The Topsail Times

Dear Topsail Middle School Families,

I hope you were able to stay warm and cozy during this cold, wet weekend. As we continue into our second week of December, our staff and students are gearing up for a busy stretch of teaching and learning before Winter Break, and we are excited to welcome everyone back on Monday.

This week is full of meaningful learning experiences, activities, and opportunities for students across all grade levels. Please take a moment to review the updates and highlights from around Topsail Middle School. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, and we look forward to seeing our students tomorrow!

Important Dates This Week:

• 12/5-12/19: iReady Math Diagnostic Window
• 12/8: Boy's Basketball Finals @ TMS
• 12/8: TMS Band Winter Concert (THS Auditorium) @ 6PM
• 12/8: PCS Board Meeting @ 6PM
• 12/9-12/12: 5th Grade MOY Science Benchmark Window
• 12/9: Girl's Softball Finals @ TMS
• 12/9: Debate Club Interest Mtg. @ 3:45PM
• 12/10: Boys Basketball/Girls Soccer Team Photos @ 3:30PM
• 12/10: DA Visit (5th & 6th Grade)
• 12/11: PTO Meeting @ 5:30PM
• 12/12: DA Visit (7th & 8th Grade)

Upcoming Events:

• Early Release Day: December 19th
• Winter Break: December 22nd - January 5th
• Students Return: January 6th

We are going to donate all of the clothes in the lost and found to a local community support organization on Monday, December 15. If your student has misplaced something at school, please have them look through the lost and found before the 15th.

Thank you!

Beginning Monday, our Student Government Association will kick off this year’s Toys for Tots campaign! Each grade level will have a collection box kept safely in one teacher’s classroom until December 12th.

To encourage generosity, students will receive either Pirate Cash or a lunch pass coupon for each toy they donate. Please remember that all donated toys must be new and unwrapped.

We appreciate your support in helping SGA promote this service project. Thank you for partnering with us to make a difference for families in our community this holiday season

Just a reminder that students interested in Girls Basketball, Boys Soccer or our final season of Cheerleading need to sign up with Coach Altergott during their lunch periods on December 10 or December 11.

Over the next couple of weeks, students enrolled in CTE courses will be participating in a short CTE Course Evaluation Survey during class. The survey is completely anonymous and will not collect any personal information from students. The purpose of this survey is to gather valuable student feedback to help us improve instructional strategies, classroom experiences, and CTE programming across the district. If you prefer for your child not to participate in the survey, please notify your child’s CTE teacher to opt out or click on THIS SURVEY. Thank you for your continued support of Career and Technical Education in Pender County Schools.

Topsail Middle School and Pender County Schools have partnered with researchers at UNC-Chapel Hill to answer questions regarding the impacts of student tech use on mental health and academic outcomes. This study will provide our school with critical feedback on our students’ digital literacy needs, how our policies are working, and the impacts of tech on our students, while also guiding future state policy regarding tech use in school.

LAST CALL: Please take just a few minutes to fill out this form! You will receive $5 for doing so. We have heard from some families but need ALL parents to please either grant or deny consent for their children to participate.

Follow this link to the consent form: https://unc.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_7O65QO7lLpejr70

This study is for ALL students grades 6-8, regardless of their prior phone or tech use.

Researchers at UNC Chapel Hill have partnered with us at Pender to look at how phone and tech use in school may be related to social life, academic performance, and mental health.

For more information on this study, visit https://winstoncenter.unc.edu/ncpts_parents/ or you can contact ncphonestudy@office.unc.edu.

Please complete this Consent Form now! We need ALL parents to please either grant or deny consent for their children to participate.

Be sure to continue through each page of this form until it states "Your response has been recorded" to ensure your submission has been received.

We do have an urgent timeline to complete this process and administer the survey. Please send your first message ASAP and we recommend 2-3 messages over the next week.

We greatly appreciate your support! Please let us know how we can help and if you have any questions

We’re grateful to be on a team with you as we work to support your child’s mental health needs. Middle school is often a challenging time in a student’s life and their needs are growing and changing as they get older. Please CLICK HERE for a few ideas and resources to help navigate these changing needs.

Freshman applications are available online at https://www.pender.k12.nc.us/o/pechs/page/admission.

Applications are due to Ms. Wood (TMS school counselor) no later than Friday, January 16th.

Teachers and staff at TMS consider parents our partners in education. While we work to teach students executive functioning skills, accountability, and independence at school, we ask that you continue this work at home. Instead of doing "for" your child, do "with" your child. For example, sit down together every evening, or at least a couple times per week to review upcoming assignments, appointments, etc... Help your child fill out an agenda or calendar so they can help keep track of what they need to do. The grade level newsletters linked in the Topsail Times and Google Classrooms are great starting points!

Please double check that your student is bringing a clean, reusable water bottle that they can refill during the school day. It helps to send them with healthy snack(s) as well! As we enter the cold and flu season, also remind them about cough etiquette and good handwashing (and not sharing water bottles with friends).

At Topsail Middle School, we offer a confidential program called MUNCH (Meals Until No Child Hungers).

In this program, a backpack/gym bag of food is sent home with the child each week on Friday.

CLICK HERE if you would like to participate!

Please CLICK HERE for this November's cafeteria menu.

Topsail Middle School is looking for parent volunteers to join our SIT Team.

The School Improvement Team (SIT) plays a key role in shaping our school’s direction by fostering continuous improvement. Each SIT is composed of the principal, assistant principals, teachers, instructional support staff, and parent representatives.

If you are interested in joining the team, please reach out to our SIT chair, Laura Schlegel at laura_schlegel@pender.k12.nc.us

Topsail Middle School is currently in second place for overall minutes read for middle schools with 20,291 minutes (CFMS is in 1st place)!

We are in 3rd place for the average number of minutes per student (23.9) behind CFMS and WPMS.

Congratulations to Corrina Golden in 7th grade for having the most minutes read in the school!

1. Read anytime, anywhere out of school
2. Keep track of your minutes and contribute to the school and district total
3. Every minute matters - together we can meet our goal

Join us in reaching ONE MILLION MINUTES reading by the end of the school year.

Reading builds knowledge, imagination, and lifelong learning skills. By working together, Pender County Schools will reach this incredible goal. Let’s grow our love for reading — one page at a time!

Tracking form will be provided by the school.

October 1 - May 31

Topsail Middle School would like to remind our families and students of a few important reminders:

• Sick/late notes must be received within 3 days of absence/tardy.
• Our final check out time at TMS is 3pm.
• Please, no outside food/drink in cafeteria, and only water bottles in classrooms (i.e.: no Starbucks, Dunkin drinks, fast food drinks, sodas, energy drinks, etc.).
• To parents who are dropping off their students in the parking lot in the morning, please do not let your child out of the car before the bell at 8:10am. We do not have staff out there before that time and several parents have been dropping off before the bell, which is causing a major safety issue.

• Please remind your children that they may only use their own lunch accounts. They are not permitted to use accounts belonging to siblings, relatives, or friends. Unfortunately, we have had to turn several students away this week because of this issue.

  
  

We have a few important systems that will help our school year run smoothly. Please take a moment to make sure you have access to each one:

Infinite Campus

• What it does: Lets you view your child’s grades and attendance, and submit excuse notes.
• Step 1: Get your student’s activation code here: Lookup Activation Code
• Step 2: Use your code to create your account here: Infinite Campus Login
• WE ARE ALSO IN S DISTRICT COMPETITION TO HAVE THE MOST FAMILIES SIGN UP, SO PLEASE HELP TMS WIN!

Here Comes the Bus

• What it does: Allows you to see your child’s bus location, receive alerts when the bus is near, and have peace of mind about arrival times.
• What you need: Your child’s Student ID number
  • If you do not know it, email jeremy_mortensen@pernder.k12.nc.us and he will send it to you.
• District Code: 29081
• Sign Up Here: Here Comes the Bus

Rooms

• What it does: Our county-wide communication system for messaging between teachers and parents.
• Set up your account here: Rooms Information

Thank you for taking the time to set up these systems. Having access will make communication and daily routines much smoother for you and your child! We greatly appreciate the tremendous partnership we have with our TMS families!

7TH GRADE NEWSLETTER

8TH GRADE NEWSLETTER

ENCORE NEWSLETTER