Due to the Pandemic, Spring Hill Elementary (across Lake Otis) has become a safe haven for PNA Middle School, allowing students to run, play, climb, swing, and basically engage with one another. This playground, which is usually off limits to outsiders during the...

I've always been a strong believer in Pacific Northern Academy’s mission, philosophy, and methodologies. But never have I believed in them more than through this last trimester of distance learning. It was as if students and teachers had been in training their whole...

Watch my vlog or read my blog... Not an exact transcript: Welcome to my first vlog ever. I've been doing a lot of firsts lately. In fact, I feel like I am a student again. I mean really a student again. This vlog is not a refined, revised edited piece. It's a first...

This is an unprecedented, emotional time. The majority of humans in the world are having to make decisions they didn’t plan on making. As teachers, we've been asking questions and trying to come up with answers nonstop. However, there is no magical, “one size fits...

SMO? What is that? Standard Mode of OperationFor the PNA Middle School in February, SMO means being prepared for class, doing homework, participating in sports or other extracurricular activities, recycling chores for the school, taking math tests, playing badminton...

PBL projects, auction projects, science projects, and Valentine’s Day projects kept our middle schoolers exceptionally busy this week. They were bustling with energy, partially because of the surge in daylight, but mostly because their learning has been hands-on and...

Empowering students means... empowering them!  We can’t just give them lip service.  They want to be able to have some control over their lives and to be able to make changes that improve their world. This is not the same as giving students what they want all the...

PNA uses the Responsive Classroom approach. As we strive to teach our students to become exceptional learners and independent thinkers of vision, courage, and integrity; we support them in more than just their academics. Here are some examples of shared practices used...

When I read about the Middle School experience online, I wonder why I can’t really identify with many of the issues being reported.  Sure, I recognize the emotional and self conscience adolescent struggling through a stage of self discovery, but I don’t see the...