This semester you will see a significant change to the progress reports your child receives from PNA.  While the report will appear quite different, the largest change is the conceptual approach PNA is taking to evaluate students.  After surveying parents early on in...

​We are officially a third of the way through the school year! As we head into the Thanksgiving holiday to reflect on the good things in our lives, students are digging deeper across all subjects, finding connections everywhere they turn. As they build knowledge and...

If you were to walk down the hallway to the science lab, you would see 77 beautiful pet babies! They were all “born” last week and seem to be thriving - even though they are stapled to the wall! While the seventh and eighth graders seemed to have fun with this...

Last year the sixth grade class was awarded a $20,000 Anchorage Parks Challenge Grant for the work they did designing a more usable space in the northwest corner of Ruth Arcand Park.  This work included presenting their ideas to other community members including the...

A few weeks ago we were asked to identify a “superpower” for our fundraising display. I decided that, as a lifelong reader and writer, my superpower is "literacy." Literacy, the ability to read and write, is an indispensable skill and an unimaginably treasured gift....

Parent Lunches are a great way for students to share their learning with parents.  Sometimes, the activities showcase the end results of what students have been learning,. Other times parents are thrown into the learning process itself and still other lunches are...

How do you know you are learning? How does the learning process become visible to the learner AND the "teacher"? Traditional tests or activities can only show a tiny part of the complex process that learning is. In the natural learning process the application of new...

Not everyone can say that they get to teach cellular respiration to a bunch of tacky tourists.  Nor have they have gotten a zoo full of animals to model mitosis.  What about playing four square dressed to impress or playing Capture the Flag in pajamas?  We’re sure...

Students began exploring the countries of  Central America and the Caribbean this week as part of our study of world regions. Each country has been assigned to a student “expert” who will research, create a map of the country, and develop a 5-10 minute oral...

What does it mean for something to be semipermeable?  This week in science, 7th and 8th graders created a model replicating a cell that would demonstrate the answer to this question.  They put a starch solution a Ziplock bag and placed it in an iodine solution to see...