Panther Pride News

Sitka Music Festival and Alaska's Premier Chamber Music Presenter are excited to offer a special discount code in appreciation of all Anchorage Area students, their families, and teachers! Use code ANCSTUDENT to receive $25 off each ticket for this weekend’s concerts, making tickets just $10 or $15. This offer is valid for students, teachers, and families, but please note it does not retroactively apply to any tickets already purchased.

Important: This discount is only valid for tickets purchased online at sitkamusicfestival.org and cannot be applied at the door.

Join us at the UAA Recital Hall for performances featuring Grammy Award-winning cellist Zuill Bailey and internationally renowned pianist Awadagin Pratt. Each concert will showcase a unique program of classical masterpieces.

• Friday, September 27 at 7 PM

Zuill Bailey, cello & Awadagin Pratt, piano

• Saturday, September 28 at 7 PM

Awadagin Pratt, solo piano recital

• Sunday, September 29 at 4 PM

Zuill Bailey, cello & Awadagin Pratt, piano

Orange Shirt Day invites us to learn and reflect on the history and impact that residential schools had on our Indigenous communities, to honor survivors and their families, and to remember the children who never returned home. Orange Shirt Day isn't just about the color; it's about the journey toward reconciliation.

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

Panther Read - On Mondays the entire student body at Mears takes a short moment to read. This practice of taking time to focus and read choice material is shown to have a positive impact on a student’s reading skills.

PE Classes have been outside as much as possible and enjoying flag football, lacrosse and soccer.

If you purchased a P.E. shirt through Q but have not received it yet, please email MMSsports@asdk12.org. You will need to include your student’s name, their size, and how many shirts you purchased. Your student should pick them up in the front office.

Battle of the Books is starting! At Mears we will have 6th, 7th and 8th graders competing together in the Middle School level. Our school battle (January 15th during the school day) will determine which 4 students represent us at the ASD Battle (January 28, 2025).

Before that time we will be meeting 1-2 times per week at lunch to practice for the battle. Students are welcome to be serious contenders for the battle (read 8-10 of the titles and be present weekly at lunch meetings) or try it out for the fun of it (read 5-7 of the titles and be present as available at lunch meetings).

Linked here is the official list of our 10 titles on the Battle Bookmarks for the Middle School Battle Books. They are all available in the Mears Library.

We had our information meeting on Thursday at all lunches and gave out both the “Expectations for Students & Family Letter” which needs to be reviewed along with the “Battle Book Selection Summaries” and brought back to Ms. Hubbard if your student is interested in participating. If your student missed the meeting, they can get both pieces of information from Ms. Hubbard in the library.

In Drama, we have each used AI to make our own silly Ancient Greek Tragedy, and now we're going to make Greek Theater Masks for our Protagonists and Antagonists! Please reach out to Mr. Stewart with any questions, Stewart_justin@asdk12.org

Our Character Theme for September is Respect. Reflect on these questions with your student this week.

1. What does respect look like to you?

2. How has someone shown you respect recently?

3. How have you shown respect?

4. Who is someone you respect? Why?

In Robotics the students have been studying Information Transfer and putting those skills to use in both code.org and VEX coding to prepare themselves for coding their builds in Project Lead the Way.

Coding relies on attention to detail, tenacity, and persistence. Even the tiniest of quirks or changes in the code can make or break your desired outcome.

Students are learning about their teammates strengths and hidden talents as well as discovering some of them are already able to support others as “tech assistance”. This will prove to be of great importance when working in teams along the way!

As always, a little competition spurs things along! This week we have embarked on some Coding Challenges and our Student Tech Interns have really poured their efforts into successes! Awesome progress, fantastic results!

Impressive, Robotics Squad! Keep it up!

Ms. Jones

jones_kristin@asdk12.org

Sixth, seventh, and eighth graders have all been busy painting in Art! We are focusing on the Elements of Art COLOR and TEXTURE this week as we work through several painting assignments. Students will have a portfolio of work to share and take home during Student Led Conferences, which are coming up in October. If you have any questions, please reach out to Ms. Crumm.

On behalf of the 6th grade students, the sixth grade lunch duty teachers are looking to expand our community business partnerships. Bottom line, we need lunch time equipment. We would like to invite parents to donate outdoor gear such as footballs, volleyballs, hacky sacks, hula hoops….. In addition, we would like to invite the business owning parents to add their business logo and Mears Class of 2031 on any donatable equipment. We would like to give a huge thank you to The Alaska Walking Store for being the first local business to sponsor Mears Class of 2031 with a set of frisbees. Please contact Kari Sharp at Sharp_Kari@asdk12.org for questions, concerns and donations.

FCS students have been busy learning hand sewing stitches on their stitch sampler. The next step is to use these skills to create a hand stitched wall hanging. What fun!

Your Partner in Education,

Cindy Trawicki

FCS Teacher

6th Grade Japanese Immersion students are learning about absolute location in Social Studies. They created a Battleship game board and played the game with their partners all in Japanese! It is extremely impressive that they are able to tell the location fluently in Japanese! So proud of you ALL, Japanese Immersion Students! Keep up your great work! Chambers Sensei

We have three weeks left in the quarter. Let’s finish strong! Please check your grades in Q and/or Canvas. Plan on improving your grades by working on missing assignments, by making up quizzes/tests, and by checking in with your teachers.

Team Nexus presents Owen Huettl as our Student of the Week. We appreciate Owen’s thoughtfulness in thinking of his classmates’ needs and responding to the call by helping them without expecting anything in return. Thank you, Owen! Keep it up!

Students are transitioning well to middle school. They are learning great things in their core classes including; world geography, 3D shapes and surface area, ecosystems, biomes and will be starting personal narratives. Their electives are giving them a chance to sample the options of middle school and learn a new instrument.

We have completed our in-class ELA MAPS testing and we will be starting our Math MAPS testing on Monday. Students need charged Chromebooks and a book to read.

Notifications will be sent out for students with D’s and F’s within the next week. Please take the time to look at student grades on Parent Connect or Canvas depending on the class.

“It is your destiny. Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son, teacher and student” Darth Vader (with some editing from Team Alliance) RIP. James Earl Jones

Social studies is running out of glue sticks! We will be needing these all year for our Interactive Notebooks, so please make sure your child has a glue stick to bring to class with them daily. Donations for those who can’t get them are welcome as well!

In Language Arts, we are moving along with fictional texts: novel excerpts, poems, myths, folktales, short essays, and other narrative texts. Students are learning about writing original myths and hero narratives. Also, we are learning great punctuation tools and writing techniques. Finally, vocabulary Development is important for upper-grade preparedness, and we are learning Academic Vocabulary and Literary Terms. Reach out to Ms. Parchman with any questions: Parchman_tina@asdk12.org

Team Solidarity students did CKH (Capturing Kids Hearts) Symbolic “All about me” bags. They wrote a note to their future self and notes about what they are grateful for: then put these inside their bags.

In Social Studies, we have finished the Foundations of Geography module, and we're applying the terms we learned to a fictional continent we are designing together. Every student has their own country, and will spend the year filling out information about what that country is like. Any questions, please reach out to: Stewart_justin@asdk12.org

In Science we have introduced a bit of coding ahead of schedule to hone in on the amazing importance of attention to detail and perseverance! Students came back from the weekend having continued their pursuits on their own accord, exclaiming “I was a scientist this weekend!” They gushed about using the scientific method to adjust their hypotheses and variables along the way in order to reach maximum success “cleaning up” the virtual coral reef with their coding. Here are two of our leaders, having broken all other class records! Way to go!

Continue to think like a scientist, not just in class!

Ms. Jones

jones_kristin@asdk12.org

• Boys basketball season is winding down and Mears hosted the Varsity Championship on Saturday 9/28. Congratulations, Goldenview Suns for winning the varsity championship!
  

The Mears XCR season ends 10/7. This week the runners ran to Taku Lake along the Campbell Creek trail as we continued to teach them trail etiquette. The trail was busy as runners, bikers and dogs enjoyed the Fall weather.

Our next sports season is Girls Volleyball. Sign ups are ongoing. Visit the Mears Sports page: https://www.asdk12.org/domain/4260

Orange Shirt Day, also known as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, is on Monday, September 30th. This day invites us to learn and reflect on the history and impact that residential schools had on our Indigenous communities, to honor survivors and their families, and to remember the children who never returned home. Orange Shirt Day isn't just about the color; it's about the journey toward reconciliation.

By sharing stories, sparking conversations, and wearing orange on September 30th, we join a powerful movement that teaches us the importance of respect and unity.

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

Hello Mears Families,

In 7th grade, all students have health screenings done. The health screenings include distance vision, hearing, and height and weight. These screenings will take place on Friday, October 11th. Families will be notified if distance vision and/or hearing screenings are failed. If your student wears contacts or glasses, please make sure they bring them to school this day. Seventh grade students will be pulled from Social Studies classes throughout the day to complete the screenings. If you have any questions/concerns, please reach out to Karin Richards (richards_karin@asdk12.org) or by calling the Mears nurse phone at 907-742-6401.

Thank you,

Nurse Karin

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.

Remember, all fees and fines are paid through Q Parent Connect this year. If you do not have the ability to make an electronic payment, or you have difficulty with Q, please email Ms. Robin in the office. spartz-hays_robin@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.

Eighth Grade: Mrs. Nogg

Seventh Grade: Mr. Edwards

Sixth Grade: Ms. Trawicki

Detentions are 8:45 am-9:15 am, in Room 212, with Mr. Bennice Tuesday-Friday. Please drop-off your student at the NORTH entrance to access the building. Mr. Bennice will greet your student, they will sign-in on the attendance sheet and be escorted to Room 212. 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

YouTube: @JaneMearsMiddleSchool
Location: 2700 West 100th Avenue, Anchorage, AK, USA
Phone: 907-742-6400