Student Activities

MURAL PROJECTS

BEAUTIFYING BROWNELL THROUGH ART

Brownell's Associated Student Body represents all Bruins, and works to enrich the school day.  With students meetings on a regular basis, we provide the students with countless activities to participate in. 

• School Dances: The dances are open only to students attending Brownell. Students suspended during the time between dances may not attend. When attending school dances, students must bring their ticket, a signed parent permission slip, and a current school ID card.  The school dress code is in effect at all dances, and students who arrive wearing clothing that breaks that dress code will be sent home.  Parents MUST pick up students from dances promptly.
• Spirit Days: Held throughout the year, students have the opportunity to show their Bruin spirit by participating in a theme day.  

Eligibility

Appropriate student behavior is a requirement for participation in all students activities, including ASB. Student leaders are expected to represent high ethical standards. Students must attend at least half of the school day to be eligible to participate in ASB and related activities. GUSD board policy states that to be eligible for a position of leaderships, students must maintain a 2.0 GPA or higher with no more than 1 failing grade. In addition, ASB students must have satisfactory citizenship. Eligibility shall be determined at the end of each quarter. 

Mr. Adam Martinez is a new band director for the Gilroy Unified School District. Aside from being a band director, he is an active performing musician in both Santa Clara and San Benito County. Mr. Martinez has played double bass and electric bass for many local organizations such as the South Valley Symphony, San Benito Stage Company, and South Valley Civic Theatre.

Mr. Martinez received his B.M. in Music Education and teaching credential from San Jose State University.  His previous teaching experience includes teaching elementary classroom music along with middle school band, choir, and string orchestra.  Mr. Martinez is passionate about spreading his passion of music to all of his students.

He can always be contacted via email at adam.martinez@gilroyunified.org

HOMEWORK HELP AND MORE

• Bear Den starts immediately the first quarter of the school year.
• This is a program designed to assist students in meeting standards, and credit recovery for students missing assignments.
• Students that do not complete homework are referred by teachers to the main administration at scheduled intervals.
• Once referred, students are placed on a Bear Den list, and are expected to gather their lunch and come into the Bear Den classroom for tutoring and completion of their assigned work.
• Students are assigned for a two week block of time, Monday through Friday, and may exit early if all work is completed.
• Students are assigned to Bear Den unless a parent opts their student out. Surprisingly enough, parents are very supportive of this program.
• We strongly urge families not to opt out of the program as most students are able to get back on track academically within the first session.
• Our goal is to assist students in not receiving 0’s for assignments and provide a place where they can get help needed for any assignments they did not understand.
• This program allows students to still earn some credit, grow academically, and have the support of teaching staff and college tutors.
• Students develop good learning habits by attending this program.
• Since Bear Den is open during lunches, some students find this program a place for them to feel safe, meet another friend, and express their inner thoughts with their peers in a classroom environment.

Thank you to all students, parents, and teachers for making this program a success!

Mrs. Laurie Avey has been involved in music since a very young age.  After singing solos in church at the age of 4, she started playing the piano at age 8 and has never stopped!  Mrs. Avey has taught piano since the age of 14 and still has a few students on the side.  She has been in and involved with Choirs of all ages, many different musical groups, and she currently plays in the Worship Band at South Valley Community Church.

Educationally speaking, she has a minor in music from Sonoma State University.  In 2000, she was hired by GUSD to teach Choir and Physical Education for Brownell Middle School.  This continued for 5 years, until Solorsano Middle School opened and a teacher was hired to teach Choir at all three middle schools.  Programs changed, things evolved, and Brownell is back to having its own Choir, beginning the school year of 2011-2012.

Mrs. Avey’s goals are to spread her passion for music to her students.  She hopes they find music to be an expression they can turn to when times that are tough, that music can give them opportunities to do things and meet people that they might not do or meet otherwise, that the confidence they gain from this experience, will spill into many other aspects of the students’ life.  She hopes that many will continue their music learning and involvement at the upper levels of education and beyond!

A Sampling of Choir Events?

 Performances:  

• District Concerts, which included singing with and listening to elementary choirs, elementary honor choirs, other middle school choirs, and high school choirs
• Concerts with our own Brownell Bands
• Memory Lane Concert, with just our Choir, singing songs from the entire year.  This is also the Choir where alumni from past Brownell Choirs join us on one song, "From the Heart."
• Sing the National Anthem for Brownell's Promotion Ceremony.

Field Trips:  

• Vocal Arts Festival at California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo (CalPoly) where we sing and listen to other middle school choirs in California
• Disneyland (if accepted), where we sing at the California Adventure Backlot Stage and attend a vocal workshop with their professional musicians
• Live Oak Adult Day Center in Gilroy, where we spread holiday cheer
• One of the High Schools to attend their Chamber Choir Class (advanced choir)
• Building the Bridge for Music - where we visit the elementary schools and share about Brownell's music program.

Other:

• Caroling through the classrooms
• 1-3 students are selected to sing in the CMEA (California Music Educators' Association) Conference in January
• 1 or 2 fundraisers, including the Spaghetti Feed held by the Choral Boosters at Gilroy High School
• We get our picture taken with a professional photographer.  Individual photos and Buddy photos are also available for purchase.

Founded in 1967, CJSF fosters high standards of scholarship, service and citizenship in the middle school grades. Like CSF, CJSF emphasizes service to the school and the community while fostering pride in scholastic achievement. 

CJSF OFFICERS - 2018-19

President - Darius Rutman

Vice President - Alexandra Beyret

Treasurer - Cloey Turiello

Secretary - Celeste Cooper

Community Liaison - Caitlyn Yang

Sargent at Arms and fills in for anyone else except President - Zoee Motley Chomicz

ASB Representative - Makayla Hoiberg  

Gamer's Guild has no officers, no mission statement, no fees, no tournaments -- just a quiet place to come to plug in and game for 45 minutes. Gamer's Guild is a drop-in club, which means that students can come and join as they wish -- no commitments.

Games that encourage taking drugs, stealing things, or committing sexual violence is not permitted, but chasing Creepers and assorted mobs of roving dragon-kin is acceptable. Students may bring board games to the club as well. We meet every Thursday after school in room 22 from 2:45 pm – 4:00 pm.

ROBOTICS Club - Every Friday

Robotics is being held in room 33 every Friday from 2:45 - 4:00 pm.  We have been blessed with a student volunteer from GECA, Gavin Jampani, a former Bruin, who has an amazing technological knowledge in  assisting Mrs. Groppe.  Robotics Club is a parental-driven after school program. This activity requires committed parents to participate and donate their time. The program consists of 1 Session for two (2) hours, once a week. If you have more questions and are interested in considering getting more involved please contact  Mrs. Groppe, our club advisor.

The Robotics Program’s objective is to enrich students’ learning experiences and expose them to the wonderful world of science through robotic engineering! The program emphasizes flexible approaches toward understanding, responding and solving problems through playfulness and practical application utilizing LEGO MINDSTORM Robotic Educational sets. The Students are exposed to computer programming, building, and critical thinking.

Currently, the program is for 6^th through 8^th grade students with maximum of 12 students per session. Our goal is to supplement grade level standards(ca) with this program. This requires committed parents to participate and donate their time. The Program consists of 1 Session for two (2) hours once a week.

If you have more questions and considering getting more involved please contact the front office or email Mrs. Groppe @ vicky.groppe@gilroyunified.org.

GENERAL INFO

Mrs. Kalman, Advisor