We are less than a month away from the biggest annual city-wide community project we undertake—our MLK Day of Service. For those new to TSD, this is a unique event that draws 600-1000 people, where we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and participate in good works in his name.

In order to make it a success, we need your help.

We need fleece donations for fleece blankets, items for our care packages for the troops, donations for the troops, and your plastic grocery and shopping bags so we can make plastic yarn for sleeping mats for the homeless.

For the first time, we are able to take ONLINE DONATIONS, which will go directly to help fund our MLK service projects. There is a clickable link on every TSD website—or you can click on the link below to consider donating whatever you feel comfortable giving. There are also three boxes located in the hallway outside of the Baker Middle School main office (See the image above).

Why do we need donations?

Each care package costs nearly $18 to send to a member of the military in the middle east. We generally send about 300 boxes, which means $5400 in postage alone. We usually get many donations of snacks and personal items for the care packages, but we only have two weeks when we return from break, so time is running out!

Finally, we usually make around 250-300 fleece blankets to give to patients at local hospitals, each requiring 5 yards of fabric. We know that this is a busy time of year and you are asked to give in many ways, but as you spend time with your loved ones over this holiday break, we ask that you consider finding one way for your family can participate. Maybe it’s picking up some fleece to bring in when we return, or some snacks or socks for our care packages. Maybe it’s saving your plastic bags or making an online donation so we can do your shopping for you. Regardless of the way you choose to help, this event is success because our entire ONE Troy Community pitches in.

Thank you in advance for your generosity—and please, if you have never come or you participate every year—consider joining us on January 20, 2020 at Athens High School for this wonderful event for all ages.

New Office Procedures

Digital Sign - In Kiosk Coming Soon...January 2020

I am happy to announce that you will soon see a new digital sign-in kiosk in the main office. We are moving away from our traditional 3 ring binders for our visitor and student sign-in/out sheets. This will save you and your student time during drop-off and pick-up. It will also print passes and visitor name tags all with the push of a button. We are excited about this new addition to the office and are looking forward to officially rolling it out. We will update you once we begin using this new software.

Item Drop-off Cart...Currently in use

Parents when dropping off items for your student, you can now skip waiting in the line in the main office. For your convenience, we added a drop-off cart in the foyer outside of the main office. Below are the instructions for dropping off your student's items.

1. Locate the drop-off cart in the foyer.
2. Fill out the requested information in our drop-off book.
3. Place a sticky note with your child's name on their item.
4. Place it on the designated 6th, 7th or 8th grade shelf.
5. Your child will be called down between classes to pick up their item.

Science Olympiad

Last Saturday, our Baker scientists competed in Canton and earned 4th place overall. We are proud of our Bobcats and applaud their hard work and preparation. Congratulations to all Science Olympiad team members!

Top honors were won by:

• Anatomy & Physiology: 2nd Place Vishnav Ramesh & Sudeep Gowda
• Boomilever: 1st place Nurayda Albeez and Akash Sarada
• Elastic Launch Glider 1st place Akshaj Sharma and Carlos Goveia
• Heredity 1st place Akshaj Sharma and Sridevi Swaminathan
• Mission Possible 2nd Place Aditi Sakorikar & Shreya Giriraj
• Mousetrap Vehicle 2nd Place Vishnav Ramesh & Tejaswin Raja
• Road Scholar 2nd Place Nurayda Albeez and Akash Sarada
• Aerial Scrambler 1st place Arya Naidu & Carlos Goveia

Robotics

This past weekend 11717 Circuit Breakers, 15004 TechKNOWlogic, and 16883 DinoByte! represented Baker MS at the Warren Michigan State Championship - all 3 performed admirably!

• 15004 finished as Woodie Flowers division semifinalists.
• 11717 were division finalists, won the Design award, and received 3rd place for the Inspire Award!

Inspire is given to the teams that exemplify all aspects of the FIRST program - from design and robot performance to demonstrating Gracious Professionalism to working hard in the community to further STEM education. For this accomplishment 11717 has qualified for the Detroit World Championship in April - where they will compete against high school teams. We are so proud of our robotics teams. Go Bobcats!

Here's the list of 11717 Students that will be going to Worlds!

• 6th - Chetana Gopu
• 6th - Alexander Cholette
• 6th - Aubrianna Cox
• 7th - Harish Sangeetham
• 7th - Lily Wingblad
• 7th - Sohan Aitharaju
• 8th - Nirav Batlada
• 8th - Nicholas Carranza
• 8th - Sahej Dhaliwal
• 8th - Rohan Gajula-Ghosh
• 8th - Isaac Hatfield

Baker Book Nook

Baker’s book nook is up and running complete with a little free library. Students may drop off books directly in the library that they would like to go to a new home, or take one for themselves. 6th graders created advertisements with the word “book” written in languages around the world.

This Week at Baker

Counseling Resources