Thomas Timberwolves
School Community Newsletter ~ 2/15/22
Safety~Connection~Instruction
Hello, Parents and Guardians,
Thank you to the TMS Student Council for hosting the Kindness Challenge this month. Please ask your child about what daily challenges they completed and celebrate their awesomeness!
At TMS, there's so much to celebrate...
- High fives to the TMS Wind Ensemble and Ivy Hill beginning band musicians on their concert last night. It's always exciting to see upcoming Timberwolves performing alongside our T-Wolves! Thank you to our talented students & Band Directors, Miss Horton, and Mr. Berry.
- Congratulations to the Science Olympiad team on their recent success at the Kildeer invitational!
- A big shout out to the TMS 7th and 8th-grade boys basketball teams for their accomplishments in State Regional Playoffs. The 8th-grade boys are the 2022 IESA Regional Champions! Many thanks to Coach Keller and Coach Kuch!
- Special congratulations to the 8th-grade girls volleyball team on winning the D25 Sweetheart Tournament last weekend. Thank you, Coach Jones & Coach Slowinski
- Congratulations to the D25 Spelling Bee Winners...This year TMS swept the top 2 spots: 1st PLACE- Grace Chen & 2nd Place - Vishnu Adiga
Student/Parent/Teacher Conferences (UPDATE 2/17/22): Due to inclement weather, conferences for Thursday and Friday, 2/17-2/18 will be virtual. Click here to log in to the Meet The Teacher platform for your virtual conferences. In addition, an email link will be sent to you one hour prior to your first scheduled conference time. ONLY families with Team Conferences will get a Zoom link from the Team Leader via email today.
*We will reschedule the "Heart Initiative" hosted by TMS 8th Grader, Shyla Sood. Parents are still encouraged to complete the 5 Essentials Survey
At the February PTA meeting, we learned that this spring the PTA will be hosting a flower, vegetable, and herbs sale! More information to come!
In this newsletter you'll find NEW highlights on the following items:
- Track & Field Parent Meeting - February 24 via zoom
- TMS Spring Play Tryouts
Pide of the Wolf Pack High School Senior Scholarship Information
10th Annual Teen Job Fair on Tuesday, March 1 from 6-8 p.m. @ AH Library
AHC PTA "Pack the Piggies" Contest - March 14-17
Parent Evening Webinar Events on Social Emotional Learning with Tom McSheehy
Parent Education Information on The Glenbard Parent Series
Summer U Information
Upcoming Important Dates:
- Student-Parent-Teacher Conferences - No School - Thursday & Friday, February 17 & 18
- CogAT Testing (Only for students new to D25) - February 22-24
- IAR Testing (& 8th Grade ISA Testing ) - March 7, 8, 9
- PARENT ACTION ITEM: Parents should complete the 5 Essentials Survey This survey closes on 3/11/22.
- Spring Break - No School - March 21-25
- Spring MAP Testing - April 4 & 5
- FitnessGram Window Opens April 4
Thank you and take care,
Lori, Greg, & Nick
“Heart Initiative”
Lost & Found
PARENT ACTION ITEM: Please take the Parent 5 Essentials Survey
All parents and guardians are asked to complete the 5 Essentials Survey. Click here: http://survey.5-essentials.org/illinois/survey/parent/. This survey closes on 3/11/22.
Computer stations will be available at P/T conferences!
Dear Parents,
This is a reminder to participate in the parent survey supplement, part of the Illinois 5Essentials Survey administration. We guarantee that survey responses will never be connected to the identity of you or your child. School reports will only present aggregated information of how parents and students responded as a whole.
A parent survey report will be generated if at least 20 percent of parents respond to the survey. While the parent data will not be made public, the parent report will be made available to Lori Naumowicz and Dr. Lori Bein and will enable them to make considerations based on the responses given by Thomas Middle School parents. Your participation in the parent survey will help us understand the conditions at your child’s school and guide improvement. Again, your identity and individual survey responses will be kept completely confidential and will never be connected to you or your child.
Teachers and 4th through 12th graders throughout Illinois are taking the teacher and student 5Essentials Survey. School-level 5Essentials Reports will be generated if teachers and/or students meet their 50 percent response-rate thresholds. These research-based reports will be sent to schools and districts in March and will also be included in the State School Report Card, released statewide in the fall.
Please visit https://survey.5-essentials.org/Illinois/ to take the parent survey.
If you have any questions about the survey, please contact 5Essentials Customer Support at 1-866-440-1874 or impact-surveys@uchicago.edu.
Sincerely,
Lori Naumowicz
Congratulations to the Science Olympiad team on their recent success at the Kildeer invitational!
Special shout out to:
Varsity Food Science placing 1st
Varsity Bio Process Lab placing 4th
Varsity Meteorology placing 4th
Varsity Solar System placing 4th
Varsity WIDI placing 4th
JV1 Bio Process Lab placing 1st
JV1 Anatomy placing 3rd
JV1 Green Generation placing 1st
JV1 Ornithology placing 4th
JV2 Crave the Wave placing 5th
JV2 Ornithology placing 3rd
JV2 Road Scholar placing 5th
JV2 Storm the Castle placing 4th
Track & Field Parent Meeting
In order to be eligible to participate in Track & Field, you and your child must:
1) Fill out the Athletic Registration. This should only take a couple of minutes and can be filled out using any device
2) Provide an updated physical to our health office. Physicals are valid for 13 months, so to be eligible for the entire season, the date should be 4/14/21. Once the athletic registration is filled out, we will let you know if the physical on file is out of date.
Any questions? Please contact the Track & Field Coaches:
7th Girls: Katie Biewer: kbiewer@sd25.org
8th Girls: Nicole Joerger: njoerger@sd25.org
7th Boys: Todd Slowinski: tslowinski@sd25.org
8th Boys: Joe Kim: jkim@sd25.org
10th Annual Teen Job Fair on Tuesday, March 1 from 6-8 p.m.
The AH library, AH Park District, and AH Youth Commission are hosting our 10th Annual Teen Job Fair on Tuesday, March 1 from 6-8 p.m.!
This event allows teens and local businesses in our community to meet in one place and time. The teens in our community are looking for paid, unpaid, and volunteer opportunities for the summer as well as year-round. For our tenth year, we will be hosting this in-person event at the Arlington Ridge Center (660 N Ridge Ave).
Questions? Please reach out!
Alice SonTeen Services Supervisor
Pronouns: she/her
847.506.2668 • ason@ahml.info
500 N. Dunton Avenue • Arlington Heights, IL 60004
Social Emotional Learning with the Tom McSheehy at the Teaching Heart Institute
At this time the 6th, 7th, & 8th-grade teams, World Language and Creative Arts Departments have participated in SEL professional development with Tom McSheehy from the Teaching Heart Institute. Tom was brought to us through the Hayden Hurst Family Foundation in honor of TMS and BGHS alumni Evan Lindborg. We will be forever grateful for Evan's legacy and to his family for the opportunity to educate our community about mental health and suicide prevention.
Tom will be providing 3 Parent Webinar evening events. Please click here to RSVP to these events.
Tuesday, February 22nd from 7-8 PM
Social-Emotional Learning: Strengthening the Mental Health of Teenagers.
Wednesday, March 30th from 7-8 PM
Emotional Support: Guiding Adolescents in Learning to Deal with their Emotions in Healthy Ways
April 26th from 7-8 PM
Mental Health and Suicide Awareness: Educating Parents About These Important Topics
In addition, Tom will share an SEL Focus Point in our newsletters.
SEL Focus Point
Take a few minutes this week to have a brief conversation with your child about some basic information about the brain and nervous system. See the links for information on how to talk to your child. When teenagers can understand how their brain and nervous system work, it can remove the stigma or shame about feeling intense emotion and dealing with common mental health issues like anxiety and depression. It can also help them to take time to do activities that help them to slow down and calm themselves which will help them to think and focus. In future weeks, simple calming exercises will be shared.
Information about the Brain
https://k12.thoughtfullearning.com/infocus_6-8_athome_demo/2a_learning_about_brain
Information about the Nervous System
https://k12.thoughtfullearning.com/infocus_6-8_athome_demo/2c_learning_about_nervous_system
Parent Education Information on The Glenbard Parent Series
Summer U 2022
8th grade students ONLY - Illinois State Mandated Vision Screening Beginning 2/22/22
8th-grade students will be screened by D25 nurses who are IDPH Certified Vision Screeners
*If your student wears glasses, please remind them to wear/bring them on this day as it replaces their screening.
Per Illinois Department of Public Health:
"Vision screening is not a substitute for a complete eye and vision evaluation by an eye doctor. Your child is not required to undergo this vision screening if an optometrist or ophthalmologist has completed and signed a report form indicating that an examination has been administered within the previous 12 months." (Section 27-8.1 of the School Code)
Thanks,
Laura Toussaint RN
7th Grade Outdoor Education Information
Dear 7th Grade Parents,
As a friendly reminder, please be sure to complete the Sunrise Lake field trip form. The Gamma team attending on Thursday, March 31st, and the Delta team going on Friday, April 1st. The trip will take place during school hours, with the students returning to Thomas Middle School by the end of the school day. Students will follow the regular pickup and drop-off times and procedures. Here is a link to the Permission Slip that ALL 7th grade families should complete.
Thank you,
TMS Administration
FREE Breakfast at TMS!
WHEN: Monday - Friday from 7:30 AM until 7:45 AM
WHERE: Students should enter the building and tell the door supervisors that they are going to breakfast in the Commons Extension.
Shield Testing Information
At TMS, Shield Testing is conducted on Monday afternoons. TMS students enrolled in Shield Testing are responsible for going to the LMC during their homeroom's assigned time. A reminder for the testing schedule is posted in the Morning Announcements on Mondays. Students are not called down to test.
Please click the links below and fill out the Shield form if you would like to unenroll your child.
HEALTH OFFICE INFORMATION
We recognize that the pandemic continues to impact our community in a variety of ways. Please reach out to the TMS nurse, Laura Toussaint, at ltoussaint@sd25.org to report your child's symptoms or if you have any questions or concerns. Here is the link for the TMS online student absence reporting form.
Mrs. Toussaint and the Health Office Team work tirelessly to support our community and will respond to your inquires as soon as they can. For now, we ask that if your child is symptomatic they remain at home. We continue to closely follow required masking and social distancing protocols as well as exclusion procedures.
We strive to send Academy letters for students in isolation before 8:15 a.m each morning. Thank you in advance for your patience as we intake cases from winter break.
eLearning Information for TMS
- Students will be able to log into eLearning from any device as long as they use their first and last name.
Students will find “eLearning” folders on each of their teacher's Schoology pages.
Inside the “eLearning” folder will be the “eLearning Zoom Link” for that class period.
Extra Help Is Available
Please encourage your child to attend Office Hours/11th Hour/Homework Club and to reach out to teachers if they need help or just want a place to work on their academics after school. This support is FREE and can be extremely helpful.
PTA Spring Flower, Vegetable, and Herb Plant Sale
Stay tuned for ordering information!
TMS PTA
For the 2022-2023 school year, the PTA is seeking some Executive Board and Committee positions. We need parents to attend the monthly meetings, share suggestions, discuss events, and volunteer their time. Please consider one of these roles.
The Parent-Teacher-Association meets monthly on the following dates:
March - TBD
April 12
May - TBD
2021-2022 PTA Officers:
President: Amy Hoffman
President-Elect: Suzanne Krause
Vice President: Melissa Teuscher
Treasurer: Kelly Spokas
Secretary: Deborah Oiler
Do you have questions for the PTA? Email the PTA at: thomasmiddleschoolpta@gmail.com
Join the ABC/25 Foundation
Please consider joining the ABC/25 Foundation.
The link to join is: JOIN ABC/25.
The cost is $25 for staff members and $40 for families to join.
The ABC/25 Foundation provides powerful grants that schools can earn which can benefit all students.
If you have questions, please contact:
Ann Poyer
ABC/25 Foundation President
847-989-9802
TRAFFIC SAFETY ALERT:
GENERAL D25 BUS INFORMATION
If your child is a bus rider, the bus information and bus passes are sent to you by Laura Comastro from our transportation department.
Her contact information is:(847) 758-4888 or lcomastro@sd25.org
Please direct all transportation and bussing questions to Laura Comastro.
NOTE: Students are now required to show their bus pass each day.
Illinois State Report Card - Thomas
Thomas Middle School
Email: tmsadmin@sd25.org
Website: https://www.sd25.org/Domain/9
Location: 1430 N Belmont Ave, Arlington Heights, IL, United States
Phone: 847.398.4260
Twitter: @AHSD25Thomas