Takoma Park Middle School

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Takoma Park Middle School is a middle school (grades 6-8) in Takoma Park in unincorporated Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, and part of the Montgomery County Public Schools district. Enrollment for the 2007-2008 school year was 854. The city of Takoma Park is assigned to this school.

[edit] Campus

Its current building supersedes the former Takoma Park Middle School building built March 15, 1940. The building is composed of three floors, with two gymnasia and a cafeteria. The first, second, and third floors contain the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades, respectively. The first floor lockers are dark blue, the second floor lockers are red, and third floor lockers are blueish-green. There is a parking lot and a bus lane directly in front of the building; the bus lane has spaces for nine buses. In the rear, there are three basketball courts and six tennis courts. Two of the tennis courts are unused, and contained two portable classrooms until 2006. The school makes use of the Lee Jordan field, consisting of two baseball/softball diamonds and a soccer/football field, surrounded by a track approximately one quarter mile in length that is in the shape of a foot.

[edit] Academics

Takoma Park Middle School (TPMS) offers an intructional program for all public school students living within its boundary area. This program includes not only the core academic subjects but also foreign language, arts, music and physical education. A METS program serves students with limited English proficiency and interrupted schooling.

[edit] Magnet Program

The Takoma Park Magnet is an extremely successful program.^{[citation needed]} Teachers including Bryan Goehring ^[4], seventh grade science teacher and team leader, and Kathryn Saftner, Math Team Coach. TPMS houses a Math/Science/Computer Science magnet program similar to the one at the neighboring Eastern Middle School. Students attending the magnet program may live outside of the school's traditional feeder area. Students in the magnet program take advanced classes in math, science, and computer science. Math topics generally include Pre-Algebra (Investigation into Mathematics) for the sixth grade magnet students, Algebra 1 for the seventh graders, and Geometry for the eighth grade students. Algebra 2 is also taught for more advanced magnet students, and students who are yet still more advanced take a bus to Montgomery Blair High School for Functions (Advanced Precalculus). In the sixth grade magnet computer science classes, students are taught the basics of Microsoft Office, including Excel, Access, and Powerpoint, as well as basics for the programming language, TrueBASIC. Seventh grade computer science topics include more advanced TrueBASIC programming, and creating basic web sites in HTML. JavaScript and further TrueBASIC skills are taught in magnet eighth grade computer science classes. Teachers previously taught a language known as Logo , but now a unit in the curriculum is based on the object-oriented programming language Scratch. In 2005, four students from Takoma achieved perfect scores on the AMC 8, tying the school with First Colony Middle School for the most perfect scores from a single school^{[citation needed]}. One of TPMS's after-school activities is MathCounts, which participates in competitions at the chapter and state level every year. TPMS has also sent students to the national level, representing the state of Maryland. Their team has come in first place at the state level competition since MathCounts was founded in 1983^{[citation needed]}. They also possess several chess trophies, and took second place at the 2008 USCF-rated Maryland Scholastic Chess Championships. Takoma park also has a competitive Math Team led by Kathryn Saftner, the teacher of the aforementioned Algebra 1 class. ^[5] Another notable teacher is James Street, the seventh grade computer science teacher, who maintains the schools website.^[6] TPMS began competing in the National Science Bowl in the 2007-2008 school year. In both years they have competed they have won the Maryland Regional Science Bowl and progressed onto the national competitions, where they placed 13th and in 2008-2009 they placed 5th.

[edit] Athletics

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2008)

The TPMS Boys Basketball team went undefeated from 2005-2006 (14-0), but went 6-1 in the 2007, the team still captured 1st place for the 3rd straight year setting a new MCPS middle school record. TPMS also holds the Turkey Trot for students, which is a run, approximately 1.2 miles in length, around around the school. The TPMS Girls Soccer Team has been undefeated from 2005-2008.

[edit] Notable alumni

• Aamir Ali, Popular Indian television actor (Class of 1991)
• Connie Chung, journalist
• Goldie Hawn, actress (Class of 1959)
• Rick Leventhal, broadcast journalist, Correspondent, Fox News Channel (Class of 1975)
• Steve Francis, NBA All-Star with the Houston Rockets, Orlando Magic, and New York Knicks

[edit] References

1. ^ History of the Takoma Park Junior High School
2. ^ Takoma Park Middle School on the MCPS Website
3. ^ Takoma Park Middle School from Local School Directory
4. ^ http://www.goehringweb.net/
5. ^ http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/takomaparkms/academics/math/math.shtml
6. ^ http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/takomaparkms/academics/cs/magnet78/daytoday/s12095.html

[edit] External links

• Takoma Park Middle School
• Math, Science, and Computer Science Magnet Program

Coordinates: 38°59′07″N 77°00′46″W / 38.985408°N 77.012894°W / 38.985408; -77.012894