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Inside Billings
December 19, 2024
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Have a Great Winter Break! | |
🎒 What's Happening at Billings? 📚 | |
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We hope everyone has a meaningful time off, whether you're traveling, celebrating the holidays, visiting family, or relaxing! When we return from break, Winter Term will officially begin. We'll see you all next (calendar) year! Be sure to have your student check the Lost & Found before school is over so they don't leave their favorite sweaters behind over break.
Winter Club forms will be due back on Tuesday, January 7th when students return.
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Mike on the Mic 🎤
A reminder that school is closed from Friday, December 20th, through Monday, January 6th, and will reopen on Tuesday, January 7th.
I’m excited to announce that the Billings Annual Celebration and Fundraising Dinner will be on Friday, April 4th from 6:00-9:00pm at Billings! We will have more details in 2025, so stay tuned!
As the 2024 calendar year winds to a close, I continue to be filled with gratitude for the generosity and support of the Billings community.
Thanks to volunteers in our family community, Nadia and Gertrude was transformed last night into a special celebration venue for our annual Faculty Appreciation Dinner. It was an evening of laughter, appreciation, and reflection about this magical community and the importance of our work and the joy in helping your children grow. I’m also thankful for Laurie Alexander for her leadership with our Billings Family Association and the many volunteers who have donated their time and talent this fall. I look forward to so many more connections in 2025.
I’m also grateful for the generous gifts from our faculty, board, almost every current family and so many alumni families to support our Annual Fund. I’m emotionally touched by a number of families who have stretched their family budgets with their donation amounts and a number of alumni families (some from 20 years ago!), that have shared their stories of why they continue to support Billings. And it’s amazing that we have currently raised over $166,000, well beyond our goal $100,000! Thank you for your support – it’s indicative of the power of when everyone in our community is involved and supporting our transformative mission.
I hope that you all have a restful and restorative winter break with special time with loved ones.
See you on Tuesday, January 7th!
Mike
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As we wrap up this calendar year, teachers are preparing their final assessments and comments for the fall reporting term. For 7th and 8th grade families, you’ll notice minor changes from last year’s reports as our program team made revisions to the format to make the overall academic assessment and teacher comments clear and aligned. We’ve removed department specific standards for assessment and added a common assessment for all classes for measuring the learning and executive functioning skills we’ve been focusing on this year: participation and organization. For new families, you’ll notice that the first page of the reports provides an overview of the format and evaluation criteria, as well as an explanation for the narrative comments from teachers. Report cards are reviewed internally and then distributed before the start of the winter term.
As always, please reach out to me if you have any questions,
April
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Upcoming Events: 📅
- [NO SCHOOL] Winter Break ❄️ Friday, 12/20 - Monday, 1/6
- POCIS Community Skate: 1/11, 7:15pm-8:45pm at Kraken Ice Complex
- UW Bowling Night: Saturday, 1/25 - 5:00pm-7:00pm
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6th graders have been wrapping up any final assessments and projects, as part of our plan to finish the semester strong. Reminders have been given about cleaning out lockers and taking items (lunch boxes, water bottles, important papers) home for the break. We’re having a holiday party during 5th & 6th period on Thursday. We’ll show the top-voted movie in one classroom (The Princess Bride) and have another classroom open for screenless games–plus ice cream and a few other treats! Students are excited to get a chance to relax and celebrate the end of the term!
7th graders held their final grade-level meeting of 2024 this past Tuesday. We are excited to have our first “student segment” of the meeting, brought to you by Sabrina, who gave a skiing sport report to the students. The 7th grade advisors are stoked to see what reports the students want to share in 2025.
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8th graders planned and hosted an All School Breakfast on Wednesday morning. Students served cereal, breakfast pastries, and fruit. To end our semester and anticipate December’s break, 8th graders celebrated with a “Secret Snowflake” gift exchange on Thursday! They also enjoyed a trip to the MOHAI to get inspired about their upcoming 8th Grade Projects. | |
6th graders are transitioning from a review of decimal addition and subtraction to decimal multiplication. We will continue higher levels of decimal computation when we return in January. Students have also started exploring Least Common Multiple and Greatest Common Factor concepts. Short verbal bursts of factor and multiple practice during holiday travels (“name all factors of 36… name five multiples of 15… what’s a common factor or multiple of 8 and 12?”) can help solidify these concepts. | |
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8th graders put together their understanding of linear equations and inequalities, along with linear constraints, to design some incredibly complex figures on Desmos. Please ask your students about this!
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Over the last few weeks, our awesome climbing wall has been frequently populated with students climbing, bouldering, and auto-belaying to the top. Most 7th and 8th graders have climbing experience already, but this is an important “rite of passage” for Billings 6th graders. Here are our youngest climbers enjoying their first training sessions on the wall! | |
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6th grade students will return in January to their study of Mesopotamia in Social Studies where they will engage in projects using foundational information from this month’s study. Students should look forward to creating a cuneiform clay tablet and analyzing Hammurabi’s Code!
7th graders completed their Native American Social Justice Issues presentations and took a look at the expedition of Lewis and Clark. We discussed how important it is to approach things from a variety of perspectives. Here they are wearing their “perspectacles” to remind them!
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While wrapping up a mini-unit on Christianity, 8th graders visited Blessed Sacrament to see the Gothic-inspired architecture and hear from Margie, who has been a member of this Catholic church for most of her life. Students are also applying their understanding of Christianity to their exploration of Puritanism and the Salem witch hysteria. We will return to this in January.
Lala sketched this drawing of the altar! She gave it to Margie as a thank you.
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6th and 7th grade ELA students are ending the term with a week-long celebration of all things winter! After submitting their final homework assignment of the year on Monday, students started the week with a collaborative fortress building competition. Students worked together to build marshmallow snow forts in preparation for an epic marshmallow snowball fight. Students then decorated their very own wrapping paper, and later they learned all about Choose Your Own Adventure stories before creating their own. Students have no homework or assigned reading over break, but I highly encourage them to find a just-for-fun book to read while they’re gone!
| In 6th grade the students finished their Astronomy unit by participating in a class Jeopardy game. Students did a great job recalling all that they learned. We also finished our 3D printer projects in Design Lab! | |
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In 8th grade, students finished the Chemistry unit with one final assessment. Students had a variety of options to choose from for this final assignment. Next term, we are moving on to Physics!
8th graders also wrapped up the term with a spirited Robotics
Competition on the First LEGO League SUMBERGED game board. Teams had two rounds of two and half minutes to have their robots autonomously solve as many challenges and earn as many points as possible. Each team member had to individually code an attempt to solve a challenge and rotate within the time period. Congratulations to Team Turtles for winning the team points competition and to Naomi for best exhibiting teamwork and gracious professionalism! Over the term, students built and iterated their robot design and learned block-based coding to control their robot's movements based on distance measurements and sensors. It was fun to hear them cheering each other on!
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From the BFA:
Seasons greetings from the Billings Family Association! Wishing you and yours a happy, healthy winter break. See you in 2025!
Next BFA Meeting on Friday 1/10
The January BFA meeting will be Friday, January 10th from 8:30-9:30am. All parents and caregivers are invited to attend in person or online. You can preview the agenda here.
Neurodiversity Affinity Group Meeting on 1/13
The group’s next virtual meeting will be Monday 1/13 at 7:30pm. The group is open to all parents and caregivers of neurodiverse students. To sign up for the group, register here. Not sure if you’ve already signed up? You can view your google group memberships here.
Registration Open for UW Bowling Night on 1/25
Billings’ annual bowling night will be Saturday, January 25th from 5-7pm. Bring the whole family, including non-Billings siblings, for bowling and pizza. Suggested donation per person is $15. Please register here.
School Lunch Registration Reminder
School lunch delivery via Lovely Lunches is available for interested families. New menus are posted each month. Information about the program and the registration link are posted here.
Notes from December BFA Meeting
If you weren’t able to make the 12/6 BFA meeting, you can check out the meeting notes here.
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SQUIRRELLY WORKSHOP
After-School Art & Holiday Gift Making
Squirrelly Workshop is an art studio in Sand Point Village (5414 Sand Point Way NE), hosting a wide array of art classes for kids and adults. Monday through Friday, we offer After-School Art Classes for kids, and would love to have yours join us! Their upcoming four-week series is their favorite:❤️ Surprise Holiday Gift Making!
Adults can also join in the fun! Learn collage, glass painting or wreath making in a weekend family class, or join for an adult night out creating pottery, mosaics, watercolors, or beaded jewelry.
More at www.squirrellyworkshop.com
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Check out these ParentMap articles:
For more support and resources surrounding the youth mental health crisis, screen time and social media, and the importance of play, visit ParentMap’s Antidote for the Anxious Generation page.
Speaker links
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Billings is proud to sponsor the 2025 Diversity Career Fairs hosted by POCIS Northwest on February 9 and March 8. Please help us spread the word! | |
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Executive Function Workout!
💡 FEEL THE BURN! 💡
Join me (Greg: Director of The Learning Center at Billings) for a regular Tuesday morning EF workout from 8:30am to 9:30am starting Tuesday, September 10th. Developing EF, or Executive Function, requires the exercise of the brain in specific ways. Drop in on any Monday morning, to share stories and explore strategies for strengthening our EF muscles and by extension, that of our students.
Think of Executive Function as the CEO of the brain, helping us improve our self-regulation and aid our ability to make both short and long-term plans that enhance our performance in many aspects of our life. At a middle school pragmatic level this includes things like, doing your nightly HW, working on long term projects, or doing chores around the house. This is not a class. This is an opportunity to share collective wisdom. While 30 plus years as a middle school educator has certainly allowed me to garner some wisdom, I am really a facilitator on Tuesday mornings. Regular attendance is not a prerequisite. I don't need advanced notice. Drop in any Tuesday morning.
New Year’s Resolutions! Why do they so often fail? One of the big reasons is that we tend to make too many. When we make just one we can focus our energy on how to change our behavior to find more success with that resolution. Sooo… just make one resolution this year… “I will attend an EF Workout on Tuesday mornings at 8:30am! If I can’t, I will email Greg to find time to learn more!” :)
No matter what you resolve, I wish all a Happy Holiday. See you next year!
We will be meeting in person in Mercury, during advisory and the beginning of first period. Check-in at the front desk before heading down to Nadia. If you do not want to attend in person and prefer Zoom, let me know and I will send you a recurring Zoom link. Masks are not required but can be provided upon request.
And if Tuesday mornings are not a viable option for you, but you want to learn more, don't hesitate to e-mail me, and let's find time to chat 1-1.
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