.  Our chapter of NJHS has already been active in the community and you will be seeing them some more. 

Welcome aboard our new officers for 2013/14:

President: Hunter Gandee

VP of Scholarship: Shaina Shah

VP of Leadership: Vince Adduci

VP of Service: Austin Bennett

VP of Character: Anthony Schulte

VP of Citizenship: Kelsea Chen

Secretary: Hannah Lietaert

Secretary of Media: Maxwell Schmieder

Treasurers:  Taylor Fleitz, Noah Driehorst

Historian: Breanna Braun, Olivia Kopaniasz

Parliamentarians : Rachael Lobb, Lacie Hall, Kimberly Sparks

Publicist:  Lauren Linnebur, Abigail Reau

Currently our Morley Candy Sale is going on.  Please see the information that your son or daughter brought home.  We use this money for clubs, activities, and materials for the school. The last day for the sale is October 4th.  

PTA Dance

Dances at BJHS bring up one major thought, dodge ball.  Not only do we have music in the cafe and food available for purchase at the concession stand, we have dodge ball in the gym.  This is a long standing tradition at BJHS and thank you to Toby Sass and the Francis Family YMCA for helping.

Oh Bedford, mybedford

Attention parents.  At the end of the week BPS will be switching over to a new Google email system.  Emails will now look like this, roderick.hurley@mybedford.us. So please change in your contacts.  If you email our old emails, they will be automatically forwarded to our new email.  Please check your spam/junk emails to make sure our new emails are getting to you.

We will also be getting all of our students email accounts.  However, those emails will only be able to email Bedford students and teachers.  We are doing this in order to let our students have access to the powerful tools from Google and to help transition to our 1-to-1 project.

Drill Day

Today we did an announced run through of all our safety drills.  Our students did a great job.  In the future, all drills will be unannounced.  Please use this as an opportunity to discuss safety precautions that you have in your own home.

Touring Next Summer

One of the things that I try to do with this blog is spotlight the various activities that our students are doing in their classes.  In the video below, we have some talented students of Mrs. Jan reviewing their 50 states.

Rule Meetings

Mrs. Johnson going over rules with 8th graders

Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Eltschlager, and myself have been spending the last few days. reviewing school rules with the students.  Please use this as an opportunity to talk to your son or daughter about what the principals said to them and about continuing to make good choices. 

Happy 1st Day

What a great day at BJHS!  Our students were very excited to get back and we enjoyed having them.  On behalf of the staff, we are looking forward to an awesome year.

Mrs. Matlow's 7th Hour

Students leaving at the end of the day. 

Welcome

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Welcome to the 2013/14 school year at Bedford Junior High.  The BJHS staff is very excited to see your child this coming year and we are looking forward to our new adventure together.

You have already received your child’s schedule in the mail and an invitation to Bronco Round Up. Bronco Round Up is on 8/20 and 8/21 from 10:00 to 2:30.  Bronco Round Up is an opportunity for the students to walk their schedules, try out lockers, see available PTSA Spirit Wear, and to reconnect with friends.

Our Open House is on Thursday, 9/12 at 6:45 pm.  This is the opportunity for parents to meet myself and available teachers.

To check out our full calendar, click here.  I recommend that you bookmark the calendar link because items are added and events are changed.

Daily Announcements are available by clicking here.  You can get announcements emailed directly to you by subscribing to them on the announcement page.  Announcements are great to follow because they keep you updated on the great things happening at BJHS and what activities that we have for your child.

I write a blog during the school year that you can see by clicking here.  I use the blog to communicate and show some of the wonderful work of our staff and students. You can also subscribe to this blog to get email notifications.

I am very excited by the 1-To-1 program starting in the 6^th grade this school year.  We will be having various parent meetings to educate everyone on the program; please see the calendar for those meeting dates.  You can go to this site to read more about our 1-To-1 program.  We will have sample Chromebooks at Bronco Round-up for the students to see.

Once again it is a privilege to be you principal. I know the staff and students are excited for the 2013/14 school year.  Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any concerns for the 2013/14 school year.

Go Broncos!

Roderick Hurley

BJHS Principal 

Have A Great Summer

On behalf of everyone at BJHS I would like to wish everyone a safe and happy summer!  I am looking forward to seeing everyone in a couple of months. 

2020

Congratulations to all of the elementary students finishing their careers at the elementary schools. I can't believe the 5th graders are the class of 2020!  BJHS is looking forward to greeting the new 6th graders. 

Congratulations

Congratulations to Ms. Beth Johnston and Ms. Kathy Bankowski for their years of service to BPS and their upcoming retirement.  Ms. Johnston has been teaching 6th grade and Ms. Bankowski has been teaching physical education.  BJHS wishes them the best of luck on all future endeavors.

Locker Clean Out

It is that time of the year again.  Lockers are being cleaned out as we speak.  You would be amazed at the materials that the students try to throw out.  Please be aware items that are not properly identified and left in lockers are donated to the Lions Den in Temperance.

Happy Friday

Today was a busy day at BJHS.  We started the morning with our annual 8th grade recognition ceremony.  Thank you to Mr. Glover and our Band and Choir for performing.  We heard great speeches from students 

Dominic Adduci,

Blake Lajiness,

Samantha Moore, and

Laura Shake, We were given wonderful perspective from parent Rosie Jeffrey. Then Samantha Blosser was able to give her insight as a BHS Senior.

Then we had our school wide carnival. Thank you Jenn Scally and PTSA for organizing the carnival. The students and staff had a great time.

Awards Day

Today was our annual awards day.  Students are honored for their academic achievement with the various disciplines.  This is a nice program where students are recognized in front of their classmates. Congratulations to all of our awards recipients.

Outstanding Broncos Alex Pisanti and Samantha Moore

Mudhens

We had a great day today at the Mudhens.  Thanks to Mrs. Tillman for organizing the event and congratulations for winning a $1000 grant for BJHS!