Virtual Back to School Night
Monday, September 21
6:00 -7:00 pm – 7th Grade Parents/Guardians
7:30 - 8:30 pm - 8th Grade Parents/Guardians
A guest link will be sent to all Twain families to access the Virtual Back to School Night Session with Administrators. This link will be sent through the FCPS e-Notify system via email and/or text message. Please do not share this link with anyone.
After this virtual session with Twain’s Administrators, parents/guardians should visit their student’s courses in Schoology and view information in the Back to School Night Folders from each teacher.
To access course Back to School Night Folders, parents/guardians will log into Schoology using their FCPS ParentVUE account information. If you do not have a ParentVUE Account please contact Twain’s Director of Student Services, Steve Fitzgerald at SJFitzgerald@fcps.edu, as soon as possible.
Schoology Login for parents:
Schoology Login page: LMS.FCPS.edu
Username: email username for your ParentVUE account
Password: password for your ParentVUE account
Back to School Night videos will be available to view throughout the school year if you are not able to set up your ParentVUE account before Monday, September 21.
Virtual After School Program
The start date for Twain’s After School Program has been moved back to Monday, October 5th. The Twain staff apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause and we hope that with this decision we are able to offer the best Virtual After School Program we can. This year will be a little different but we are confident that we can still provide quality programming and keep our students engaged and excited. Look for more information in the next week.
Learning Seminar Overview - Week of September 21
Next week in Learning Seminar, we’re going to learn about something that weighs approximately 3lbs, is made up of mostly water, is always growing, and produces electricity. Give up? The brain! So, when you think about it, we’ll be spending some time next week thinking about our thinking (that’s pretty meta). We’ll learn specifically about our prefrontal cortex and the amygdala and how each play a role in our daily lives.
Conversation starter at home: After Wednesday’s lesson, ask your child how learning is impacted when we become stressed (answer: When our amygdala’s are over-activated, our prefrontal cortex can’t do its job. So, learning becomes impossible). We’ll also discuss some ways that students can de-stress and have fun, which, in turn, will allow our brains to continue to grow and acquire new information.
Student Laptop Best Practices
It is very important to make sure we are following some best practices when we are using our laptops at home. Please make sure you are doing the following:
- Restart Daily - Restarting every day will make sure your laptop is getting all the necessary updates. Restarting also closes out all the unnecessary programs that remain open and slow your laptop. Get in the habit of restarting when you finish at the end of the day.
- Keep it Safe - Make sure it is on a flat surface so that it does not get damaged. When carrying it, even around your home, put it inside the black laptop case you received.
- Keep it Charged - While you should have a lot of time to use the laptop on just the battery, do not let the laptop completely lose battery power. This can negatively impact your laptop.
- Keep it Updated - Along with a daily restart, another way to get the most recent updates is to visit any FCPS school. Occasionally you might want to connect to a local FCPS school’s Wi-Fi. This does not have to be Twain. You can access the Wifi from outside the school, usually from the parking lots. Log on for about 10 minutes, access your Schoology courses, and restart the computer. This will assist in getting any needed updates. You may also be asked to do this to resolve an issue with accounts and software.
Visit these resources for even more information on taking care of your laptop from home. This includes tips for using the microphone, camera, Schoology, etc. Directions for finding technology support are also located here.
Twain Student Support Site (you must be logged into your @fcpsschools.net account to access this site)
Twain’s Public Technology Support for Students and Families Website with links to FCPS resources
Accessing Google Assignments in Schoology
Students - Are you having trouble accessing Google Assignments in Schoology? Check out this quick Step by Step guide (pictures included!)
Join the PTA
Team up with Twain by joining the PTA! Twain’s PTA is primarily funded by our membership dues. By not having to focus on large fundraisers, we are better able to serve our mission of supporting students and staff at Twain.
Membership is $20 for an individual member and $30 for a family membership. Register and securely pay all online via MemberHub. Choose the membership that is best for you! https://mtms.new.memberhub.store/store
Learn more by attending our first PTA meeting of the year on September 29 at 7:00pm virtually via Zoom. (The link will be sent out when we get closer to the date).
We look forward to partnering with you as we treat, encourage, and support our Twain community this year.
TJHSST Admissions Process Update
The application window for current eighth-grade students has not yet become available. Click this link to access a News Release containing the most recent information that was presented September 15 at the FCPS School Board Work Session. TJHSST anticipates the next update after October 8th. Please continue to check the TJ admissions website at www.tjadmissions.org for additional information and future updates to the admissions process.
Digital Resources – Consent Required from ALL Parents/Guardians
At Twain Middle School, our teachers will use a variety of digital resources to support student learning and promote communication and collaboration with students and families. Some of the digital resources your child may use this year will require your consent before they can be used. You can find Twain’s list of the resources that require parental consent here: https://twainms.fcps.edu/adopteddigitalresources
Included on this page is also a link to a form where the enrolling parent or guardian will need to indicate whether or not their student is allowed to use the list of digital resources this year. This page also provides more information about how FCPS carefully reviews digital resources for approval and why we must request your consent before using certain tools. We encourage you to complete the parental consent for digital resources form as soon as possible, as your child will not be able to use the digital resources until we have received your permission. Please reach out to your child’s administrator if you have questions or concerns about the digital resources we’ve chosen to use this year.
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