Twin Peaks Middle School
Weekly RAM Newsletter
From the desk of Principal Mills
Happy Sunday Ram Families,
It's been a busy week at Twin Peaks - students are starting to get settled into their classes and routines, teachers are continuing to amaze and engage in their virtual classrooms, and parents are finding new and innovative ways to support their students during these unprecedented times. Thank you parents and students for all of your patience and flexibility as we continue to learn and connect virtually. I hope you can find a few of the activities and events described below to stay involved and connected to Twin Peaks!
There's a lot of information in this week's newsletter - please take a few minutes to read through all of the sections and click on all of the links. We have several upcoming events that students, teachers and families are getting excited about - we hope students can join me for a lunchtime zoom, parents can attend Coffee Talk with our counseling and admin teams, or families can attend our ASB Movie Night in the upcoming weeks. Information for all of these events and how to attend will be posted on our TPMS website.
This past week we have been busy fine-tuning reopening plans to allow some of our special education classes to return back to campus at the beginning of October rather than after the winter break. This week's PUSD School Board meeting on Thursday 9/24 will be reviewing options for when to reopen specific schools based on recent changes in county infection rates. You can review the reopening options we are currently considering HERE and submit your reopening questions HERE.
Our big focus for this upcoming week is our Virtual Back to School Night - we hope you can make time to join us on Wednesday, September 23rd for our first-ever virtual event where you will get a chance to meet our teachers, hear about your student's classes and have a chance to be a virtual student for a little while. More information on this event can be found below and on the TPMS website HERE.
With Gratitude,
Steve Mills
Proud Principal
Twin Peaks Middle School
Virtual Back to School Night
Two Open Parent Seats on the TPMS School Site Council
The Twin Peaks’ School Site Council (SSC) elections for the 2020-2021 school year are just around the corner! This year, we need to elect 2 new parent members to the SSC for the upcoming school year. Do you have an interest to lead and serve? This just may be the opportunity for you!
What is the Twin Peaks School Site Council (SSC)?
SSC is a committee of elected parents and staff members whose purpose is to make programmatic and budgetary decisions in support of educational goals set forth through the school's Strategic Plan.
Who serves on the SSC?
The SSC is made up of a composition of voting members that includes the principal, parents, staff members and students. The parent community elects the parent members, and the staff elects staff members.
What does the SSC do?
The SSC helps to develop and monitor the school's strategic plan. It evaluates program recommendations to ensure that they support the strategic plan and school goals. In addition, our Council votes on funding requests for programs supported by the school budget.
How many meetings does the SSC hold?
Our Council meets approximately 4 or 5 times during the school year. Members of the SSC serve a term of two years and may be re-elected to serve again.
If you are interested in serving or have any questions, please email a brief biographical sketch to Assistant Principal Shaylene Newman (jnewman@powayusd.com) by Tuesday, September 22, 2020. An electronic election ballot will be emailed to all Twin Peaks’ families during Back-to-School Night, September 23, 2020. Voting will close on Friday, September 24th, 2020. Results will be announced in our weekly newsletter. Thank you for your leadership!
Grade Level Google Classrooms
TPMS ASB has created Google Classrooms for each grade level at Twin Peaks so students can have a place to socialize and interact, as well as one central hub for all events and activities online. By tonight, your student should have been manually added into the appropriate grade level classroom. In order to access their online community, students can visit [classroom.google.com]classroom.google.com and click “Accept” to join the class. If your student is not added to a classroom, please contact Ms. Keller at kokeller@powayusd.com to get that fixed! **Please note that the Grade Level Google Classrooms are completely optional and for socialization purposes only. Students will not have any assignments or curriculum based instruction in Google Classroom.
TPMS Tech Support Website
Good news! A few of our older leadership students on campus have spent the last week working to put together an online resource for students and families to help navigate some of the more complicated tasks associated with Virtual Learning. Students have recorded videos to demonstrate from a student perspective how to use a variety of tech tools that will hopefully help students feel more confident completing their assignments online. Bookmark this website and take a look around to see if any of these videos might help you or your student be more successful! https://sites.google.com/powayusd.com/tpmstech
Zoom Lunch with Principal Mills
RAM Time!
TPMS Library is Now Open for Curbside Pickup & Dropoff
Coffee Talk with the TPMS Admin & Counseling Teams
October 7th
November 18th
January 27th
We will actually hold two events each day; one at 11:30am for our English-speaking families and one at5pm for our Spanish-speaking families. Information on how to attend and submit questions will be posted on the TPMS website HERE.
TPMS Spirit Wear - Order by 10/9!
Hey Ram Families! Looking to show off your TPMS PRIDE? Our online spirit store is officially open. CLICK HERE to view our selection of spirit wear products and place your order today! The online store will close on October 9th, so make sure to get your orders in ASAP!
ASES Offering Virtual After School Program
Important Update for the Virtual ASES Program: Please email our school’s ASES Supervisor Margo Selelnsky at mselensky@powayusd.com prior to joining the Zoom meeting to receive activity & schedule information and to select which club(s) you would like to participate in. Please see the attached flyer for more information.
PTSA Reflections Art Program
"I Matter Because..." is the theme for this year! The theme was submitted by a California student 2 years ago and selected by the National PTA. All students are invited to participate and submit original artwork in one of six areas: Dance Choreography, Literature, Photography, Film Production, Music Composition, Visual Arts. The submission deadline is October 20th, so start thinking about your project. This year's program will be completely virtual due to COVID-19. Please see our website for more information. http://www.tpmsptsa.org/reflections/
Technology Assistance
SCHOOL QUICK LINKS!
- Virtual Learning School Schedule can be found HERE.
- School Calendar with even/odd days can be found HERE.
- Twin Peaks PTSA Information can be found HERE.
- TPMS Foundation information can be found HERE.
Students - in case you missed these, here's the links to a few resources for you:
- First Day of School - Welcome Back Video
- 6th Grade Welcome video
- How to Login into Canvas video
- TPMS Virtual Learning Expectations
- Top 10 List of things to do to be ready to start the school year
PUSD Launches The Parent Academy - Technology Assistance Portal
Parent Academy is the one-stop shop where parents can come to see and learn about the different types of educational technology tools that teachers are using with students in the district. These resources will make it simpler and easier for parents to understand what teachers use to engage students in meaningful ways in a virtual environment that highlights student collaboration. Click HERE to visit the site!
PARENT FORUM: How to Support Your Student in the Virtual Classroom
We look forward to having Dr. Sweetland and Dr. Stohlberg back in the second semester for a follow-up session as we transition back to in-person learning at Twin Peaks!
YEARBOOK SALES
Don't worry - if you missed the Yearbook tent at Registration, you can still order your Yearbook for this school year!! Click HERE to access the Twin Peaks MS Yearbook website and purchase your yearbook today!!
8th Grade East Coast Trip
Greetings 8th Grade Families!
As many of you know, every year we partner with Apple Tours to offer students an optional annual east coast trip to Washington, DC, Gettysburg, Philadelphia and New York for the Twin Peaks 8th grade students. We are optimistic that by June, 2021 we will be able to continue that tradition. For now, we would like everyone interested in attending the 2021 Twin Peaks East Coast Trip to simply “hold the date” on their calendars. Please block off Saturday evening, June 19 thru Friday night, June 25 on your calendars so that you do not have scheduling conflicts later.
Based on news reporting, we are optimistic that by February, 2021 (and hopefully sooner), we will be able to make the determination of safe travel and have all interested families sign up at that time. I will send another update out to all families by approximately early December. I know we are all looking forward to normalcy and hopefully this trip is one of the many things we are able to get back to!
Please email kokeller@powayusd.com if you have any questions. Thank you!!
Shop Amazon through TPMS Foundation
Twin Peaks Middle School
Email: chamilton@powayusd.com
Website: http://tpms.powayusd.com/index.html
Phone: 858.748.5131
Twitter: @TwinPeaksRams