Branciforte

Middle School

In our digital age, girls are confronted daily with media images that can be unrealistic and harmful. This disadvantages girls in the journey to become successful in life and advocates for their own well-being. Love the Skin You’re In is a presentation being offered at Branciforte Middle School that helps girls evaluate their social media lives and how this impacts their confidence and self-worth, relationships, future aspirations and community. It is a powerful workshop to inspire girls to value their voices, imaginations and connectedness with each other. We are exceptionally lucky to be able to offer this event. We are asking every Branciforte girl to consider attending this workshop being held AFTER SCHOOL on Friday, October 4th at 3:15 in the Branciforte Middle School gymnasium. The presentation will go until 4:45, so bring a snack and plan to be inspired by this life-changing event! Hope to see you there! Girls from other middle schools may attend for free with a student ID, if space is available.

We’re looking for three or four B40 Parents to serve a two-year term as a member of the School Site Council which meets approximately six times a year to monitor our school plan.

This summer students from Branciforte and Mission Hill Middle Schools participated in a fun and inspirational math exploratory Summer Camp. Students explored inquiry based math tasks...

Summer, 2019 Dear Parents, Guardians and Students - There is so much to be excited about this upcoming school year and we look forward to meeting our new Bees and saying hello to those returning to the hive. We are also eager to introduce the Bee community to our newest and talented staff members and we welcome them to the beehive. The Branciforte team has been busy over the summer preparing for the arrival of our students on Wednesday, August 21st, as this year will be full of new opportunities for the entire community. Personally, I am beginning my second year at Branciforte Middle School and I couldn’t be more thrilled about the year ahead.

we are excited to see some of our Measure A facility upgrades happening that began this spring and have continued this summer. The following upgrades are in action or planned:

Every year at the end of the 7th grade social studies unit on the Maya, Aztec, and Inca, students are tasked with creating an artifact that represents a contribution made by one of these civilizations. The students then curate this artifact in a mini-museum that is visited by other classes on campus. The essential question students must research and answer is: What was an important contribution made by the Maya, Aztec, or Inca? The categories that students choose from include: Art and Architecture, Science and Technology, and Language and Writing. The photo above is of seventh grade student Mariana. This school year was Mariana’s first in the United States. One of the benefits of this unit was that it provided Mariana with a high level of cultural connection. Through the use of scaffolded notes, bilingual aides, library resources, and websites, Mariana was able to share her learning with the class and create a beautiful artifact that represented the Aztec contributions to architecture. Way to go Mariana! Erin Brandon - 7th Grade Core Teacher, Branciforte Middle School

For the last six years, Branciforte Middle School 8th grade CORE classes have enjoyed an amazing collaboration with Young Writers Program sponsored by Santa Cruz County Office of Education. Every year writing project assistants from the community are paired with small groups of student writers to work on ideas, literary elements and refinement with the ultimate product being a “Cornerstone” anthology full of student poetry and short stories. This year’s publication is titled Finding Home and is available for purchase at Bookshop Santa Cruz. In 2018-19 two classrooms also participated in a joint venture with the East Los Angeles Self-Help Graphics Art Program and Museo Eduardo Carrillo to write personal narratives inspired by student created art . The result is a beautiful full color book filled with emotion and creativity. These opportunities for our students bring a richness to the writing process that flows over into all aspects of writing for school and for life.