Knightly Newsletter

UPCOMING EVENTS:

1/18

Schools Closed - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

1/20     

Rising 6th Grade Parent/Guardian Orientation, 6:30 PM [[{"fid":"534","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default"},"type":"media","attributes":{"class":"file media-element file-default"}}]]

1/21

Council of Elders Evening - Celebration of Academic Achievement,  8 PM Virtual

1/28

End of 2nd quarter

1/29

Schools Closed - Professional Work Day

2/4

Back to School Knight (second semester)  6:30PM Save the Date

2/5

Report Cards Posted

2/9

Music Boosters Meeting, 7 PM Zoom

Dear Patapsco families:

I am pleased to inform you that HCPSS has launched a new bullying reporting tool that replaces the Sprigeo reporting system that has been in place for several years. This new tool is very easy to use and allows students, staff and family members to easily and confidentially report incidents of bullying.

Acts of bullying can be critically detrimental to the learning environment at our school and has the potential for severely impacting the wellness of our students. I urge every student and family member to use this new tool to report any acts that occur in-person or online that you believe may be bullying. Your information will remain confidential and staff will take every report seriously. 

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about our response to bullying and ways we can collaborate to keep our school community a safe and healthy environment for our students.

The new bullying reporting tool can be found online at stopbullying.hcpss.org.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend,

Mike Babe

 

Students of the Month for December

Congratulations to the following Knights who have been nominated by our staff to be the December Students of the Month. They have exhibited being Resilient, Responsible, and/or Respectful!

6th

7th

8th

Akshaini P.

Abdullah I.

Abhishek K.

Amitha S.

Ailyn Z.

Angeles Ninibeth E. I.

Ben T.

Alexis G.

Ava K.

Brooke R.

Arthur Y.

Cooper M.

Charvi R.

Chloe L.

Eliksandra P.

Connor M.

Christian C.

Elizabeth S.

Dana P.

Connor F.

Gus S.

Dean W.

Iris V.

Ha-Na S.

Elijah B.

Jonathan (JD) C.

Joe P.

Gina S.

Kaiden W.

Jonathan S. V.

Jayla R.

Lia O.

Lela R.

John K.

Micah S.

Lily C.

Kai P.

Monica K.

Maggie K.

Kosarachi O.

Sami A.

Matthew O.

Krithi B.

William (Bill) A.

Ryan H.

Lily D.

 

Will R.

Maryam A.

   

Megan C.

   

Nathaniel L.

   

Rihaan D.

   

Savannah B.

   

Sosie W.

   

Sydney S.

   

January 2021 Meal Service Adjustments 

Howard County public schools will not be in session Monday, January 18 for the Martin Luther King Jr Day holiday and Friday, January 29 for a professional work day. There will be no meal service either of these days and additional meals may be picked up in advance of the closures. Pre ordered meals are available for these dates. For details please click here.

Spelling    2020-2021

On January 13, 2021, thirty-six spellers from Patapsco Middle School participated in the first ever online Spelling Bee Contest sponsored by the Scripps National Spelling Bee program. CONGRATULATIONS! to Patapsco's Spelling Bee Champion, Naga Sai Dodda, 7th grade and our Runner Up, Joel Shreyas Lingam, 6th grade. Naga correctly spelled the word lichenophagous for the win.  He will move on to represent Patapsco at the county-wide Spelling Bee conducted by the Howard County Library System, tentatively scheduled for March.

The purpose of the National Spelling Bee is to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts, and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives. The National Spelling Bee began in 1925 when nine newspapers joined together to host a spelling bee. Little did they know that 90 years later their literacy effort would reach 11 million students each year.

Our congratulations are also extended for all those who have participated in the Patapsco Spelling Bee this year...

Anjali Mehta

Rishi Rajadhyaksha

Monica Moon

Obiajulu Egbuonu

Allison Noll

Ayush Dravid

Akshaini Pallikonda

Ysadora Song

Jordin Lee

Shamiq Khan

Sravika Bolla

Ahana Roy

Aashrith Adiraju

Sreevardini Ravikumar

Lily Sivakoff

Srisha Regulapati

Mohith Gudipati

Sydney Slade

Zahra Gillani

Nihara Ekanayake

Hadley Ray

Lily Dipple

Sashank Kotla

Snigdha Gundluru

Jaini Bhavsar

Angela Cherian

Arnav Rajadhyaksha

Gina Seok

Sosie Wilson

Fareeha Mahmud

Nicole Chen

Lebari Giadom

Connor Den Herder

Dhyan Shah

 

 

 

Got Books? Club 

Imagine this...

It’s after school on a Monday. You’ve grabbed your favorite mug, some hot tea, and a snack. You’re all ready to settle in with a great book until you realise YOU ALREADY FINISHED IT!

If you regularly find yourself in this situation, have we got a club for you! Got Books? is a place for book lovers to come together, talk about their favourite books, and give recommendations, all while enjoying a well-earned after school snack. Each week we’ll focus on a different topic, genre, or author, and talk about all the awesome books we’ve read! 

Dates: 1/25, 2/8, 2/22, 3/8 , 3/22, 3/12 (6 meetings total)

Meeting Time:  Alternating Mondays from 3:15-4:15 pm 

Meetings will be virtual.  Google Meet code will be provided prior to the first meeting. 

Sign Up Form*: Click Here! 

Sign Up is limited to the first 12 participants!

Rising 6th Grade Parent/Guardian Orientation  [[{"fid":"532","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default"},"type":"media","attributes":{"class":"file media-element file-default"}}]]

January 20th (NEW DATE) at 6:30pm- Rising 6th Grade Parent/Guardian Orientation: On this night we welcome our rising 6th grade parents/guardians to attend our Virtual Orientation to learn about middle school, the 6th grade schedule, and answer any questions about the transition to middle school. We will be meeting at the google meet code PMS-Orientation. Please use your student's username and password (credentials) to access the Google Meet. 

We look forward to seeing you at orientation! Go Knights!

SAVE THE DATE!  SECOND SEMESTER BACK TO SCHOOL KNIGHT

Patapsco will host a second semester Back-to-School-KNight on Thursday, February 4 so families will have a chance to meet their child’s second semester teachers. The evening will be a similar format where parents/guardians will visit classes virtually using Google Meet (you must use your student’s HCPSS credentials). More information will be shared in the future.

Student Service Learning (SSL)

Each year students must complete 25 hours of Student Service Learning in middle school for a total of 75 hours as part of the graduation requirement from high school. This year, students will be earning their 25 hours in their science course. Students currently taking science will be completing their Student Service Learning form this month. Students who are enrolled in science for the second semester will participate in Student Service Learning as well as complete their form. If you have any questions, please contact Ms. Sherry_Ross@hcpss.org who is our School Based SSL Coordinator. 

8th Grade Title: Air Quality Recommendations  7th Grade Title: Chesapeake Bay Environmental Advocacy 6th Grade Title: Responding to a Severe Weather Event  

Counselors’ Corner

UPDATE Parent and Guardians of current 8th grade students

Ms Kempthorn and Ms Lee want to thank you all for your support with the 9th grade registration process! As the week concludes Ms Kempthorn and Ms Lee are wrapping up conversations with students to ensure all course requests are correct. Next week, we will begin the process of reviewing Course Placement Review forms before they are sent to the high school for approval. Please note, until the high school has approved the CPR request you will not see changes in your student’s course requests. Families will receive updated course requests in the spring.

Patapsco Middle School Board and Brush Fundraiser! 

Looking for a fun DIY kit to do at home? Are you BOARD and want to BRUSH  ? Grab one of these awesome wood @HOMEKITS that you can complete all in the comfort of your own home.

The @HomeKits are $25 each and come with pre-stained wood, instructions, paint brushes, rags, sandpaper, gloves and their stencil. We encourage using paints that you have at home but we do offer an add on paint kit for an additional $5. All you need to do is click the link below and pick a design .

New designs are added weekly!

To order your kit, go to :https://boardandbrush.com/.../patapscomiddleschoolhomeki.../

Patapsco will receive 20% of kits purchased.

FREE Virtual Tutoring for K-12/ Tutoría virtual gratuita para K-12

COE TUtors is a free online tutoring program for K-12 students in Maryland. The tutors are teacher candidates at Towson University. With support and guidance from faculty members they will design lessons based on students’ needs and families will be provided with feedback on student progress. Tutoring sessions will occur weekly and last 30-60 minutes via Zoom. Interested families can apply for the spring semester starting on January 18. 

Please see flyer for more information Spanish: Traducir esta página al español

Supports For Students & Families During Virtual Learning

FREE! Student Life Skills Classes Returning in January

Free and back by popular demand! HC DrugFree is offering another series of 15 Life Skills classes to begin on Wednesday, January 27. The evidence-based curriculum is for grades 6-9. We encourage siblings and friends to enroll together, so even if your student is younger or older, register them and participation will be confirmed. Classes taught on Zoom by adults and talented college and high school students. Students listen to trusted older students! For more information or to enroll, go to https://hcdrugfree.org/2021/01/free-life-skills-classes-for-howard-county-students/ or contact Admin@hcdrugfree.org

Adults, are you IN THE KNOW?

HC DrugFree is dedicated to keeping Howard County youth and adults up to date on community health, medication disposal, drug and alcohol safety, substance misuse information and prevention, educational opportunities, and more. To sign up for the free newsletter, go to https://hcdrugfree.org/enews-signup/

Knightly Newsletters

All previous newsletters are posted under News at http://pms.hcpss.org/ 

Community Notices:

Please visit the Community News and Programs page at http://www.hcpss.org/community-news-and-programs/ for announcements of upcoming events and programs sponsored by non-profit organizations.