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Inside Billings
March 20, 2025
| | 🎒 What's Happening at Billings? 📚 | | We're putting the finishing touches on the all-school winter performance of The Nut-Brown Girl. Every student has had a hand in this production, be it playing a part in the cast, performing in the band, constructing the props, or doing work behind-the-scenes. Come see the culmination of the time and effort your kids have put into this production! Click the button below to RSVP for one of our shows. Tickets are free, but we encourage a donation of $15 or more to help support the arts here at Billings! | | |
Mike on the Mic 🎤
The Nut-Brown Girl is here! Congratulations in advance to the entire cast for an amazing performance! We’re excited that students incorporated their very own creative twists into the story and its characters. I strongly believe that drama is a critical part of middle school growth, creativity, and empathy-building, from the process of embodying a character to collaborating with a full cast, crew, and band. We’ve seen beautiful growth on the stage, had our hearts warmed by the band and our singers, and seen great cross-grade teamwork.
We are excited to see the richness of the Billings community come together this weekend including current families, alumni and their families, prospective students, past staff and current staff and their families all enjoying what makes Billings so magical. Reminder that our show times are 7:00 pm Friday, 2:00 pm Saturday, and 6:30 pm on Saturday.
Deep appreciation and gratitude in advance to Gillian, Sabrina, Christine, and Birch, for the countless hours and many months of planning leading to such a beautiful community event. Also, our sincere thank you to the many families who have volunteered or will volunteer from set building to make-up to costumes to celebrating the cast.
Please join us at drop-off tomorrow morning for coffee and tea to build even more connection and excitement for upcoming events like the Annual Celebration and Fundraiser (April 4, 5:30-9:00pm at Billings), Teens, Screens, and Social Media with Rob (April 8, 6:00 – 7:30 pm) and our Billings Family Movie Night (April 25, 5:00 – 7:30 pm at Billings).
Thank you for your support,
Mike
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🌻Spring Schedule🌷
Following our teacher in-service day on Monday, March 24th, we will be starting our Spring Term Schedule on Tuesday, March 25th. Please click the buttons below to view each grade’s daily schedule.
Some important highlights:
· For 8th grade, the schedule will look identical to Fall Term.
· For 7th grade, there are some modifications to best support Maya’s return and the two spring 7th grade trips, including climbing preparation. Students will have the same number of classes in all subjects as Fall Term, but there will be a different configuration each day.
· For 6th grade, we are splitting the classes into two sections for this Spring Term. Students will have the same number of classes in each subject and almost an identical schedule as Fall Term. Students will learn their sections before class on Tuesday.
| | 🌱 Philanthropy at Billings🪴 | |
Wow! We are just TWO WEEKS away from the celebration and fundraising dinner and I am thrilled to see how many people bought tickets!!
Missed Friday’s ticket deadline? Don’t worry, there’s still time to grab yours this week! A few seats remain, but act fast before they’re gone!
You won’t want to miss our exciting live auction, featuring incredible items like a whitewater rafting trip for 8, a 4-night stay in a luxurious Palm Springs home, and mementos from the school play, The Nut-Brown Girl.
The evening will also include a "Raise the Paddle" donation opportunity, supporting vital programs like financial assistance, expeditionary learning, and arts/STEAM.
To set the tone, we’ll debut a video created by 7th-grade parent Bryan Howell, showcasing Billings students and faculty sharing what they love about the school and its impact on their lives. It’ll inspire you to give!
Even if you did not get a ticket to the auction you can still support Billings and participate in the event by visiting the Raffle page of our website to snag your chance to win a $1000 gift card to Canlis, one of Seattle’s hottest restaurants, or by making a donation online.
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✒️ Deans on the Scene 🎓
On Monday and Tuesday of this week, Nathan took four students to the NWAIS Student Diversity Leadership Retreat at Black Diamond Camp in Auburn. This leadership opportunity hosted by NWAIS, our independent school association, offers speakers, workshops, and activities for middle school students to connect with students from other schools, to engage in conversations about diversity, and to develop leadership skills they can bring back to their respective schools. We are proud of 8th graders Maiyte and Jenna and 7th graders Sebastian and Abdi for representing Billings.
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Upcoming Events: 📅
- The Nut-Brown Girl: March 21, 7:00 pm
- The Nut-Brown Girl: March 22, 2:00 pm & 6:30pm
- BFA All-Family Meeting: April 4, 8:30am - 9:30am
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Billings Base Camp: Annual Celebration and Fundraising Dinner - Friday, April 4th from 5:30pm - 9:00pm [purchase tickets here]
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Screen-Time Family Event: April 8, 6:00pm - 7:30pm [LINK]
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We’re excited to have split sections for 6th graders when Spring Term starts next week. After careful consideration and discussion, the 6th grade team has formed two sections of 10 students, after careful consideration. We’ll announce these sections to students first thing next Tuesday during morning advisory. Please help students start strong next term with reminders to bring planners every day, charge Chromebooks every evening, and make responsible choices with technology and internet activity.
With the Winter Term coming to a close, 7th graders will have their final section changes of the 2024-2025 school year. The 7th grade team worked to group students based on a variety of considerations for optimal social and academic success. The new sections will be shared with students at the start of the Spring Term - on Tuesday - during advisory.
8th graders visited the Modern Orthodox synagogue, Minyan Ohr Chadash to learn more about traditional Judaism. Karen Treiger, who had been the Holocaust speaker for this group, showed them around her synagogue, explained the meaning behind many of the religious symbols and artifacts, and answered questions about rituals, holidays, history, and belief.
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Our Olympic Backpacking trip is now full, but space is available in our other two trips as well as our on-campus workshops. Please check out the website for all the information and register below while there's still time.
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March 14th was Pi Day! 6th graders celebrated with two activities and circular treats. During Math, we reviewed the distinctive features of circles and learned formulas for calculating circumference and area with pi. Students choose from a variety of circular objects (frisbees, tape rolls, cups, cans, and even a roll of toilet paper) to practice these calculations. During design lab, students created Pi City skyline artwork based on ten-digit sequences from pi’s never ending train of decimals. This collective artwork will show a series of skyscrapers that match the order of the first 200 digits of pi. Ask your child how many digits of pi scientists actually use for calculating with realistic accuracy.
In 6th grade Science students just finished their Weather and Climate Unit. Students took their first full science test of the year and performed well. Next we will begin our Geology Unit in preparation for our spring trip to Mt. St. Helens!
In 8th grade Science students are finishing up their Forces of Motion Unit for the first part of physics. Students successfully built their Egg Cars to withstand crashes and kept their eggs safe! Students will be moving on to learn about Sound and Light Waves in our upcoming unit.
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8th graders put the final touches, brushes, cuts, and edits on their respective 8th Grade Projects.
7th grade is hard at work on their plot elements project, creating webs of how different characters are related to each other and applying vocabulary terms to their work.
6th grade ELA just took their final quiz before the end of winter term, showcasing their knowledge of text features, the main idea, and summaries. Students are ending the term reading about the cave rescue of a boys’ soccer team from the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Thailand. Ask them about this harrowing story of survival, and what they learned about meditation!
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🎾 Sports 🎳
Ultimate, Tennis, and Bowling will begin next week.
- Ultimate will be practicing Mondays & Wednesdays from 3:45 - 5:15
- Tennis will be practicing Tuesdays & Thursdays from 3:45 - 5:15
- Bowling will be on Tuesdays from 3:45 - 5:15
There are still a few spots available in Bowling if anyone would like to join!
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From the BFA:
Volunteers Needed for April 4th Event
We are still looking for volunteers to help with set-up and clean-up for the Billings Annual Celebration and Spring Fundraiser on Friday, April 4th. Click here to sign up. Thank you!
List of Upcoming Events
Springtime is BUSY at Billings. So very busy. Get these events on your calendar now!
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How to Build Equitable Schools
Join Elena Aguilar, author of the highly acclaimed book Arise: The Art of Transformational Coaching, to discuss the importance of emotional resilience in equity work. Walk away with a number of strategies to cultivate the emotional resilience needed to build equitable schools.
- April 23, 2025
- 5:00-6:15 pm
- Via Zoom
- Free and Open to the Public
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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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Executive Function Workout!
💡 New Year, New Day!💡
We are switching to Wednesday mornings for our winter EF Workouts!
Join me (Greg: Director of The Learning Center at Billings) for a regular morning EF workout from 8:30am to 9:30am on Wednesdays. Developing EF, or Executive Function, requires the exercise of the brain in specific ways. Drop in on any Wednesday morning to share stories and explore strategies for strengthening our EF muscles and by extension, that of our students.
Think of EF (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 Wednesday mornings. Regular attendance is not a prerequisite. I don't need advanced notice. Drop in as you are able.
We will be meeting in person in Mercury during advisory and the beginning of first period. 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 Wednesday 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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