El Museo was founded in 1969 by artist and educator Raphael Montañez Ortiz and a coalition of Puerto Rican parents, educators, artists, and activists who noted that mainstream museums largely ignored Latino artists. Since its inception, El Museo has been committed to celebrating and promoting Latino culture, thus becoming a cornerstone of El Barrio, and a valuable resource for New York City. A big purpose of El Museo is to enhance the sense of identity, self-esteem and self-knowledge of the Caribbean and Latin American peoples by educating them in their artistic heritage and bringing art and artists into their communities.

In Ms. Van Tine's Geometry classes, students explored five new vocabulary words. Using a graphic organizer, they examined a stack of 25 diverse cards featuring various examples of these new terms. As they looked through each card, the students crafted their own definitions to encompass all five examples, making sure to use precise Geometry vocabulary. To reinforce their understanding, they created original drawings that represented each term, showcasing their ability to apply what they learned. Before starting the class poster, the students swapped papers with other groups and gave each other feedback using sticky notes. This helped them refine their definitions even more, making them clearer and more precise. In the final collaborative step, each group selected a definition and corresponding illustration to contribute to a class poster, resulting in a display that reflected the collective knowledge and creativity of the entire class.

My 8th grade honors students completed their "Trial of Mary Maloney" project to conclude our unit of study on "Lamb to the Slaughter" by Roald Dahl. Students had to defend the main character's actions proving "temporary insanity" with direct textual evidence and creating a presentation to defend their claim.

Ms. Corso's seniors are reading "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz.

Congratulations to 8th graders Angela Dai and Alexander Ferreira Lopez who received recognition for their Patriot's Pen Essay submissions! Angela got third place, along with a certificate and a monetary prize, while Alexander got first place, which means he and his essay are moving forward to the statewide level of the competition!

Mr. Kordosky, Mr. Russo and the seniors in AP Biology and Engineering attended NJIT for Career Day on December 13. Students were treated to breakfast and lunch while attending workshops and seminars highlighting the various engineering degrees offered by NJIT. Topics included: Biomedical Engineering, Chemical and Material Engineering, Civil engineering, Robotics, and Industrial Engineering.

Students this month learned about various camera angles within photography such as a high, low, eye-level, and dutch angle and practiced using differentiating angles within their photographs.

As a Halloween themed project, students took photos and practiced editing techniques using Photoshop to create ghost themed photos.

Students' next project focused on using varying shutter speeds to learn how to take photos of quick moving subjects or objects. In this case, we focused on trying to capture confetti in midair to learn how to use varying shutter speed settings on our DSLR cameras.

Students learned about typography and its importance in an overall design. Students practiced adding typography to their designs with the text tool within Adobe Photoshop along with learning how to further utilize layers, clipping masks, and layer effects to enhance their overall designs. Their projects focus on choosing a personality word that describes them, choosing a font that fits the word, and then using images and effects to create a cohesive graphic.

Jazz band played on Veterans day after school at the Bogota VFW where they provided the National Anthem, music for the presentation of the colors, and performed a delightful set of Latin music.

Congratulations to Boys & Girls Cross Country for having the highest team GPA's for the Fall 2024 season. Way to be a Bogota Student Athlete!

Big shout out to our November students of the month! Congratulations 8th grader Amy Ramirez, 9th grader Max Fernandez, 10th grader Jaden Carrion, 11th grader Rihanna Contreras, and 12th grader Emily Palagano. Keep up the good work!

Meggan Leigh Richardson graduated in the Class of 1997. Today she is better known as Mrs. Meggan Leong. We recognize Mrs. Leong as one of our most generous and hard-working PTO members. Currently she serves as the vice president to the PTO for BHS. Mrs. Leong goes above and beyond for our students and for all of our student events. We love and appreciate her very much. Thank you Mrs. Leong for all that you do.💟