It's Fall, Y'all!

“It’s the first day of autumn! A time of hot chocolatey mornings, and toasty marshmallow evenings, and, best of all, leaping into leaves!” — Winnie the Pooh 🌰 🍂

• September 4- First day of the 2025-2026 School Year!
• September 15- National Hispanic Heritage Month
• September 23- Rosh Hashanah -No School
• September 25- 1st PTO meeting for the 25-26SY/Back to School Night
• September 29- School Picture Day
• October 2- Yom Kippur -No School
• October 6-10- Week of Respect/NJGPA Testing
• October 15- SAT Day at BHS
• October 23-31- Red Ribbon Week
• October 24 Fall Pep Rally🍁
• October 24-26- BHS 100th Year Celebration Weekend💯🎉✨
• October 29- BHS 2nd Annual College Fair
• October 31- 8th grade Halloween Breakfast Party
• November 4- Election Day -No School
• November 6-7- NJEA Convention -No School
• November 21- BHS Fall Homecoming Dance for Grades 9-12
• November 27-28- Thanksgiving Break🦃

Hispanic Heritage Month celebrates the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America. In addition, Equatorial Guinea is the only country in Africa where Spanish is the official language since 1844.

Hispanic Heritage Month starts on September 15 to commemorate the independence days of several Latin American countries including Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Mexico's independence day is on September 16, followed by Chile on September 18, and Belize on September 21. In addition, Columbus Day or Dia de la Raza falls on October 13.

This month, Mrs. Hochgesang has visited 4 classrooms for 8 class periods, sharing our “Get to Know Your Library Media Center” presentation with LMC rules and expectations, and Artificial Intelligence lessons for upperclassmen. In the Library, we have our Welcome Back to School and Hispanic Heritage Month book displays, as well as our New Arrival and Book of the Month books on display for students to read and check out. Puzzles and Wooden model making have been popular to build and piece together, and our BHS Window of Info has really grown these past few weeks to be full of school information. We are starting up our 3D printers and Vinyl cutters this week with classes visiting our LMC and students using them during lunch periods. The Author birthdays are also continuously posted and changed per month, and we are planning our new displays and Makerspace events currently for next month.

Ms. Atempa's 8th grade students finished their benchmarks and started their first unit on short stories. We are reading 'The Landlady' by Roald Dahl and focusing on foreshadowing and characterization.

• Creative Writing students recently completed their first writing project, “In Our House, We…” For this activity, students reflected on meaningful family traditions or special moments, created a list, and then selected one to bring to life through descriptive narrative writing.

• For their next project, students are celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month by selecting a topic of interest and crafting their own original short story. Some ideas so far have been: time traveling to meet Frida Kahlo, first person POV (point of view) of a girl celebrating her quinceanera and more!

Ms. Corso's 12th graders are reading 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde.

Ms. Jerman's 10th graders have been studying the Native American Literature Unit. They read the creation myth "The World on Turtle's Back" and they wrote written responses about what the story teaches the reader.

Ms. Minieri's 9th graders started the year with re-reading and reviewing Jason Reynold's 'Long Way Down'. Students discussed the themes and symbols found in the poetic narrative. Next, students reviewed the elements of literature (plot, diagram, figurative language) and have been introduced to a new unit of vocabulary. Vocabulary is quite interactive in Ms. Minieri's class with her infamous "tips and tricks." Now, they are preparing for their first debate to introduce our Short Story Unit.

Mr. Fridman's 11th graders are completing study activities selected from a choice board in order to prepare for their first test. "Make your way through the choice board below (in any order) for a total of at least 100 points. Choose at least one activity from each column. When you finish each task, mark it as completed by checking the box. At the end Submit this Doc along with all completed work." Options include vocabulary flash cards, MEAL paragraphs, creative writing extensions, and flipbook projects. This range of activities allows students to prepare for the test in a way that expresses their preferred style of learning.

To kick off the school year & Hispanic Heritage Month, our Intro to Printmaking classes explored the earliest forms of printmaking found at the Cueva de Las Manos and then had the opportunity to recreate it-right in the BHS Art Room!

The 8th graders started the year with an autobiographical art project where they were tasked with creating a silhouette image composed of various collaged imagery which represents different aspects of their life. This SEL (social-emotional learning) based project was a great way to introduce the art of collage and share some interesting facts about their life!

For Graphic Arts 1, students began the school year by learning Elements of Design while simultaneously learning the basics of using the industry standard editing & design software Adobe Photoshop. Students have been prompted with daily tasks to test their knowledge of the elements of the design alongside their knowledge of tools and technical skills within Photoshop. This week we are beginning their first project which is to use their knowledge and technical skills to develop a cohesive design of their name that reflects their personality. Below are some examples of the practice assignments they created in class.

Check out this great piece by 9th grader Alina Sheikh!

For Graphic Arts 2, students started this year by reviewing the programs we learned within Graphic arts 1 and created various works within Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, & After Effects to showcase their previous knowledge and assess how much they recall from last year. Now students are developing their design skills by learning the Principles of Design and are exercising their understanding of these principles by executing graphic design tasks. Below are some examples of the work they created thus far!

Illustrative review by Lizbeth Ortiz-Grade 10

Designing Coca-Cola advertisements using Principals of Emphasis & Hierarchy by Alfonso Tolentino and Erika Maquilon.

In this new course, students are starting the year by investigating their personal styles and the various reasons as to how clothes define our identities. Students also began developing their Photoshop skills by exploring how to edit their fashion photography creatively and collage photos together. Now students are combining their knowledge and technical skills to create a fashion moodboard that visually conveys their personal style along with creating an original outfit design to go along with their moodboard. Below are some examples of the practice work they created thus far! Nice fashion styles Khadija Laeeq and Iman A. Ahmodu!

8th graders working with Ms. DeAngelis are reviewing operations with rational numbers. This includes integers, fractions, and decimals. In the upcoming weeks, students will be collaborating on 'integer bingo' and working on integer pumpkins to decorate our room.

Ms. Hrabovsky's students have been refreshing their mathematical minds on topics like equations, inequalities, slope, and graphing to prepare for the upcoming challenges of Algebra B.

Ms. Adam's students are hard at work collaborating on finishing a task on solving equations with variables on both sides.

Ms. VanTine's students participated in an exciting treasure hunt. This activity challenged their problem-solving skills and teamwork abilities. Teams worked together, solving a series of word problems to unlock a secret code. Those who found the correct combination earned extra credit on their quiz, making the activity both fun and rewarding.

Career and Technical Education programs offer academic and hands-on instruction in various content areas, such as healthcare, information technology, and skilled trades to prepare students for postsecondary education and in-demand careers.

This year we are excited to enhance our high school by adding three great new programs: Culinary, Automotive, and Cyber Security.

Mr. Spirig is our new Automotive Teacher! He has been teaching our students all about safety, the use of PPE (personal protective equipment), fire safety, hazardous materials and waste, Environmental safety, and lucrative jobs in the automotive service industry.

Mr. Prenderville is our new Cybersecurity Teacher! He's been working on system components such as CPU (central processing unit), RAM (random access memory), motherboard, BIOS (basic input/output system)/UEFI (unified firmware interface), storage, PSU (power supply unit), and coolers. Students are learning about acronyms, peripherals & ports including displays, input devices, printers, and multimedia; and of course, preventive maintenance and documentation.

Chef Cavanaugh is in charge of our new Culinary Program! Culinary students finally got to work with food for the first time. Maybe not exactly what they were expecting, but it's a start! Students teamed up and battled it out to see which team could build the tallest spaghetti tower, topped with marshmallow. This was a great team-building, critical thinking, and problem-solving project, setting the stage for a strong year ahead.

• Mr. De La Cruz is covering the Mongols and Caliphs in World History with his 9th graders.
• Ms. Duchensky and her 8th graders are studying the development of prehistoric people.
• Mr. Siddiqi is teaching students about Spatial Diffusion in his AP Human Geography class; the Progressive Era in his AP US History Class; and Regimes & States in his AP Comparative Government and Politics Class.
• Mr. Varon has students learning about pre-Colombian America and European exploration in his US History I classes.

The yearbook committee had our first meeting where we started by taking a look through some old yearbooks for inspiration. I gave them an overview of how a yearbook works and the different jobs / roles needed to make it successful. We then brainstormed ideas for the theme / cover of the 2026 yearbook.

-Mr. O'Boyle

Mr. Kordosky's classes:

• Anatomy: Student's are going over anatomical regions, anatomical terms, body systems, and arrangement.
• AP Biology: Students are enjoying learning about organic molecules.
• Forensics: The focus is on developing observation skills.
• Engineering: Students are becoming familiar with measuring basics: "using a ruler, measuring angles, calculating lengths of triangle sides." In addition, students are learning types of data and becoming familiar with the engineering process to ensure accuracy.
• Honors Integrated Biology: Learning about the history and branches of biology is important! Students are also going over the characteristics of life, the uses of biology, and the characteristics of a good, effective scientist who knows how to utilize the Scientific Method.

Ms. Kaur understands the importance of going over lab safety, measurements, SI Units, and Scientific Notation in her Integrated Biology classes. Ms. Kaur's Nutrition classes are learning about calorie count, balance, and macromolecules.

Dr. Murphy's Classes:

• AP Psychology: Students are conducting research methods and ethics in psychology studies, and investigating the biopsychosocial approach to understanding behavior.
• Honors Integrated Chemistry: Introduction to laboratory equipment, the Scientific Method, properties of matter-elements, compounds, and mixtures, along with physical and chemical changes in properties.

What's happening in Physics Ms. Majumder?

Students are engaged in learning about the differences between speed and velocity; how to create pictorial, physical, and mathematical models of motion problems; how to represent Motion in one dimension through use of words, motion diagrams, and graphs; finding the speed from the slope of the straight line (X vs T) graph, and using graphs and equations to solve problems involving moving objects from real life by using Kinematics Equation.

Ms. Henriquez and her 8th graders are excited to learn about the Engineering design process and STEM careers as well as how the Scientific Method plays such an intricate role in all the Sciences.