Mounds Park Academy

Lower School Division News February 9, 2023

February 9, 2023

from Ann Jurewicz, Lower School director

When we think about learning to read, we think of it as something we learn in school. But did you know, there are very important ways parents can set the foundations for literacy, and these activities and simple and easy to work into your daily interactions with your child. Thank you to Mari Espeland for providing this relevant article on how parents can nurture children on their journey to becoming avid readers. The five big take-aways are:

Verbally engage your child with reciprocal and dynamic interactions. This means ask questions, give directives, use your voice in enthusiastic and personalized ways, and use lots of words.
Learning takes time and space. Children need lots of repetition to learn words, and they need periods of time between repeated sessions to absorb learning fully.
Make lessons personal to the child. Talk about things the child likes. Give them a role in your stories and ownership of elements of the learning.
Be a cheerleader. Praise a child for their hard work, determination and accomplishments. Be sure to offer specific and descriptive words to what they have done and how they have done it.
Model how to find a answer when you don’t know one. It is OK to say you don’t know, and then show your child how to search for answers and use tools to learn what you don’t know

Enrichment opportunities
The Minnesota Institute for Talented Youth (MITY) is offering families of high potential, high achieving and intellectually curious students in grades 1 – 4 opportunities for enrichment learning this spring. Financial aid is available for students who qualify for free or reduced lunch. Spring sessions are listed at the bottom of this MITY website.

If you are unfamiliar with Minnesota Institute for Talented Youth (MITY), they are a 501(c)3 non-profit organization established in 1967 to provide academic enrichment opportunities to gifted and talented students. Their Saturday morning elementary program draws roughly 100 students from over 50 different schools each session, bringing together a diverse group of kids in a welcoming and fun environment. They also host free speakers to help families navigate parenting a gifted child. Read More

Middle School Division February 9, 2023

February 9, 2023

from Jenn Milam, Middle School director

This time of year can seem like a never-ending series of not-so-exciting repetitive routines and recurring tasks, especially when the weather is cold, we spend most of our days indoors, and schedules get busy. This is why we have strategically placed a good bit of our “fun” at this time of year. More, Middle school students, like their younger peers in Lower School, also need opportunities to play, even if that play looks different. One thing we all do, all students PreK-12, is have recess! Recess is important (and required!) part of your student’s day (think VITAMIN D and social time!) and I encourage you, to encourage them to bring appropriate outerwear to be outside. Students are not allowed to “opt out” of recess or choose to stay indoors.

You can read about the importance of play for Middle School students in this great article from the Hechinger Report.

We are looking forward to a few weeks of excitement in the Middle School as we get ready for our snow tubing event, look toward iTERM, and send our Minnesota State Future Cities champions off to Washington DC to compete in the national competition.

Join Us! Middle School Matters: A Community Book Study!
Middle School is a time of rapid changes, new experiences, and sometimes, perplexing encounters in a new world in which we (parents!) did not grow up! In partnership with Ms. Cooper, our school counselor, and Ms. Meras, our new Middle School Dean, I will be hosting a community book study this spring. We will do a shared reading of “Middle School Matters: The 10 Key Skills Kids Need to Thrive in Middle School and Beyond—and How Parents Can Help” by Phyllis L. Fagell.  

We will meet four times, to align with the four major sections of the text, via zoom, to discuss, share, wonder, worry, ponder, and problem-solve alongside teachers, experts, and other community members the mystery and magnificence of the middle school years. We invite you to have dinner with your family, put your feet up, pour a drink of something you enjoy, and meet us online, the following dates at 7:30 PM, from the comfort of your living room! 

Wednesday, February 22, 2023 (Values and Integrity) 
Thursday, March 23, 2023 (Social Skills) 
Wednesday, April 19, 2023 (Learning) 
Thursday, May 18, 2023 (Empowerment and Resilience)

We will have guest speakers and experts for each of the four sections of the text and will share our own personal journey in raising spirited, well-balanced, resilient, kind, and good humans.   Read More

Upper School Division News February 9, 2023

February 9, 2023

from Mark Segal, Upper School director

One of my favorite movies is the 1993 comedy “Groundhog Day” starring Bill Murray. In the film he plays weatherman Phil Connors and continually relives (and relives) the celebration of the movie’s namesake holiday as he covers the “big story” of if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow or not. Throughout the movie Murray finds different ways to spend the famed day knowing that each morning he will reawaken to the same Sonny and Cher song, “I Got You Babe.” The film brings humor to the national “holiday” which dates back to 1886 in Punxsutawney, PA where it is determined if winter will continue or end early.

Many say that February is the longest short month of the year because, especially in Minnesota, we are tired of the cold and snow and are ready for the turn of the seasons. Students also experience the Winter Blues, and the Cleveland Clinic shares there are ways to address these feelings to help us feel better. According to a December 9 article found here, ”sunlight plays a big role in regulating our mood…So, when the winter months bring on gray skies, a little boost of sunshine can do our bodies and minds a world of good.” The past couple of weeks have been very cold and gloomy, but this week the temperatures have been more moderate, and the sun has been shining brightly. Students should find a way to take a break at the end of the day to get outside for some natural vitamin D. I have taken this advice and have found myself enjoying my time assisting with carpool more at the end of the day because of the sunshine.

The National Health Information Service of Scotland strongly suggests that we should be involved in daily activity. This does not need to be a physically intense activity, just something to get the body moving. Several students achieve this by walking on the indoor track at school during their lunch/recess time. It is great to see them use this time as a way to connect with their friends AND as a way to keep themselves physically and mentally healthy. A Harvard University study actually suggests that “In colder temperatures your heart doesn’t have to work as hard, you sweat less, and expend less energy, all of which means you can exercise more efficiently.” Read More

Parents Association News & Events February 9, 2023

February 9, 2023

Thank You!
A big thank you to everyone who brought in snacks and drinks for this week’s Faculty and Staff Appreciation.

Show Your Love, Volunteer for the Lower School Valentine’s Day Party
February 14, 8:30 AM-2:30 PM
The LS Valentine’s Day party is coming up! This year’s festivities will take place in the Lansing Sports Center. Join us for the day or during your student’s assigned party time. Sign up to volunteer here.

MS Snow Tubing in 2023
Thursday, February 16, 2-4:45 PM
Additional guest registration is due February 13. All Middle School students and their families are invited to this year’s snow tubing community event at Badlands Snow Park, 772 Kinney Road Hudson, WI 54016. Outside winter gear is a must (no scarves). Bring a helmet if you’d like and cash for snacks.

Registration
Parents can meet us at the snow park for fun and fellowship. We ask that students begin departing at 4:45 PM. If you cannot meet us at the park, your student can return to MPA via bus where you can pick them up at 5 PM. Please indicate your additional ticket needs and
transportation plans here.

Additional Guests
All family members are encouraged to attend! The Parents Association is sponsoring the cost of MS students to tube. Adults and sibling guests are welcome to tube from 2-4:45 PM at $15 per guest. Please pay for your additional tubers: Read More

Celebrating The MPA Speech Team’s Success

February 9, 2023

The MPA Speech Team has recently won the tournament championship THREE times: at Mound-Westonka, Duluth, and Pequot Lakes. Twenty-five students have placed so far on the team, and MPA students won their categories a total of 28 times! The team has also shattered its previous National Tournament Qualifications Record in just one month, with a total of 16 entries (with two more months left to go). Outstanding!

This is the largest the team has been in a very long time, and there have been multiple occasions when MPA has swept the top three places in some categories. MPA has been competing against some of the best schools in the country, and the team is excited to share some of their performances with the community and public on Thursday, February 16 at 6 PM in the Nicholson Center. Join us!
Students who are qualified to Nationals at this moment are:

Lucy Schwieger (In Duo and Drama)
Frances Martin (In Duo and Extemp)
Paul Fertig (Extemp)
Amal Sastry (Extemp)
Zaara Nayak (Extemp and Oratory)
Maggie Banks (Humor)
Zainab Lodhi (Info and POI)
Rowan Mulrooney (Info)Akshay Somayajula (Oratory)
Max O’Connor (Oratory)
Meiran Carlson (POI)
Pahwa Yang (POI and Prose)
Greta Hanson (Prose)

Celebrating Our Retirees

February 2, 2023

Dear MPA Community,

We want to share with you that four of MPA’s longest-serving faculty members have decided to retire at the end of this school year: visual art teacher Lisa Buck, music teacher Mari Espeland, librarian Nancy Lage, and third-grade teacher Renette Stinson. Combined, they have served the MPA community for 140 years, and for that, we are exceedingly grateful!

Lisa Buck came to MPA in 1984 as a Middle School visual arts teacher. She co-created the MPA K-12 visual arts curriculum with founding teacher Karen Rossbach. Over time, they honed the program in depth and breadth, and Ms. Buck designed a multilevel ceramics program in the Upper School. She has taught drawing, painting, sculpture, fibers, design, printmaking, and ceramics.

From 1998-2000, Ms. Buck taught overseas at the American School in Casablanca, Morocco, and then returned to MPA. While teaching, she also built her career as a potter. Ms. Buck shares, “It has been a delicate balance of commitment, hard work, and passion. I have longed for a time when I could be full-time in my own studio, and now, that is exactly what I am going to do.”

She adds, “I have given my whole-hearted self to helping students see their beautiful potential as young artists and helped to build an outstanding program.” I am deeply grateful for the vision, creativity, and passion Lisa has brought to MPA over her long service to the school. Students have benefitted from having a gifted art educator and an accomplished working artist in the same person; she will be very missed.

Mari Espeland came to MPA in 1989 and built the Lower School music program upon the Orff Schulwerk approach. She established the Lower School Art and Music Show with Karen Rossbach and incorporated distinctly American music traditions, such as jazz, and world music through drumming.

Ms. Espeland shares, “This environment has allowed me to grow as a music educator and collaborate with colleagues to benefit students more than I could have ever dreamed possible when I began teaching at MPA in 1989. Music education has been much more than a job or even a career for me. Rather, it has been a calling.”

After 33 years of boundless passion for music and dedicated service to MPA, I have profound respect and deep appreciation for the program she built, the many, many children she has inspired, and the beauty she has brought to their lives and to MPA.

Nancy Lage became MPA’s librarian in 1986 and has served the school for 37 years. She developed the PreK-12 library program and managed an extensive 23,000-volume book collection, 30 academic databases, and a dynamic library website to support a diverse PreK-12 curriculum. She shares, “A joy-filled part of my job at MPA has been matching students and faculty with books and resources that inspire them to think, reflect and grow.” She is well-known for being able to find the perfect next book for readers of all ages. Read More

Exploring Visual Learning

February 2, 2023

from Ann Jurewicz, Lower School director

Editor’s Note: Periodically, you will find a guest Head’s Message here from one of MPA’s administrators. We hope you enjoy reading their thoughts and reflections about life at MPA.

Do you like to doodle while listening to new information? Perhaps you like to chart your ideas as you are explaining them to another person. Or maybe you like to “talk your ideas” out loud, finding someone to be your sounding board for a great hunch that nevertheless is an idea still not fully formed. (You may be praising the patience of your “thought” partner or significant other as you read this!)

What all of these activities have in common is “visible thinking.” When we are thinking, we are learning. The more we explicitly engage in thinking, the more we learn. “Visible Thinking” has become the life’s work of Ron Richhart of Harvard’s Project Zero. He explains, “If we take seriously the notion that learning is a consequence of thinking, then thinking—in all its forms: critical, creative and reflective—needs to be part of every lesson we teach.

When schools promote inquiry learning, the goal is to expand thinking, which in turn expands learning. For example, when a student asks a teacher a question, the “visible thinking” response is to rephrase the question back to the student, such as, “What do you think?” This extends learning. It also shifts the classroom environment from teacher-centered to student-centered. Read More

Parents Association News & Events February 2, 2023

February 2, 2023

Faculty and Staff Appreciation Week
February 2-9
The second Faculty and Staff Appreciation Week is coming up fast! Look for opportunities to donate snacks and drinks or to volunteer your time during the week of February 2-9 in the Sign Up Genius. Carts will be placed just inside the LS and US entrances for donated items or they can be brought to the Teaching Kitchen. Evening volunteer opportunities during the LS/MS conference dinners are also available. Questions, please contact Tara Lafferty, TMattRN@aol.com

Show You Love, Volunteer for the Lower School Valentine’s Day Party
February 14, 8:30 AM-2:30 PM
We’re delighted to announce the LS Valentine’s Day party is back! This year’s festivities will take place in the Lansing Sports Center. Join us for the day or during your student’s assigned party time. Sign up to volunteer here.

Middle School Snow Tubing in 2023
Thursday, February 16, 2-4:45 PM
Additional guest registration is due February 13. All Middle School students and their families are invited to this year’s snow tubing community event at Badlands Snow Park, 772 Kinney Road Hudson, WI 54016. Outside winter gear is a must (no scarves). Bring a helmet if you’d like and cash for snacks. Read More

MPA Seeking International Student Host Families

January 31, 2023

Do you have room to spare? Space in your heart for another family member? A desire to expand your family’s perspective of the world? MPA is seeking host families for international students for the 2023-24 school year.

Between the adults in their school and home lives, our international students feel supported, nurtured, and loved while living so far from their families. This is vital to their success and the strongest testament to everything our MPA host families and staff do to care for our international students.

We would love it if you and your family considered hosting an international student for next school year. As you and your family consider hosting, here are some topics that may arise. The information below is by no means an exhaustive list, but it may answer some of the initial questions you have and prompt additions ones as well:

Stipend

A 10-month stipend of $9,000 will be directly deposited in equal installments of $900/month on the first of each month for the previous month, September through June.
An early installment of $500 will be deposited on August 1 in preparation of your student’s arrival; the remaining $400 will be deposited on September 1.
The daily stipend rate of $30/day will be taken from and disbursed to host families who are providing respite care for a student, as needed.

Transportation

Host families are responsible for providing transportation to and from school and school-related activities.
Host families are responsible for providing transportation to and from the airport when the student travels.
Host families will work with their student in scheduling rides for social events.

Meals

All international students will receive the MPA school lunch. Host families and students do not need to pack lunches.
Host families are responsible for providing two meals on all weekdays and three meals on all weekend days.

By hosting an international student, you and your family have a unique opportunity to bring the language, culture, and perspective of another country into your home, allowing for a truly rich and genuine intercultural experience. The students will love to share their lives with you while becoming a part of your family, exploring Minnesota, and enjoying MPA student life all at the same time.

We hope you’ll consider opening your hearts and homes to one of our international students. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Cory Becker-Kim, International Student Program Coordinator and Advanced Language & Culture Teacher, at cbeckerkim@moundsparkacademy.org or 651-748-5173.

Click here to fill out a Host Family Application, and here for more information. Thank you so much for considering!

MPA Free Spirit: Setting The Example For Our Students

January 30, 2023

By definition, a free spirit is an independent person. And at MPA, we teach kids to think independently–by setting the example for them. MPA teachers are free spirits themselves, equipped with a community of support behind them. When asking teachers what their favorite part about teaching at MPA is, we often hear a trait that they say is very unique to MPA: the freedom of teacher autonomy.

There’s a lot that makes MPA teachers amazing, memorable, and impactful. But their autonomy to be creative and collaborative allows them to not only adjust their lessons to fit the ever-changing world, but to ensure that their students are enjoying what they’re learning. In MPA’s early years, the first batch of teachers shared a common vision around creating a different type of school and learning environment for children. Our founding faculty wanted to teach at a school that would foster their own collaborative spirits as well as their students’. They began working together to design a cohesive curriculum, and this early emphasis on collaboration among faculty set the foundational groundwork for teacher autonomy at MPA today.

Free Spirits Know Their Students
Teacher autonomy applies to all disciplines at MPA and is highly valued by teachers and administrators alike. In order to work, it relies on trust and the understanding that MPA teachers are professionals who know their students best. Knowing our students is one of the hallmarks of a Mounds Park Academy education, stemming from our commitment to small class sizes.

Upper School biology teacher Mitch Thomsen can attest to this. He appreciates that each lab, project, and lesson can be customized to fit his students’ highest possible growth and potential. “The small size makes it easier to communicate with colleagues and to help ensure that no student gets lost in the shuffle,” he remarks. “I like that I am in charge of my budget and the chance to obtain materials, in the right amounts, to maximize the learning from each lab.” Read More