At Mears Middle School, we value the importance of supporting the physical, emotional, and academic growth of our students. One important value of our work building healthy habits for a lifetime. Since long term participation in physical activity improve cognitive function and brain health, Physical Education Teachers, Dennis Sorenson and Kaitlin Mason applied for the opportunity to win a brand new $100,000 fitness center from the National Foundation for Governors' Fitness Councils. I am proud to announce WE WON! Mears Middle School represents one of the three schools in the state of Alaska holding this prestigious honor. Our Ribbon Cutting Ceremony is September 24, 2024 @ 10:00 am. Jake Steinfeld, American Actor and Professional Fitness Coach will be the emcee of the ceremony. Go Panthers!

PTSA Meeting: September 11th, 6:30p-7:30p, In the Mears Library - Approve Board Positions, Review '24-'25 budget

9:30-1:30 Lifetouch Picture Retakes in the Mears Library

The evening of the open house, the staff was treated to an amazing dinner because of your generosity. Our dinner was AMAZING and we thoroughly enjoyed the spread of cultural cuisine. Again, thank you!

Please join us, Wednesday, September 11, 2024 at 6:30p in the Mears Library for our first meeting of the year.

All Language Arts classes have had their initial Library Orientation session so the Library is now open to everyone for checkouts and lunch period visits. See you in the stacks!

Did you know you can search our library catalog from anywhere with internet access?
Go to the Mears website and find “Library at Mears” under the “Academics” tab.

Reminder - take good care of your Chromebooks!

We had a great time meeting families at Open House. Thank you to all who were able to attend.

This week in Social Studies, we explored different types of maps. Students have been earning stickers for their participation, answers, and contributions during class. These stickers can be found on the last page of their Social Studies notebooks. Please remember to bring your notebook daily, as it’s essential for note-taking. Keep up the great work!

In Science class students are wrapping up Scientific Sketching and will be practicing peer feedback. We will begin studying Ecology next week and anticipate setting up ecosystems in two weeks. Keep those 2-liter bottles coming😄

Peer Feedback in Science:

Ms. Parchman’s ELA students are writing essays and learning about figurative language, Literary Terms, and Writing techniques; we are reading poetry, essays, and fiction excerpts. We will use metacognitive markers and other strategies to answer questions with correct grammar and writing techniques. Vocabulary is the key to high school readiness and we are exploring the vocabulary for high school preparedness.

Your students have an art project for ‘Open House’ (on the 5th) and have a ‘symbolic all about me’ project to share with you!

In Mr. Reed's math classes this week we worked on scaled drawings to find distances and area, culminating with students drawing a scaled-up version of a Hi-Chew or Dum-Dum lollipop on Friday.

It was great meeting some of our parents at Open House! Thank you for participating. If you have any lingering questions, feel free to e-mail any of us at any time.

barclay_holly@asdk12.org

mueller_laura@asdk12.org

taray_romelyn@asdk12.org

maglaque_mark@asdk12.org

If you would like to be added as a Canvas Observer to your child’s account so that you can easily see assignments and grades,, just drop us an e-mail! (Parent Connect login credentials will have to come from the front office.)

Team Harmony would like to welcome you to the new school year!

Here a couple helpful reminders:

• Please double check that your student has everything they need from the Team Harmony Supply list. If you need this list again, or need help getting items, please have your student discuss this with their homeroom teacher.

• Curious about your students’ grades and assignments? If you would like to view grades, this information can be found in Q Student Connect. If you would like information about assignments and homework, most of this information can be found in Canvas. Please speak with your student to see how you can access this!

• If your student will be absent for any amount of time, please call the school ahead of time to arrange for an excused absence. This allows teachers time to connect with students and make a plan!

Please let us know if there is anything we can do to help! Thanks!

-Team Harmony: Mr. Anderson, Mrs. Maglaque, Ms. Roberts, Mr. Bennice, Ms. Madison

Thank you to families who came to our Open House. Team Nexus is excited for the school year.

Please continue to bring your materials to class everyday - pencil, journal, binder, and fully-charged Chromebook.

Team LOGO DESIGN CONTEST: Design entries are due on September 13th! Turn your design to one of your team teachers. Our school-wide theme is “Relationships matter most!”

Mears Cross Country Running Team had their first meet on Wednesday at Bartlett. All middle schools participated in the Jamboree and we had some super speedy runners! The top 3 in each group were:

6th Boys:

Elias Beck, Ezekiel O’Neil, Dean Celia

6th Girls:

Angel Sosa-Toliver, Kennedy Huntsman, Charli Brignon

7th Boys:

Calvin Prosser, Declan McBride, Kalsin Mclaughlin

7th Girls:

Claire Campion (1st OVERALL), Samantha Sierks, Peja Skinner

8th Boys:

Clayton White (1st OVERALL), Dennis Prosser (2nd OVERALL), Matteo Besh-Halsey

8th Girls:

Hannah Veltkamp, Ruby Conklin, Grace Clark-Pederson

WAY TO GO, MEARS!

It was great to meet and visit with all the students that came to our meet-and-greets during lunch this week! We are starting lunch groups next week and I will get passes out to everyone that has returned a sign up form to me. Reminder: If you're enrolled in the Indigenous Education Program and missed the meet-and-greets, you can still sign up to join us during lunch! Come see me in Room #209, and I'll provide you with a pass.

Please visit this link to stay up to date on all that is going on in our program Indigenous Education News.

🙏Thank you for supporting our fundraiser. We raised $6231.38, which 10% of the sales will come back to our school. Your generosity also qualified our school for a staff lunch. Our next dine to donate is in April, 2025 and any school that reaches sales of $7500, we will come and cater a lunch for the WHOLE SCHOOL! Our sales were $6231.38 which means we have a new goal for our next event, and we are close to reaching this milestone for our entire Mears community!

Enjoy the thank you highlight reel below! Thank you, Lauren Hundrup, for pulling all of this together as our School Business Partnership Liaison and lead teacher 🙏

Yearbook will be looking for possible photos to use in this year’s yearbook! If you happen to take any photos at sporting events or after school activities, please e-mail them (highest resolution) to barclay_holly@asdk12.org.

Mears is looking for building subs!! If you are interested in being part of our amazing team as a substitute teacher or a substitute paraprofessional, contact Mrs. Maynard at maynard_erica@asdk12.org

Is your child going to absent from school? Save time and send a quick email to our attendance email box, mearsattendance@asdk12.org or you can call the school at 907-742-6400 and select the Attendance Line option to leave us a voice mail, either option is a great way to notify us!

Our office staff is available daily, please don't hesitate to reach out if we can help you in any way, our hours are 8:45-4:15. Thanks so much, we are here to help serve you!

We do not accept, Door Dash/Uber Eats/ETC, food deliveries for students before, during, nor after school. We will NOT accept deliveries of any kind. We have a school meal program offering balanced meal choices daily. In addition, the Black Cat Cafe offers smart snacks daily for purchase

Lunch Detentions are held daily during each lunch wave in Room ST6.. Students are expected to check-in with the supervisor at the beginning of lunch. Students who need to purchase food from the cafeteria will be issued a fast pass to procure their food and return to Room ST6 to serve the assigned lunch detention.

Detentions are 8:45 am-9:20 am, in Room ST6, Tuesday-Friday. Please drop-off your student at the MPR EAST entrance to access the building. Security staff will greet your student and escort them to Room ST6. Please contact AP Svendsen or AP Matthews with any questions.

Everyone

Accepted

Respected

Safe

Email: marquand_carla@asdk12.org
Website: https://www.asdk12.org/mears
Location: 2700 West 100th Avenue, Anchorage, AK, USA
Phone: 907-742-6400