TPS Principal's Page: February 2024

Friday, February 16, 2024

Happy Vacation!

We're excited to share that town resident Dot Odgren, with the support of staff and community members, has been awarded a $500 grant by Wild Ones' Lorrie Otto Seeds for Education Grant. This money will go into moving our pollinator garden, currently hidden behind the baseball fields, to the other side of the building where it is more likely to thrive and attract pollinators. Wild Ones supports efforts to positively impact dwindling biodiversity. They note that in the last century alone, we’ve lost millions of acres of diverse ecosystems to urbanization. Wild Ones’ vision is to support native plants and natural landscapes in every community and the Lorrie Otto Seeds for Education Program helps achieve this. Wild Ones is a nationally recognized, membership-based, non-profit organization with a mission to promote native landscapes through education, advocacy, and collaborative action. Thank you Dot Odgren, and everyone who has helped with this process! Want to get involved? They are looking for feedback on the garden project. It can be provided through this form.

I've received some questions about Middle School Math and figured if there were some, there are probably more. TPS has long had "compacted math" where select students are determined in the end of 5th grade to learn 6th and 7th grade standards. This group continues on in 7th grade to learn 7th and 8th grade standards before moving into Algebra in 8th grade. We are the only school in the district that has this practice. While it was great for accelerating some students, it had an impact on those not in the class, and due to our size, created cohorts that were tracked across content areas. Last year, we did some work on defining the group and the process of moving in or out of the program to create pathways for students. This year, we reviewed research around leveling students as a school council and there are many drawbacks to the practice. Thanks to Mrs. Rozniak and Mrs. Robichaud (our middle school math teachers) we were able to map out the standards in a way where we feel like we can cover all the middle school math standards in 6th and 7th grade allowing all students to have the opportunity to access algebra in 8th grade. This alignment would allow all student in 6th and 7th grades to be challenged while at the same time not missing key standards that are foundational to their math classes in high school. For those who struggle, 8th grade can be a time to review and master the standards they did not the first time around. The cliff note version? The notion that we are getting rid of "compacted math" is wrong. We are actually working on a way to expand it in a more inclusive way by giving ALL students this opportunity to excel and not putting students into a track after 5th grade. We are continuing to discuss this so nothing is set in stone. If you have any questions, I will always make myself available.

I was excited to hear that some of our students spoke at the recent school committee meeting. Thank you to Mrs. Gill who helped me summarize what was said: "At Monday night's School Committee meeting, a group of youth girls hockey players and parents from the district towns addressed the SC about their desire to create a girls ice hockey team at Wachusett High School. Some of the girls in attendance were TPS students! It was impressive to see their courage to get up and speak and share their dreams for the future. If there are any other TPS Warriors who are looking to get involved in the sport of ice hockey, girls OR boys, there are some great local options coming soon for novice skaters and players. See the electronic folder for fliers about an upcoming "Try Hockey for Free" event, as well as a Bruins Girls Learn to Play Hockey session. For other information about the above, or to join the working group dedicated to the future of the sport in WRSD, reach out to Allyson Gill at allyson.gill0386@gmail.com"

Electronic Folder

New: WildOnes, Lace em up, Jr Crusaders,

The Weeks Ahead:

No School Next Week! February Vacation
Monday (2/26) Day B
Tuesday (2/27) Day C
Wednesday (2/28) Day D

Staff meeting

Thursday (2/29) Day A

8th grade NAEP testing

Friday (3/1) Day B

Fire Department Safe School Program

Friday, February 9, 2024

102 days later

As we get the calendar year underway, it's a good time to reflect on some procedural things. Thank you all for regularly using the School Dismissal Manager for absences and dismissals. We're working internally on tightening up the use of SDM, but overall it definitely makes life smoother. One thing I've noticed though is arrival and dismissal could use a few reminders. So here I go. Please try to have your students ready when you pull up to the sidewalk so they can hop out and start walking into the building. This keeps the flow of traffic moving. If your little one (or not-so-little one) needs more time, help with their belongings, or just a little hug please pull up to a parking spot. Equally important, if you are behind someone taking a little longer, please be patient. We are a K to 8 and sometimes kids take a little longer than expected for no foreseeable reason. I think we've all been there. I know I have grown old and gray standing outside my truck at grocery stores waiting for my son to hop out. Also, in the afternoon, we have been on an excellent run. However, I've noticed cars have started to line up side by side early. We ask that cars stay single-file until everyone moves up. This leaves a lane open for emergency vehicles in case they are ever needed. Thanks for your attention to this.

This week we celebrated our 100th day of school! It's hard to believe. We had lots of fun with 100 activities and several students even came in dressed as Centenarians. Students guessed how much 100 was, we had kids reflect on all their learning thus far and everyone seemed to be having a blast. It was a great celebration of learning and math.

TPS had the benefit of a storyteller today. Thank you to the PTA for arranging to have Len Cabral talk to our students. He is an internationally acclaimed storyteller. His Cape Verdean ancestry comes alive in his retelling of African, Cape Verdean, and Caribbean folktales. He was so engaging and entertaining that I'm not sure if it was more fun to listen or to watch the children's faces while they listened. We are only able to have special visitors like this because of the hard work and fundraising the PTA does and many of your contributions too. Additionally, this program is supported in part by a grant from the Princeton Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.

Electronic Folder

The Week Ahead:

Monday (2/12) Day A
Tuesday (2/13) Day B
Wednesday (2/14) Day C

Valentine's Day

Thursday (2/15) Day D
Friday (2/16) Day A

TPS Pride Day! Wear your TPS gear or Red and Black

February Vacation!

Friday, February 2, 2024

The Midway Mark!

It's hard to believe, but the second quarter is over. In other words, we are at the midway mark of the school year! This also means that student report cards have been posted in PowerSchool. If you are having trouble viewing them please reach out. If the STAR assessments are indicative of anything, we have seen plenty of growth academically this year!

If you are an 8th-grade parent, you should have received an email from me this afternoon but the grade-specific lists are sometimes flawed so I am sharing similar information here. Thomas Prince's 8th grade was chosen to participate in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). I can only imagine they want us to help bring the National average up :) Pertinent information can be found in the letter in our electronic folder.

The new month brings a new Reading Challenge! Thank you Mrs. Dolat for continuing this tradition! This month's prompts are particularly fun: Read a story about friendship, a book from the library, and a book about someone different from you. You can find the flyer and response form in the electronic folder. For the month of January, we had 73 participants that read a collective 229 books! Kindergarten did an amazing job and accounted for 27 of the students who participated. Go Kindergarten!

It's important to remember that we are a STEAM school and every week there is something going on that illustrates this. It's impossible to share everything. However, this week, the 6th-grade students helped me by writing below. Their teachers gave them a STEAM challenge to build a snowman and they were forced to do some problem-solving as it was less than optimal snow for this purpose. See what the kids thought and a few examples of their work below:

Our Snowman Challenge was to build a snowman that was the mean (average) of all of the people in our group, and it had to be three snowballs tall. We were only allowed a short one hour! Our groups could be up to six people, and we were allowed to choose our groups. After that we had to choose our theme for our snowman. The themes included, Sports, Picasso, British Man, Summer, Cowgirl Barbie, Melting, Survival, and Fairy Princess. Unfortunately, the snow was not cooperating with us and it was very crumbley. We ended up taking snow from piles that were plowed, and stuffing the cracks with the crumbley snow. Luckily, our teachers dropped the three snowball rule and the height rule. We were allowed to bring materials from home, so it was interesting to see what people brought. The turnout was a success! All of them were so creative, and unique! Thank you to our amazing teachers for letting us have such an exciting time!

-Sixth Graders