One of our primary language arts goals is to develop competent, passionate, eloquent writers, and thus we intentionally ask students to write often throughout the school day. We focus on three major types of writing: narrative, informative, and argument, but argument...

One of the main goals of science at the middle school level is to provide a solid foundation of scientific concepts, vocabulary, and skills so that students can confidently understand the world around them to ask deeper, meaningful, and more connecting questions in...

As the dark silence of winter settled outside, things inside at PNA ere hopping as always! After a spirited week of Halloween and other dress-up fun, students in middle school turned their attention to our Fall Concert and other important matters: Students shared...

Collaboration. Communication. Critical Thinking. Content Level Performance Expectations and Practices. PNA Science has it all!

Over 1000 hours of  time from 41 volunteers along with generous in-kind donations from the community amounted to almost $58,000!  Wow! PNA 8th Graders have much to celebrate!  The Pacific Northern Academy Ruth Arcand Park Project (PNA RAPP) has reached its peak. All...

Lucy Calkins, an icon in the teaching world for the English language arts, has breathed new life into Middle School’s Writing Workshop.  This year we adopted her well practiced curriculum and are already seeing fabulous results! The first unit eighth graders are...

This week, the PNA Middle School had the opportunity to make cultural connections and to use the Spanish language to order food for themselves and their parents. The staff at Taco King was expecting us and spoke Spanish only. At the time of ordering, each student had...

One of the hardest things about Project Based Learning for teachers is authenticity.  This topic was discussed at our most recent faculty meeting. Teachers struggle over the idea of handing students a contrived problem as the premise for a project because they know...

On a windy and rainy morning last weekend, 9 Middle School students rendezvoused at Kincaid Park for the first Outdoor Club outing of the school year.  My husband always says, “You pick your day, and then you go.” Well, we had picked the day, but the weather wasn’t...

I am a reader, thanks to my mom. Reading by her side from my earliest days, I learned from her that books transport you instantly across the world and time and space. I learned that I could have hundreds of friends who taught me all about life and who made me laugh,...