Takoma Park Middle School

Emily Pickren

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Last PTSA Meeting of the Year and Board Elections

The most social PTSA meeting of the year – Tuesday, May 28 from 7-8:30 in the cafeteria!
Bring the family and join us for the last PTSA meeting of the year, where we will celebrate the achievements of our students, hold a PTSA board election, and have a potluck dinner.  So bring a dish of your favorite food to share and celebrate the end of the year with us!

Get involved with the PTSA!
The PTSA needs parents and caregivers to join the board next year so that we can continue to support TPMS staff and provide fun and educational events and activities for our kids.

Check out the available positions here https://www.tpmspta.org/ptsa-board-elections/. Please contact PTSA President Ramata Diop for more information: TPMS.PTA.president@gmail.com.

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Parents at Lunch (PAL) Program Needs Volunteers

PALs (Parents at Lunch), a volunteer program for parents and caregivers to lend a hand during school lunch periods, is back! The staff could really use our help getting the kids through their meals, cleaning up and going outside, especially these last few weeks of school.
Sign up to volunteer here. 
Volunteers must have completed the Recognizing Signs of Abuse and Neglect online training (which takes approx. 30 minutes and can be found via ParentVue/Canvas). Click here for instructions to find your way to the training (which is valid for three years).
Once your training is completed, come for any or all three lunch periods!
6th grade: 12:15 to 12:45 pm
7th grade: 1 pm to 1:30 pm
8th grade: 11:25 to 11:55 am

For more information on the program, please check out the PAL handbook:

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April PTSA Meeting Notes

April 16, 2024

PTSA General Meeting

PTSA Board Attendees
Ramata Diop, President
Emily Pickren, Correspondence and Communications Secretary
Emily Modde, Treasurer

Staff Attendees
Principal Erin Martin

Upcoming events:

8th Grade Dance: June 8, 7-9pm – need chaperones and volunteers

8th Grade Promotion Day:  June 11 at Blair. Need 7th grade parents to help with promotion set-up

Ms. Martin asks attendees to reach out to 5 different families and ask them to attend May’s PTSA meeting.

Meeting Overview:

  • Wax Museum presentation in honor of Women’s History Month – students represented Sally Ride, Jane Goodall, and Cleopatra.
  • Clare, PTSA Board member at Blair and former TPMS PTSA president, talked to the group about the Blair PTSA and encouraged incoming 9th grade parents to join their Listserv: www.blairptsa.org

o   May 4 was Blair Fair – door prizes, opportunity to tour the school.

  • Kaysi-Ann Webley from the City of Takoma Park discussed Safe Routes to School and presented $1k check to TPMS – revenue from previous 5K races – this was seed money for the five area schools participating in the Safe Routes to Schools program. Ms. Webley also shared:
  • May is Bike Month in TKPK– will have free bike repair pop-ups at Farmers’ markets.
  • Bike to School Day is May 8 – encouraged all kids to ride to school. There are also Adult Learn to Ride classes, there is currently a wait list for them. Bike to Work Day is May 17.
  • Participate in Safe Route to School 5-minute survey.

Teacher Appreciation Week was May 6-10 – parent Alisa O’Brien was the lead coordinator. There was a sign-up genius for parents/caregivers to donate food for teachers, for students to write cards for their teachers.

Treasurer’s Report: Emily Modde presented. PTSA has $22K in the bank but has a lot of big-ticket items coming up such as the 8th grade dance and promotion. The PTSA also helped to sponsor We Shine Night. We Shine is a venue where students can shine, make connections to what they are learning and create a project. It is expanding every year and students are planning for it for next year.

Ms. Martin reported that TPMS is continuing to roll out STRIVE, which focuses on kindness toward others and recognizes student’s achievements in and out of school. Always in Principal’s newsletter.

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March PTSA Meeting Slides

Takoma Park Middle School (TPMS) PTSA General Membership Meeting

March 12, 2024
7:00 – 8:30pm

View the slides and what we discussed at the meeting here or click on the image below.

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Books & Basketball – A Big Success!!

A big thank you to all the parents, students, teachers and staff who came out for the Books & Basketball event this weekend, February 2 & 3. This FUN-raiser exceeded our goals of building community and raising funds for our school. Camaraderie, community, and sportsmanship were on full display, with some amazing basketball performances by 8th grade players and the teachers!  

The money from this PTSA fundraiser will be used to finance other school events, support and appreciate teachers, provide field trip scholarships, and a whole lot more. 

Special shout-outs to all those who made this event possible:

  • TPMS parents Céline Allard and Patty First for their leadership and for managing the silent auction
  • TPMS staff for managing the basketball game and all the logistics.
  • All the parents who donated food for the bake sale.
  • Horticulture club for selling plants during the book sale. 
  • Special thanks to Mayor Talisha Searcy for reading to children at Storytime on Saturday during the book sale.
  • Difference Makers for their huge volunteer support, and a big high-five goes to all the parent donors and adult volunteers. We couldn’t have done it without you. Finally, a huge thanks to all the businesses and parents who donated to the silent auction. 

Silent Auction Donors (in no particular order):

Restaurants and Food

Dance 

  • Tango lessons with Céline Allard

Home goods, Clothing, Books & Accessories

Hair and Nails

Special Item donations

  • Pare (Ethical Consumptive Coaching)
  • Patty First Coaching (Executive Coaching)
  • Connective Development (Nonprofit strategy coaching) 
  • Lunch with Takoma Park Mayor Talisha Searcy
  • Lunch with Takoma Park Councilmember Shana Fulcher (Ward 1)
  • Lunch with Takoma Park Councilmember Cindy Dyballa (Ward 2)
  • Lunch with Takoma Park Councilmember Cara Honzak (Ward 5)
  • Popcorn party with Ms. Martin

Hope to see you at this event next year!

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January PTSA Meeting Slides

Takoma Park Middle School (TPMS) PTSA General Membership Meeting

January 9, 2024
7:00 – 8:00pm

View the slides and what we discussed at the meeting here or click on the image below.

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October PTSA Meeting Notes

Takoma Park Middle School (TPMS) PTSA General Membership Meeting

October 10, 2023, 7:30 – 8:30pm

TPMS PTSA Participants:

  • Erin Martin, Principal
  • Patterson Breeze,
  • Ramata Diop, President
  • Emily Modde, Treasurer
  • Emily Pickren, Correspondence Secretary
  • Jackie Quan, Recording Secretary

Participants TPMS community:

  • Approximately 50 parents
  • Approximately 25 children (ages 8 – 13+ years old)

Guest Speaker: Kaysi-Ann Webley, City of Takoma Park

  1. Welcome – Opening Remarks
    • Ramata Diop, PTSA President
    • Erin Martin, Principal
    • Faye Navabian, MCPS Parent Community Coordinator. Advocate for parents at TPMS, can assist parents in setting up Parent Vue account.
      • Started kindness corner started at TPMS and Blair

Kaysi-Ann Webley, Advocate for Pedestrian Safety, City of Takoma Park

  • Safe Routes to School Coordinator: provided education on safety for pedestrians and bicyclists to and from school.
  • Educate and improvement of safety programming for walking and biking in the City of Takoma Park
  • Hand-outs / cards available for programming
  • “Walktober”  and “Walk to school day”
    • School and city put together program
      • Wednesday, Oct. 4 was Walk to School Day. Urged parents and kids to continue walking and have “Walking Wednesdays”
      • Overcoming barriers and encourage walking: feasibility for parents/students to walk to school
      • Walk to school bus: group of parents may rotate to walk a group of students and have an adult present
    • Walking: prepares students for more optimal focus and mindset before the start of the school day:
      • Helps students expend excess energy for students and better focus on school work
      • Improves brain function due to improved blood flow, which is linked to better academic performance
    • Fall 2023 Parent Survey:
      • 1 survey per household per school, takes 5 – 10 minutes
      • Survey asks: what could it more safe to walk to school?
      • Any safety issues encountered? Survey responses help the city to plan for improvements to promote walking or cycling throughout the city
    • Direct cash assistance program for families who qualify.  If household income is $50K or less can be eligible for direct cash assistance from City of Takoma Park.
    • 2 requirements: live in Takoma park and household income of $50K or less:  applications close Oct 31, 2023
    • Volunteer for safe routes to school program – participants needed for “walk to school day” and “bike to school day” and to make city safer to cycle and to walk!
  • Erin Martin: System-wide Training – Professional learning for staff
  1. School improvement planning
  • TPMS addressing teacher/staff professional learning
    • Part of school improvement plans
  • Student outcomes are predictable by typical historical factors : MCPS is re-envisioning a great need for school improvement plans in an effort to improve student outcomes and improve past trends
  • TPMS improvement planning spans 3 years
  • Digging into conditions to disrupt, dismantle and re-create
  • Planning started spring 2023 via data collection from students, families, staff regarding how students feel about education at TPMS
  • “School improvement” = facility / how human resource and focus improvement focusing on improvement staff practices to improve students / student outcomes
  • “System” typical trends: kindergarten through 12th grade and look at bench mark data points –students at grade level are more likely to graduate.
  • MCAP = metric is a single data point.
  • Question from parent: magnet program students?   Magnet metrics are factored in
  • Parent and caregiver data:
    • “Talking points” : messaging platform
    • Identifying parents engaging with platform
    • Mechanism to view parent engagement and effectiveness and impact of “talking points”
    • Anti-racist audit survey
    • May 2023 PTSA meeting : rich feedback and lots time spent over Summer 2023
    • Academic data: MAP data:  math and reading
    • Intervention data: students enrolled with interventions.
  • Anti-racist audit survey
  • Listening circles: groups by affinity-based groupings – level of support staff needs.  Opportunity for decision-making for school operations
  • Student listening sessions – students are truthful and speak from heart: valuable feedback for school improvements
  • “Referrals” and suspension: “referrals” defined as requests from staff and administrators regarding student behavioral situations – chronic tardies, well-being issues, etc.  What causes students to be late to school?  Such students may need additional support.

TPMS is Top 3 in county in number of after school activities offered

 CARES tutoring: funding for tutoring

    • CARES funding running out
    • Volunteer tutoring to address CAREs funding gap
    • Tutoring to work through missing work from students
    • Some Saturday tutoring sessions to do work
    • Data determined who did outreach : multiple “D’s” and “E’s”
    • Engage in partnership with Univ of MD or Howard – volunteer bodies, numbers, etc.

 TPMS Leadership:

    • Data utilized for TPMS story
    • Staff engaged in root cause analysis to Identify underlying issues / conditions that are roadblocks / barriers to student success – leadership can then address such issues to overcome barriers and improve student outcomes and achieve success
    • Created goals in four focus areas below (see “E”)
  • What dominant culture are serving as barriers: systemically, personally, interpersonally, etc.
  • Deepen understanding processes, ways of being, etc.
  • Create goals: align with county around focus areas

 

  1. School improvement goals / focus areas which are closely interrelated :
    1. Culture and climate
    2. Student well-being : well-being matters, some students have trauma, trauma from COVID – how ensure students are well for learning
      1. Social-emotional needs must be met
    3. Literacy
    4. Math

 

  • Next Steps:
  • Goals to be posted end of October 2023
  • Engage in staff bi-weekly check-ins with staff leadership
  • Engage in quarterly school improvement reflections.
  • Professional development focus
  • Re-envisioning core values at student level: courtesy, safety and integrity (CSI)
  • Parents goals : empathy was critical core value
  • Students needs and goals: they felt less safe in physical education – sport education model revisited based on student feedback:
    • Structure enhanced in P.E. (physical education) curriculum
    • Addressed how to build empathy.
      • Now achieving higher levels of engagement – more teacher presence and feedback as well
  • Parent question: MAP testing
    • Kids good grades but don’t test well : how to prep for MAP similar to SAT prep?
    • Practice assessments available : a lot of information out there – “ iEXCEL “ – personalized intervention and practice : students take pre-assessment and score gives them areas to work on and they also have access to learning modules.
    • Every 2 weeks they can take pre-assessment and they know which skills to work on
    • Not just computational – fact fluency, word problems in there also
  • Emily Modde, Treasurer Update:
    • $22K needed for revenue 2023-2024 school year
    • $1K in this year so far
    • Donations welcome and needed
    • Expenses to date – $2K
    • $36,500 for 2023 – 2024 school year
    • Helped fund kindness corner in the counseling office
    • 6th grade BBQ and a few other events upcoming this month
    • Dance performance for Hispanic Heritage month
    • Financial review: independent group reviewed finances from prior year and all OK and in good standing.  Submit to state PTA.
    • Need parent volunteers for international night!!