Tumwater News

Principal 's Message

As 2021 winds down, I find myself reflecting on the year behind us and the hopeful promise of 2022 ahead. I'm very grateful that in September our students and teachers were able to come together in full, in-person learning. With the challenge of new variants, we will continue to implement layered precautions in schools, but are so happy to have volunteers back in our schools too. The generosity of our families sharing their time, talent, and treasure is remarkable. This week we were able to provide holiday meal boxes to 30 TMS families and Winco gift cards to many more families.

Looking forward to 2022, when we return in January, there is much to anticipate. We are elevating student voice through a Student Leadership group who will begin planning school-wide events like spirit days, socials, and service projects. We will also be forming a WEB Leaders cadre later this spring to help with the transition into middle school for our future students. After many months of hard work and practice, our student musicians and theater will be showcasing their amazing talent in concerts and play performances next month. Our students will also have a chance to engage in their first Art Literacy project and we look forward to welcoming many more volunteers into our classrooms. Winter break has just begun and I'm already looking forward to welcoming our students back in a few weeks for these exciting opportunities!

Wishing your family a safe and healthy Winter Break!

Warmly,

Jill O'Neill

Learner Profile Corner

This month, the learner profile focus is on being thinkers.

Definition: We use critical and creative thinking skills to analyze and take responsible action on complex problems. We exercise initiative in making reasoned, ethical decisions.

A thinker is able to:

• work to solve problems independently.

• imagine many solutions to a question or challenge.

• make good decisions and can predict the outcomes of their actions.

• think creatively and critically.

Students, reflect on the questions below:

Do you try to think of solutions to problems?
Do you think about the impact your actions will have?
Do you try to make good decisions?
As we finish off the first semester of school, what thinking skills do you need to develop to make your second semester a success?

Learn more about the IB Middle Years Programme here.

Digital Literacy

This week in Advisory students engaged in lessons about Digital Literacy. Similar lessons will continue throughout the school year and provide an opportunity for students to learn how to manage and balance their digital lives.

This week’s focus was on Media Balance & Well Being. 6th Graders explored Finding Balance in a Digital World, 7th Graders engaged in My Media Use: A Personal Challenge, and 8th Graders learned about Digital Media and Your Brain.

Here are suggested follow up activities and resources for families:

Test to Stay Consent Form

The Oregon Department of Education is allowing school districts to modify their quarantining rules. Fortunately, there has been very little COVID-19 transmission in schools, largely due to the various mitigation measures in place: indoor masking, social distancing and vaccination. With this quarantine change, we hope to have fewer students missing school while still keeping our COVID-19 numbers low.

Please check your ParentSquare message for a detailed description of the new Test to Stay, Test to Shorten Quarantine, and Test to Return protocols. This information is also available on the BSD COVID-19 Protocol webpage.

As the district prepares to provide additional COVID-19 testing opportunities to students to avoid quarantine or to shorten quarantine in these new protocols, it is important that schools have consent to allow the student to participate in a COVID-19 diagnostic test. If you haven't yet done so, please remind parents to complete the COVID-19 consent form and submit it to the school. The translated consent forms can be found under the COVID-19 Testing section here.

Science Bowl Team

Thank you to all our young scientists who participated in Science Bowl tryouts this fall, as well as to Dr. Duncan for advising this group. After tryouts and testing, we are pleased to announce and congratulate the first TMS Science Bowl Team:

Rishan Chakraborty
Ishita Grandhi
Nirvaan Gupta
Ahana Naskar
Carol Wang

These students will compete in the virtual BPA Regional Science Bowl at the end of January.

Walk & Roll Art Contest

Safe Routes to School invites all Beaverton Middle School students to participate in the 3rd Annual Walk + Roll Art Contest. Students may create a Safe Routes to School piece of art depicting why they choose to walk or roll to school. A winner will be chosen for each grade across the district. Each winner will receive a prize bag with items to help safely travel to school. A grand prize winner will also receive a full day art class from Gilchrist Art Camp.

Entries should be submitted to the TMS office by January 31st. Visit www.beaverton.k12.or.us/safe-routes for contest details

Public Library Cards for BSD Students

Community partnership opens a world of reading!

BSD students are given a public library card through BSD’s partnership with Washington County Cooperative Library Services (WCCLS). This program is now called the WCCLS Student Library Card or SLC. The program originated in 2019-20 under the Youth Access Cards (YAC) name.

Cards have been renewed for students who received them during previous school years. Library cards for new students are issued annually. New students enrolled between October 2020 and October 2021 will start receiving cards in the mail in December and continuing through January.

This special library card allows students to check out up to five print books or audiobooks from any WCCLS library without any overdue fines. It also provides access to ebooks, digital audiobooks, and other online library resources that can be obtained directly from their BSD Chromebook or other device. Using the Sora app, students can link their WCCLS library cards to the BSD digital library so they can browse and borrow BSD and public library ebook/eaudiobook collections in one place.

For more details about these cards, please see the BSD webpage about the partnership.

State Assessments

In 2010, Oregon adopted enhanced K-12 standards in English Language Arts and Math to ensure all students move from grade to grade with the academic knowledge and skills necessary for success beyond high school. The state tests challenge students to think critically, going beyond multiple choice and asking them to explain their answers. These tests provide a snapshot of your student’s progress and help us identify schools that need additional supports to ensure more students meet the higher standards.

If you do NOT want your student to take the English Language Arts or Math assessment test, please complete the opt-out form at the bottom of this webpage. Please submit this form to the TMS Office by February 4 (for students in Grades 3-8). This form is only valid for the 2021-22 school year.

Be Ready: Volunteering Opportunities Await in 2022

Many fun & fulfilling volunteer opportunities are scheduled for 2022, including Art Lit and OBOB. Ensure that you are cleared to volunteer at TMS by heading to www.tumwaterpto.org/volunteer and reviewing the two-step process. Instructions are available on how to 1.) join the TMS database & 2.) upload your vaccine info. Let's be ready for an amazing 2022!

Thank You to All Staff Appreciation Donors

Our entire TMS staff were given a "Winter's Night In" gift bag this week, thanks to the generosity of the TMS community. Shout out to Breanna Smith, Cindy Pierce, and Cherie Peck for leading the Staff Appreciation effort, as well as everyone who donated.

8th Grade Pie Fundraiser a Success

The 8th Grade Send-Off team pulled off their first fundraiser, selling 220 pies and raising nearly $1400 for the 8th grade year-end party. Huge thanks to all who purchased a pie and/or donated their time to make this effort a success. If you are interested in joining this exciting committee, email Amber (amber.fer@frontier.com).

Tumwater PTO: 2021 in Review

WHAT A YEAR! As we wrap up 2021, let's take a look at the awesome accomplishments of Tumwater PTO, made possible by YOU-- the dedicated & generous community of Tumwater Middle School. Here's a round-up of 2021:

**Incorporated Our Organization/Applied for 501(c)(3) Status: Thanks to a small group of committed volunteers, the Tumwater Parent Teacher Organization was officially incorporated in the State of Oregon and filed the massive Form 1023 with the IRS. This work included drafting bylaws, identifying officers, and multiple filings. Shout out to parent Rachel Arnold for her heavy lifting through this process.

**Set-up Internal Processes and Infrastructure: Your PTO Board members spent last summer figuring out all the exciting details, like treasury software, insurance, volunteer software, reimbursement and grant procedures, and preliminary budgets. Hannah Wood Donohue (President), Kelly Kinzer, (VP), Eva Novick (Secretary), Heather Vonk (Treasurer), Jyothi Murala and Kristi Nelson (Volunteer Coordinators) and Peng Ge (Member at Large) are committed to making this year a success.

**Launched Website and Social Media: Huge thanks to parents Melissa Manos (logo) and Laxmi Karumbu (website) for their contributions to our initial launch last August.

**Raised Nearly $35,000 Through Our Inaugural Rising Tides Campaign: The commitment and generosity of this community was overwhelming! A sincere thank you to every single Rising Tide donor (over 250!) and especially to parents Kelly Kinzer and Ava Palmquist for being the wind in this campaign's sails.

**Held Two Well-Attended Community Meetings: With an average attendance of 53 parents, our meetings are off to an amazing start. Huge thanks to those that give up their most precious commodity -- their time -- to attend. We'll see you all again on 2/10/22.

**Spread the Love to our TMS Staff/Community: From a pre-service breakfast to "Winter's Night In" gift bags (and apples and pies in between), our Staff Appreciation team of Breanna Smith, Cherie Peck, and Cindy Pierce knocked it out of the park this fall. Thank you to every donor who answered the call to make magic for our staff. Another shout out to the generous parents who quickly filled our Holiday Outreach sign-up.

**Fulfilled Four Community Grant Requests: We are thrilled to have already approved $6150 in funding for four grant requests: TMS Onstage, Night Sky project (8th grade), Wind Turbines (7th grade), Book Club Books (all grades).

**Completed our First Successful 8th Grade Send-off Fundraiser: Huge shout out to chairs Amber Ferschweiler, Sarah Sullivan, and their team of 8th grade parents for braving the cold, frigid rain and successfully raising over $1400 in our first ever pie sale.

**Initiated Student Enrichment Committees: So many opportunities are being made available to our students, thanks to the parents who've stepped into leadership positions, including Melissa Manos (Art Lit), STEM Fair (Poulami Mitra) and OBOB (Vandana Kapoor). Look for more volunteering info in 2022!

It is the combined effort of so many that has lifted this organization from nothing into something special. None of this success would be possible without the commitment & generosity of the TMS community. Thank you to all who have contributed to our success in 2021 and we look forward to raising these Rapids even further in 2022.

Dear BSD Families,

We understand that it can be challenging to access current information regarding your child’s schooling in your own language. We do our best to send out messages about important updates, especially during these challenging times. However, you can access the BSD website — and specifically, our return-to-school page — at any time. Below, we’ve included a link that will take you to our website, where you’ll find it already translated into your language. Please know, the translation is generated by Google Translate. It’s not perfect, but we do hope it’s helpful.

If you need additional assistance, please contact our Multilingual Department at 503-356-3755.

View the BSD website in Arabic قم بزيارة الموقع الإلكتروني للقطاع التعليمي لمدارس بيفرتون باللغة العربية