Mounds Park Academy

MPA Connecting for Understanding: An Open Dialogue about Neurodiversity

January 20, 2022

The MPA Parents Association invites you to Connecting for Understanding: An Open Dialogue about Neurodiversity.

Do you think there is a “normal” brain? What does that mean? Or does having a “normal brain” simply mean having a brain that functions well within the given structures of our current systems? As parents, how do we talk with our students, when they, or their classmates, don’t have brains that fit within the parameters of “normal” learning or “normal” classroom behavior? What does it mean to be neurotypical vs. neurodiverse? How do we discuss these topics with accurate information and compassion to create understanding within our school community?

Please join us as we welcome Pediatric Neuropsychologist, Dr. Jonathan Miller, on January 27, 6:30-7:45 PM for an interactive dialogue about neurodiversity and the many ways in which our children learn. This event is for Lower, Middle, and Upper School parents.

This is the first in a series of community-building open dialogue events hosted in partnership between the Parents Association and MPA. Upcoming webinars will cover issues around race and LGBTQ+ topics. Please join in the conversations!

January Parents Association Events

January 20, 2022

Parent Education Night
Save the Date for a Zoom Parent Education Night! January 27, 6:30-7:45 PM. Please join MPA families to learn about neurodiversity in our school community.

Faculty and Staff Appreciation Week
January 31-February 4. Keep an eye out next week in the Panther Post for a Sign Up Genius and more details. Contact Tara Lafferty with questions, TMattRN@aol.com or 201-563-4622

January Walks with Dogs
Join Michelle Mick Friday, January 21 & 28 for a walk in a local dog park. Bring your dog or not, we’ll meet at Battle Creek Dog Park, a lovely, big, off-leash dog park with 35 acres at 8:15 AM. Parking is off Upper Afton Road, in the parking lot next to the dog park. Look for Michelle and her dog (Rufus), near the entrance of the dog park.

For your GPS, the address is: 2350 Upper Afton Road, Maplewood, MN 55119. The contact person is Michelle Mick, and please feel free to SMS or call 651-328-7312 if you can’t find us!

Attention Middle School Panthers and Parents
The annual Middle School Café is going tubular this year! Stay tuned and get excited. While we can’t unveil all the details just yet (sorry!), we can say, SAVE THE DATE, Friday, February 25th from 2:30-5:30 PM.

Microfunding Grants
Looking for Microfunding for your club or classroom? It’s not too late to apply for these PA grants. Please send your applications to Natalie King, our micro-funding chair at natalieking10414@gmail.com. Applications can be found here.

Science, Art, And Character Intersect In The Makerspace

January 18, 2022

If you are familiar with MPA, then you are probably also familiar with the AnnMarie Thomas Makerspace. Electrifying in its concept and its form, this area of the school houses the intersection of creativity and innovation. The Makerspace is the physical manifestation of MPA’s long-standing belief that learning should be hands-on, experiential, and joyful.

Keith Braafladt, MPA’s technology and innovation teacher, has already found himself right at home in the Makerspace during his first year as a faculty member. As a new friendly face on campus, Keith has dedicated this year to developing strong relationships with MPA teachers to integrate and deliver the best Makerspace curriculum and experience to our students. Curriculum that exists in the Makerspace connects liberal arts thinking with 21st century skills and competencies, providing students with opportunities to construct meaning through making via practical, hands-on, interdisciplinary, and problem-based projects. Most often, the work is centered around the design thinking process, a systematic way to solve real-world problems that major corporations use in the workplace.

One of the most memorable projects to occur in the Makerspace this year is still adorning the outer windows of the room, prompting those who pass by to pause and share a smile that is reflecting back at them. The activity was informally and aptly named “making faces,” because that is precisely what Lower School students did. Essentially, they observed, looking for faces out in the world. And under Keith’s model, the idea was to use all of the donated, found, and collected materials at the students’ disposal in the Makerspace to create a face out of everyday objects themselves. Keith has friends at the Exploratorium in San Francisco that have been doing a similar activity that inspired this one. Read More

Meet Zainab Lodhi ’25

January 14, 2022

This is Zainab’s second year at MPA. She joined in eighth grade and is currently in ninth grade.

What do you love about MPA?
What I love most about MPA is the community and environment. Not only does MPA provide students with a supportive community, but it also gives an environment that encourages curiosity, and it pushes its students towards improvement rather than pressuring students to constantly succeed. MPA makes me feel safe and respected, which I feel is vital in high school. I have never dreaded going to school at MPA. Everyday feels like a new and exciting experience. MPA truly is one of a kind––not only in its beliefs, but how it implements them to create an experience for each of its students.

How are you encouraged to dream big and do right at MPA?
MPA wholeheartedly encourages its students to institute change, gives students the support they need to pursue their passions, and teaches students that everyone can make change. We are not treated like we are ignorant of the “real world,” and instead, given room to grow as individuals. I have felt that this treatment encourages us be unafraid of uncertainty and pursue happiness. Read More

Great Schools Depend On Great Teachers & Staff

January 13, 2022

from Bill Hudson, Head of School

This is the second of a four-part series of Head’s Messages that dives deep into MPA’s new strategic plan, 2024ward. Today we will outline this priority: Affirm and inspire our exceptional and dedicated faculty and staff through competitive compensation. The first article may be found here. An overview of 2024ward may be found here.

“It’s like baking a lasagna and baking a cake at the same time in the same kitchen, but you can only use one bowl,” responded one teacher when asked in a national survey to describe what teaching has been like during the pandemic. Teachers have demonstrated and modeled incredible resiliency as they pivoted to remote learning, to hybrid learning, and back to in person learning (and back to remote, unfortunately) along with a number of health and safety measures layered upon what typically happens in a classroom. Together with those in the medical field, public health, and first responders, teachers have been real heroes over the last two years.

Nowhere was this more evident to me than observing master teacher Mari Espeland one day in the fall of 2020. Mari was teaching music to two first grade classrooms simultaneously, one via Zoom, without singing. I marveled at the ease in which she transitioned between three distinct learning activities within 30 minutes. However, as a teacher myself, I know that what appeared to be effortless required a great deal of planning, a deep knowledge of music education, a thorough understanding the developmental needs of young learners, and many years of experience. Despite the limitations brought on by the pandemic, the students in Mari’s class were engaged, joyful, and learning about rhythm. Read More

Upper School Division News January 13, 2022

January 13, 2022

from Mark Segal, Upper School Director

Those of you who drop off your children at school each morning know that Mr. Comfort, Mr. Haase, and I are at the north door eagerly awaiting student arrival, regardless of the temperature, daily. This morning, however, was different. The shift to virtual school left me missing this important part of the day. Welcoming and checking-in with students as they arrive at school is as important for me as it is for them. Their face mask covered smiles and high-fives help me start the day on the right foot and help me establish the right mindset for the day ahead.

I am confident that the time away from on campus, in-person learning will help to stop the current spread of COVID impacting the MPA student community. Just because we are not physically together does not mean that we will forego the important human connection that is part of the MPA ethos. According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), “those with strong social-emotional skills are better able to manage daily challenges and advance academically and socially.” Although we will be physically distanced for the next few school days, we will continue to focus on building these social-emotional skills to connect us socially.

As we look ahead to the next week, teachers will check in with their students and advisees to see how they are doing and gauge if they are in a cloudy, rainy, or sunny disposition. We will meet via Zoom as a community next Wednesday (January 19) to kick off the second semester and third quarter with a Wednesday edition of our weekly Monday Morning Meeting. Important information will be shared, laughter will happen with the Student Council facilitated Monday Morning Memo, and Mr. Comfort will grace us with one of his “groan-worthy” jokes.

Please remind your student that they should follow their regular schedule and plan to “attend” each of their classes synchronously. This does not include any scheduled study halls. As if we were meeting in person, attendance will be taken at the start of each block and students should be dressed appropriately and ready for class. Please make sure your student has set aside an appropriate, well-lit workspace (NOT their bed) to attend class. Computer cameras are required to be turned on and pointed at your student’s face. Read More

Middle School Division News January 13, 2022

January 13, 2022

from Dr. Jenn Milam, Middle School Director

Our covid environment is a lot like a giant rollercoaster and that rollercoaster has highs and lows, twists and turns, each day and sometimes moment to moment. So, too, are our emotions and, most especially those of our young people. While we cannot control the environment around us, we can control our response to it—so I’m asking you all to help your students “buckle up” for the loops and bumps in the next few weeks as we navigate this surge and find our way back to the loading platform, all together!

For my younger middle families who are still on campus:

Please continue to be diligent about symptom monitoring. The omicron variant of this virus is sneaky and quick—watch for stuffy nose, scratchy throat, and headache.
More, do your best to limit high-risk activities and exposure points as best you can—not just for you, but for those around you. The key to our remaining on campus is limiting spread within our community and we need your help for that to happen.
Enjoy the time on campus with a little more room to wiggle.

To our big kids and their grown-ups:

Symptom monitoring, even at home, is critical! If your student or you are experiencing any viral symptoms, please us know. Tracing, tracking, and ensuring that exposed folks are quarantining for required amounts of time, help us to return safely.
Remember, as I shared on our Zoom the other night, please take some time to schedule in advance a Covid-19 test toward the end of next week ahead of our January 24 return date. While most sources are outlining this surge will soon pass, we don’t want to come back to school, together, and find ourselves right back in this spot.
Enjoy the time at home—I know that seems weird to say and virtual school is not easy, and not as fun or awesome as being on-campus, but there are some perks in the short term. More time to sleep, more snuggles with pets, better snack options, and, as we approach the end of the quarter, a long weekend to look forward to!

As we approach the long weekend, please note that we do not have school on Monday, January 17, in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, nor on Tuesday, January 18, for a teacher professional development day. Grades 7/8 will remain virtual for the rest of next week, while 5/6 will resume classes, on campus, Wednesday, January 19. Read More

Lower School Division News January 13, 2022

January 13, 2022

from Renee Wright, Lower School Director

PreK–Grade 6 Students Remain On Campus
As you have already learned by now, Dr. Hudson and the Administrative Team have made the difficult decision to shift to virtual learning in grades 7-12 starting Wednesday. The intent is that everyone will return to campus on January 24. This change does not impact Lower School. Students in grades PreK-6 will remain on campus. We know our little ones learn best in person and I am grateful that we are seeing fewer cases in Lower School, in part because of their more recent vaccine eligibility. The shift of grades 7-12 to virtual learning will reduce the density and exposure risk on campus for Lower School students as well. We will continue to monitor cases in grades PreK-6 very closely and will shift on a grade-by-grade basis, if essential. Students who are at home due to choice or illness, are being provided personal learning plans so that they may continue to learn asynchronously. We are being very attentive to mitigation strategies to ensure the health and safety of everyone on campus. These strategies are listed below:

Mitigation Strategies in Place

Encouraging the use of N95 or KN95 masks. These masks are available on campus for our students.
Less mixing of classes will occur and group and partner work will be minimized.
More attention to keeping students 6 feet apart whenever possible.
Further enhanced cleaning of their classrooms will begin.
Scheduled handwashing and restroom breaks.

CHAMP Assembly On Wednesday This Week
The CHAMP theme for the school year is accountability. Part of being accountable is self-regulation and self-control. Making good choices and thinking before saying or doing something is an important part of self-control. First Graders shared a delightful message with everyone in Lower School about self-control. All students did follow-up activities in their classrooms to reinforce the concepts learned and will practice their self-regulation skills on a daily basis.

Myles Moore Joins Lower School
MPA has hired Myles Moore, an experienced paraprofessional, as an assistant teacher serving in Lower School classrooms. This added support for our youngest learners will help us provide more one-on-one attention to make up the progress students may have lost due to the impact of Covid-19. Myles came to MPA through the upper school basketball program. His most recent school experience has been in the Osseo School District. Upon reviewing his resume, we were intrigued by his experience. Myles will work in grades K, 1, and 2. His schedule will be determined based on the specific needs of students. Read More

Meet Retired Faculty Member, Jim Schwieger

January 13, 2022

Position while at MPA
Science teacher

How many years did you work at MPA?
26 years

What do you miss most about MPA?
The energy, the students and employees.

What have you been up to since leaving MPA?
Some volunteer work!

Connect With MPA Parents This January

January 13, 2022

Parent Education Night
Save the Date for a Zoom Parent Education Night! January 27, 6:30-7:45 PM, please join MPA families to learn about neurodiversity in our school community.

January Walks with Dogs
Join Michelle Mick Friday, January 14 for a walk in a local dog park. Bring your dog or not, we’ll meet at Battle Creek Dog Park, a lovely, big, off-leash dog park with 35 acres at 8:15 AM. Parking is off Upper Afton Road, in the parking lot next to the dog park. Look for Michelle and her dog (Rufus), near the entrance of the dog park.

For your GPS, the address is: 2350 Upper Afton Road, Maplewood, MN 55119. The contact person is Michelle Mick, and please feel free to SMS or call 651-328-7312 if you can’t find us!