Friday, December 18, 2015

BRMS student receives first ever "Character Ambassador" Award!

Big Rapids Middle presents the first ever "Character Ambassador" Award to Savon Cobb! Savon shows genuine kindness and concern towards others on a daily basis! The award was presented to Savon by Middle School principal, Lenore Weaver, and Middle School counselor, Julie Jancek, on Friday, December 18th.

Congratulations Savon!



Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Big Rapids High School uses "Gamification" in English and Technology in Art Classes .

Big Rapids High School English teacher Mr. Smith uses "Gamification” along with course work to engage students.

 Pictured below are students competing in this activity as a Team Reward challenge for Mr. Smith’s game, “Heroes of Literature - Survivor Edition”. Based on the television show Survivor, students compete against each other throughout the trimester to try to win rewards, conquer immunity challenges, and evade the dreaded Tribal Council--where if they lose, they go to Exile Island!



Bringing Technology Into Art


Big Rapids High School students create an avatar to introduce themselves to their classmates. Students use “bitstripsforschools” to create their avatar and a four slide comic that tells others the activities they are involved in, what their interests are, what their future job will be, and interesting things the class may not know about them.


Avatars provide a less stressful way for students why may be a bit less artistic to introduce themselves. "Bitstrips" allows them to use technology that is often more natural to the students.

Monday, December 14, 2015

BRMS Blood Drive - Thanks to all the community members who donated!!

On Friday, December 11, the Big Rapids Middle School hosted a Blood Drive from 11-6.  Thank you to the 58 volunteers who donated their blood!  A total of 49 units of blood was donated!  Thank you to all who helped make this event possible and a success!



Friday, December 11, 2015

Students learn about an Officer and His Best Friend




Learning about an Officer and his Canine...


Three guest speakers came to visit Miss Amy Hathaway's class, at Brookside Elementary, They taught them about the day in the life of an officer and his canine.

Rob Glentz, Michigan State Police Trooper is Miss Hathaway's Community Mentor.  Mr Glentz also invited fellow coworkers, Trooper Casey Lalone and "Meeko", his canine officer. They shared their experiences as a Michigan State Police Trooper.

There is a story in one of their reading books that is about this same topic. Students learned about all the different things that the canine is trained to do.

Thank you Trooper Glentz, Trooper Lalone, and K9 Officer Meeko.  It was a great opportunity to have fun and learn about police work and their Canines work.

Brookside Class Learns about Leadership Rolls

Ben Nagy is the Assistant Manager at Big Rapids Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant, and also is our Community Mentor for Dave Byrnes' 3rd grade class at Brookside.  Mr. Nagy visited Mr. Byrne's class to discuss leadership.

All the employees at Buffalo Wild Wings have opportunities for leadership roles, similar to ways students do in the classroom. 

Students also learned about the 17 wing sauces. Their favorite is honey mustard. 

They also learned many interesting facts, and some history about Buffalo Wild Wings.  The first BWW'S in Michigan began in Mt. Pleasant. 

The students greatly enjoyed Mr. Nagy's presentation.  Thank you Mr. Nagy for visiting our school.

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

National Honors Society Induction Ceremony at BRHS.....

On December 3rd, the National Honor Society celebrated the induction of new members at the BRHS Auditorium.

BIG RAPIDS HIGH SCHOOL
ECOLIERS CHAPTER
NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY

INDUCTION CEREMONY
PROGRAM

December 3rd, 2015


Welcome  …. Mr. Glen Phelps – NHS adviser
Introduction of Speaker ….Gwen Graham – NHS President

Guest Speaker …. Mrs. Kristen Conley – Ferris State University

Candle Lighting Ceremony

Scholarship…. Ayla Vitello
Service…. Crystal Brinker

Leadership…. Samantha Pettersen

Character…. Paige Brady
Conferring of Membership Certificates and Pins…. Gwen Graham
Pledge of Commitment for New Members …. Gwen Graham
Closing …. Mr. Ron Pincumbe - Principal
Officers
President Gwen Graham
Vice President Samantha Pettersen
Secretary Paige Brady
NHS website:     bigrapidshsnhs.weebly.com
Mr. Phelps e-mail:   gphelps@brps.org


                          CURRENT MEMBERS
Kelsey Blatchford Gwen Graham    Kayla Somsel
Skyler Bourke Kayla Horvath        Amanda Smith
Crystal Brinker Lucas Hundersmarck    Madeline Stanislav
Paige Brady Hunter Jacobs    Noah Stauffer
Kayla Chamberlain Katie Lund        Madeline Tassoni
Erin Coady Jonatha McAdams          Ashley Vissers
Austin Draves Blake Page    Ayla Vitello
Hannah Davis Samantha Pettersen    Mark Wissink
Alex Graham Geoffrey Pisani    Ryan Workman
Kate Shenton    


                                     NEW MEMBERS
Kiara Cushway Josh McCullen Luke Somsel
Alexis Dawkins Kaylee Mondrella Richard Swinson
Renee Ding Tait Morrissey Elina Ulmer
Mackenzie Giese Grant Potter Andrew Upham
Jacklyn Hatchew Alisonn Scsavnicki Luke Vanderhill
Rebecca Herzog Sean Scsavnicki Molly Weber
Susanna Kailing Dakota Young    
   
       
                                    



BIG RAPIDS MS STUDENTS IN MSBOA HONORS BAND!

The Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association held their annual Middle School
Honors Band Tuesday night (12/8/15), this year at Shelby High School.  For students to
be eligible for admission into the group they must have received a First Division rating at
Solo and Ensemble Festival earlier this year.  The Big Rapids band program was well-
represented by having 28 7th and 8th grade students nominated to perform with the Honors
Band, 26 of which attended – more than any other participating school.  Mr. Mike Eagan
and Mr. Lester Knot were the guest conductors for the Honors Band.


Pictured (left to right):


Front Row – Siri Quist, Justynn Bobon, Megan Mortensen, Brett Lilienthal, Hannah
Owens, Olivia Owens, Corina Kailing, Avery Eddinger, Walker Weirts, Eric Cohen,
Frances Arquette, Tyler Smith, Brian Keusch


Top Row – Addy Kirby, Ryan Fox, Kolton Carter, Will King, Jonah Weber, Tyler
Zimmerman, Ashley Wall, Kayla Hirons, Annika Lipar, Zoey Watters, Tennessee
Swearingen, Aidan Waddell, Matt Hardesty, BRMS Band Director Albie Todd

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

BRMS Students Receive Cardinal Awards

Congratulations to our Big Rapids Middle School Students who have received Cardinal Awards for their academic progress during the first trimester of the school year.



 5th Grade Students

 6th Grade Students

 7th Grade Students

8th Grade Students

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

BRHS Welcomes Special Guest Speaker Will Heininger

On November 20th, Community Mental Health for Central Michigan brought in Mr.Will Heininger to the High School to tell his personal story of his experience with depression.
 
Will grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His lifelong dream of playing football at the University of Michigan came to fruition in 2007 under Hall of Fame Coach Lloyd Carr. At U of M, he was a 4-time Letterman in football, a 4-time Academic All-Big Ten award recipient, and a two-time Big Ten Distinguished Scholar. In his senior season of 2011, he started every game at defensive tackle for team 132, which finished the season 11-2 as Sugar Bowl Champions. After graduation, Will lived and worked in Chicago for a time, young people's development, and athletics. Will currently works jointly with the University of Michigan Athletic Department on student-athlete mental health and the Depression Center in Outreach and Education.  


Will struggled with depression during much of his time as a U of M player and now he speaks to students and student/athletes about his experience.
 
While his message is one of depression awareness and suicide prevention, there is a compelling anti-stigma message as well. It's so important for people to realize depression and other mental illnesses aren't anything to be ashamed of, and that they are just like any other illnesses which affect the body.
During his presentation last year, Will said someone asked him, "You play football for U of M, how can you be depressed?" He likened that to saying "You play football for U of M, how can you have cancer?" What a great analogy to illustrate the fact one doesn't choose to have a mental illness any more than one chooses to have cancer.



Will doesn't' have a website, but if you would like to read more about him, please click on one or more of the links below:


http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/10335925/awareness-better-treatment-college-athletes-mental-health-begins-take-shape


http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2014/01/ex-michigan_dl_will_heininger.html

http://www.freep.com/article/20140128/SPORTS06/301280104/

http://consumer.healthday.com/mental-health-information-25/depression-news-176/when-football-stars-are-sacked-by-depression-681905.html