|
English | Español | አማርኛ | 中文 | 한국어 | Tiếng Việt | العربية | فارسی | اردو
 |
|
Principal's Message |
Greetings Tiger Families!October is National Bullying Prevention Month. Our goal at Twain is to ensure all students are safe, and feel safe and welcome at school. Doing so allows all students to be at their best and prepared for learning. One way we can take care of each other each and every day is to treat each other with kindness and respect and to speak up when someone is not meeting that expectation. To help develop a common understanding of bullying, below is the FCPS definition.
Bullying in Students Rights and Responsibilities is defined as: “Any aggressive and unwanted behavior that is intended to harm, intimidate, or humiliate the victim; involves a real or perceived power imbalance between the aggressor or aggressors and victim; and is repeated over time or causes severe emotional trauma. “Bullying” includes cyberbullying. “Bullying” does not include ordinary teasing, horseplay, argument, or peer conflict.”
For more information on how FCPS handles a bullying situation please visit the FCPS Bullying Prevention and Intervention webpage. If you have questions and/or concerns about peer interactions, please contact the your child’s counselor or administrator front office so that we can support you and most importantly your student.
Sincerely,
Matt
Twain’s Weekly Schedule
Monday, October 6: Anchor Day Schedule
Tuesday, October 7: Odd Day Schedule
Wednesday, October 8: Even Day Schedule
Thursday, October 9: Odd Day Schedule
Friday, October 10: Even Day Schedule
Calendar Reminders: Indigenous Peoples Day
Monday, October 13, is a student holiday and staff development day for Indigenous Peoples’ Day. See the complete school year calendar and the employee calendar.
National Custodian Appreciation Day
On October 2, we celebrate National Custodian Appreciation Day. We are so grateful to our dedicated team for keeping our school running smoothly. Please join us as we celebrate Ms. Yenis, Mr. Albert, Ms. Rosa, Ms. Judith, Ms. Reina, Mr. Willian & Mr. Jose for taking care of our school. Please encourage your Tigers to thank a custodian anytime they see them working hard, and to honor them by treating our building with care.
Update on Middle School Sports
We wanted to provide an update about middle school interscholastic sports. We realize many of our students were excited about the possibility of new sports (basketball, for example) starting this school year. The FCPS Office of Student Activities and Athletics has been working with our middle school afterschool specialists on plans to expand middle school sports beyond cross country and track. The division included basketball on the original fall sports registration link with the hopes that the details would be worked out in time to have an interscholastic schedule this fall. Unfortunately, there are some elements of expansion that have not been resolved and we will not have an interscholastic basketball program this fall. FCPS will continue to look at ways that middle school sports can expand this school year and beyond – stay tuned!
Our middle school cross country program began practice this week and we look forward to our first meet, hosted at Twain, on Saturday October 18th! If you have questions about our program please reach out to Mr. Dominic Amato, athletic coordinator, and/or Mr. Jacob Marsh, head cross country coach.
Your Student’s School Pictures Available through Jostens
School pictures are ready! Parents/guardians can view and order their student’s photos online. You likely already received an email directly from Jostens, but we wanted to make sure you were pointed towards this information from us as well.
View and order at https://shop.jostenspix.com/login
-
MARK TWAIN MIDDLE SCHOOL
-
Event Code: FE274825
-
Also Needed: Student ID
FCPS Red Ribbon Awareness Open House
 The Red Ribbon Awareness Open House, a parent’s guide to preventing substance use, will take place on Friday, October 24, from 12:00 - 2:00 pm. The session will provide families with practical communication strategies, Narcan training, the tools and confidence needed to speak to their child about drugs, and up-to-date, age-appropriate information on common substances of abuse. Join us at The Family Resource Center, Dr. Larry Bussey and Community Library, 2334 Gallows Road, Room 100, Dunn Loring, VA 22027. No registration is needed.
Take the School Start Times Survey
FCPS is continuing to explore options for adjusting school start times, with the primary goal of beginning the middle school day at 8 a.m. or later. In order to minimize any costs associated with this change, elementary and high school start times would need to shift as well.
Providing feedback opportunities for the community is a critical part of this effort. Since 2024, FCPS’ consultant has hosted five community forums and administered two surveys. A new School Start Times Survey is open and includes two options that are designed to support student well-being, align with research, balance transportation logistics, and minimize costs.
Staff, parents and caregivers, students, and community members may provide input on the two options by taking the survey. The survey deadline has been extended to Monday, October 6.
Find more information on adjusting school start times on the FCPS website.
Go Paperless with Report Cards
We’re excited to offer you a more convenient option for receiving your child’s report cards: Go Paperless!
By choosing to go paperless, you'll be able to:
Here's how you can opt-in:
-
Log into ParentVUE, click on "My Account," and select “Go Paperless.”
-
All parents/guardians living with the student at the same address must have an active SIS ParentVUE account to opt-in.
-
Once selected, the “Go Paperless” option will apply to all associated students, no matter their grade level.
-
If you’ve already opted for paperless for your secondary students, it will automatically apply to any younger siblings at the elementary level too!
World Language Credit By Exam Registration Now Open
Can your student read, write, and speak in another language? If so, they can earn up to 3 high school world language credits through the WLCBE.
Students in grades 7-12 are offered the opportunity to take the World Languages Credit By Exam (WLCBE). The WLCBE assesses language proficiency in languages other than English and recognizes the strengths that our students bring as effective communicators in multiple languages. This assessment may be used to award world language credits towards graduation, determine course placement for language courses offered in FCPS.
The exam will be offered on Friday, November 7 this year at Twain MS. A student may participate in the exam a total of a total of two times per language between grades 7 and 12. Students who wish to take the exam should be able to proficiently understand and communicate in the testing language, and will be asked to listen, read, speak, and either write/type or, for American Sign Language, sign/interpret. More information can be found on the FCPS WLCBE page including a list of testable languages.
If you would like your student to participate in the next available WLCBE, they should meet with their school counselor by October 17th. No late registrations will be accepted.
|
