Takoma Park MS Community Newsletter
Week of November 14
Dear TPMS Families,
I hope this week's newsletter finds you staying dry and enjoying the beginning of the weekend. We've had a busy, but great week at TPMS! On Tuesday, we had our student and parent volunteers run a bake sale with the PTSA and raised over $2000 thanks to our baked good donations. We had a wonderful Open House today, welcoming over 200 parents for our Principal's Coffee, classroom visits, and information session. Today, we also had some of our Minority Scholars Program students participate in a field trip to the Molina Family Latino Gallery of the National Museum of the American Latino and the National Museum of African American History & Culture. I've included pictures from all of these events below.
As we look to the next week, I would like to highlight a few important events/lessons.
- Culture of Respect Lessons: On Tuesday, November 15th, students will be engaging in a lesson focused on cultivating a culture of respect within our school community. Though these are MCPS generated lessons, we are personalizing the lesson to ensure meaningful engagement. Students will also earn SSL hours for completing this lesson.
- PTSA Meeting: On Tuesday, November 15th, we will hold a virtual PTSA Meeting. This meeting will focus on our School Improvement Plan which includes how our students are achieving, the results of the survey disseminated by our NAACP Representative, and the MCPS Equity Audit Summary. This is a great opportunity to provide your feedback to the school to ensure that we are meeting the needs of our students. Please see the agenda and zoom link in the PTSA Corner.
- Personal Body Safety Lessons: On Wednesday and Thursday, students will be engaging in these lessons during their Physical Education or Health classes. These lessons will be facilitated by our counselors. Please see more information (below) regarding the lessons.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Sincerely,
Erin Martin
Thanksgiving Distribution for Families in Need
Good evening TPMS Families,
Tommy’s Pantry will be offering a special Thanksgiving distribution to families in need on Saturday, November 19th at 7:30am while supplies last. Items offered will include canned and dry foods, plus stuffing, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce collected by our own TPMS community. They will not be distributing turkey.
Saturday, November 19th
7:30am (while supplies last)
Thanksgiving shelf stable food distribution
Personal Body Safety Lessons
Montgomery County Public Schools is taking an active role in the prevention of child abuse and neglect through early prevention and intervention education.
Our Health Education teachers and counselors will be presenting lessons on the topic of child abuse and neglect next week on November 16th and 17th in PE and Health classes. The lessons are known as Personal Body Safety Lessons (PBSL) and their purpose is to help students to:
Develop knowledge, decision making skills, and behaviors which promote safe living in the home, school, and community;
Learn skills for self-protection and identifying child abuse and neglect;
Learn skills for asking for help for self and others and practice reporting to a trusted adult; and
Engage in positive and appropriate interactions with peers and adults.
If you have any questions or concerns about the topics that will be covered, please contact me, your child’s Health Education or Physical Education teacher, or your child’s school counselor.
Remembrance and Reconciliation Month
November has been recognized by Montgomery County as Remembrance and Reconciliation month. This has been done to honor those individuals who were enslaved in Maryland but also to highlight the thriving Black communities that have existed in Montgomery County and Maryland for generations. The World Studies department have been engaging our students in all three grade levels with six Remembrance and Reconciliation lessons. These lessons are being taught in all MCPS middle schools. The materials and activities featured in the six lessons center around eight historic Black communities across Montgomery County elevating these communities' resistance to systemic oppression, perseverance, and cultural beauty. Please consider exploring these lessons for yourself and engaging your student(s) in conversations around Montgomery County's history and the ways in which we as a community can take steps to both remember and reconcile.
Please click here for more resources.
PTSA Corner
A big thank you to all the volunteers and chefs who supported the PTSA’s Election Day Bake Sale. With the support of your time and baked goods, we sold more than $2,000 to support activities this school year!
Third TPMS PTSA Meeting this Tuesday, November 15 (7-8:30PM, Zoom). At the meeting we’ll hear about the school improvement plan, NAACP survey results and volunteer opportunities. You can submit any agenda suggestions for this and future meetings to tpms.pta.president@gmail.com. Translation (Spanish, Amharic and French) will be provided.
The meeting will be held virtually via Zoom at: https://mcpsmd.zoom.us/j/81799091289?pwd=QlVoRHVHWFNRbEdtTUZ0TWdsMXhrZz09
Meeting ID: 817 9909 1289
Passcode: 847581
CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS
Citrus Sale Distribution, Friday and Saturday, November 18 - 19
The citrus delivery will be arriving Friday, November 18th. We will need volunteers to help unload the truck on Friday afternoon/evening and distribute boxes on Saturday (9am-12). Volunteers will need to be comfortable lifting heavy boxes, and will need to be flexible with timing on Friday (final delivery time to be provided on Thursday via text once truck arrival time is provided). Please sign-up to volunteer at: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E044AA4A72FA4F58-citrus
Citrus Pick-up: The main pick-up time for those who placed orders will be Saturday, November 19th from 9am-12. If you are unable to make this window, arrangements can be made to pick up boxes after school on Monday, Nov. 21 or Tuesday, Nov. 22 (these are half days). After that, unclaimed citrus will be donated! Anyone who placed orders should receive an email from Mr. Goehring in the next few days with more details. People who volunteer Friday night can take their orders home with them!
Thankful for Souper Teachers, Monday, November 21
The PTSA is asking for volunteers to help host a “Souper” lunch for teachers/staff. Monday, Nov. 21 is the first day of parent-teacher conferences, and we are showing support for our super teachers and staff during the long day.
Pull out your favorite soup or salad recipe and get ready to cook for the staff and compete with the community for bragging rights of best soup or salad.
Sign up to volunteer or donate items for the Souper Dinner using this link.
TPMS Parent Teacher Association Links: