Important Information for MEWA Parents and Students

The Metro East Web Academy provides a technology-rich 21^st century learning model that ensures student success in a rapidly evolving learning, work, and community environment. 

Dear Parents and Students:  

This year, MEWA is focusing on attendance as our primary goal.  As chronic absenteeism is a major factor relating to students at risk of dropping out of school, we are determined that each of our students attend school each an every day.  Our goal is to have 95% of our students in attendance every day.  It is expected that every MEWA student check in with a teacher and/or turn in an assignment everyday!

Riddle of the WEEK!

Riddle:

The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I?

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Students of the Month for September

Paige Durias
Ben Holliday
Aurora Leino
Pepe Galindo-Ramirez

Most Improved Students for May

Alexis Lugo
Daniell Pinchuk
Eli Gutierrez
Amaya Caldwell

Students of the Month and Most Improved receive a $10 Starbucks gift card and a MEWA t-shirt! Come in and claim yours so we can take your picture.

OCTOBER 21 – NATIONAL PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE DAY – NATIONAL REPTILE AWARENESS DAY – NATIONAL MAMMOGRAPHY DAY

National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day – October 21

NATIONAL PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE DAY

National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day is observed annually on October 21. Fall the is the perfect time to add pumpkin to one of America’s favorite desserts!  

Cheesecake is a sweet dessert that is a mixture of fresh soft cheese, cream cheese or cottage cheese, eggs and sugar on a crust made from crushed graham crackers, crushed cookies, pastry or sponge cake.  Pumpkin may be added to cheesecake recipes in various ways. For example, it may be swirled throughout,  mixed thoroughly with all ingredients or layered.  Cheesecakes can be prepared baked or unbaked, flavored and are often served topped with fruit, fruit sauce, chocolate or whipped cream.

An ancient form of cheesecake may have been a popular dish in ancient Greece.  It has been found that the earliest attested mention of cheesecake is by the Greek physician, Aegimus, who wrote a book on the art of making cheesecakes.

James Kraft developed a form of pasteurized cream cheese in 1912.  In 1928, Kraft acquired the Philadelphia trademark and marketed pasteurized Philadelphia Cream Cheese which is now the most commonly used cheese for this creamy dessert and many other recipes.

For more information, visit the National Day Calendar page for National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day.

Announcements:

• Friday October 28, 2016 9am-2pm we are headed to Oregon Humane Society. We will meet at MEWA and be transported by bus to their facility in Portland. We will take a tour fo the Oregon Humane Society and hear about the services they provide.  We will also be doing community service by serving on site doing any yard work or helping in whatever manual labor is needed.  Pick up your permission slip at the front desk or email Nikki Albelo for more information at albelo@mewebacademy.org

• The Month of November we will be having a school wide food drive for Snow Cap.  Snow Cap serves families in need East of 82nd.  Please bring canned goods to the school the entire month of November.   On November 17th we will meet at Snow Cap, bring our canned goods, tour their facility and volunteer!  For more information please contact Nikki at albelo@mewebacademy.org

• Thursday November 3rd we will be headed to Portland Center Stage! We will see the play, “Hold these truths.”  Students will hear a perspective on the challenges the U.S. and it’s citizens went through during World War II.  “Gordon Hirabayashi agonizes over government orders to forcibly remove and mass incarcerate all people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast. As he fights to reconcile his country’s betrayal with his passionate belief in the U.S. Constitution” Cost is $15.  For more information please contact Nikki at albelo@mewebacademy.org

• Do you need a math tutor?  Contact Toyoko Akiyama-Becker at (503) 669-1052 or toybecker@gmail.com. She charges $20 for 45 minutes of tutoring.

Fish Hatchery Field Trip Photos

·Now available on our website:

We can now accept payments via PayPal for fees or donations.  If you would like to donate to our school, we use the money to pay for scholarships and activities such as field trips, incentives, and other extras that we provide our students and programs. As we are a 501 (c) (3), all donations are tax deductible and we will furnish you with a letter with our federal tax ID #.

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A New Age of Interaction

Photo via Social Media Examiner

It wasn’t always this way.  “Back in the day” you would be reading this in a magazine or newspaper, printed on paper, and delivered to your house every week or month.  The concept of a blog was reserved to a journalist, someone who attended school, received a degree in Creative Writing and/or Journalism, and set out to create a career based on writing.  Now, one can become a journalist with the click of a button and approximately $10 a year (to claim your blog site domain).  What changed?  People are more connected, yet strangely more disconnected.  We get our news from Facebook’s News Feed and Twitter’s 140 character tweets.  Now, by the time you turn on the 5 o’clock news, it’s already old news.  The way we interact as humans has become faster, more immediate, and incredibly responsive.  We can talk directly to a company about their products, deal with customer service situations on Twitter, and all of this while on the go through the phone in our hand.  It’s incredible really.

Even the concept of education has changed, as you well know.  Students are able to take their classrooms with them while they travel to compete as athletes.  Snow days are a thing of the past; as long as the Internet is still connected, it’s business as usual for our students.  Teachers are able to be more responsive and available to support their students on an individual level.  The evolution of interaction has certainly improved this aspect of our lives.

We are launching a scavenger hunt game of sorts for our MEWA students to help them gage how much they know about their school and on what platforms they are able to interact with the MEWA community.  This “Digital Domination” game takes place totally online across the website, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and this very blog.  Even the entry form is available online and will be submitted that way.  We believe our students to be digital masters and hope this game encourages them to explore the digital space that MEWA exists in.  The game will launch on March 7^th and a winner will be selected on March 19.  The prize?  Increased knowledge of the MEWA digital community…as well as a $50 gift certificate to the Family Fun Center in Wilsonville. More information can be found here: http://gbwebacademy.org/modules/cms/pages.phtml?pageid=310023.

The question remains whether or not this evolution of interaction is completely for the better.  We have even asked that ourselves, and designed our school around an education structure that continues to incorporate real-time, in-person learning and development at our brick and mortar location.  There is still a need for face-to-face human interaction, for we are by nature social creatures.  It’s important to remember to unplug and look at the world around us, use our senses to discover new things.  By balancing the technological evolution with our true human instincts, we will maintain balance in the new age of interaction.

Where do you interact with others the most online? What about offline?  Which do you prefer?

Social Media & The Student

At MEWA, we are a community active on social media.  Our school utilizes Facebook daily to keep our students, staff, and parents informed of what’s happening.  We also post about education news, show off student work and achievements, and help everyone get to know our staff a little better.  MEWA is not just a school, but a family, or team, in which each individual contributes something important and creates a winning combination.  On Twitter, we send out tweets with important information on everything from blog posts, to eating healthy and study tips.  Our Pinterest profile visually shows what the MEWA experience is about, as well as offers tips on how to organize your online “classroom” and what to expect when it comes to higher education.  Finally, our blog is where we tell you all about, well, everything that has to do with MEWA.  Here, you can read the updates from Principal Gray in his messages and get tips on how to be successful as a member of the MEWA team.  Social media is meant to inform, to be shared, and to build a community around a common interest.

In the latest Principal's Message, Dr. Gray outlined some bullet points with concepts that student’s should be aware of as they begin to use social media more and more.  The author of this particular article that Dr. Gray quoted, mentioned the shift being made in the “real world” when it comes to finding employment.  As our students begin to achieve their academic goals and build a career path, there are some things to consider now, in Junior High & High School, when it comes to social media.

1. Social Networking has become more prominent in everyday life, while email use has declined.  Part of this comes from our need to have immediate answers; we no longer like to wait for someone to login, check, and respond to an email.  With social media, tweeting, Facebook chat sessions, and Google hangouts have become the quickest form of communication when answers are needed fast.
2. Job searching has become much more complicated, in the sense that networking lunches and LinkedIn have become more popular.  Now Human Resource departments check to make sure a job candidate is active of social media before bringing them in for an interview.  People want to see how much of an influencer you are, or where you are most creative.  Social media is sometimes the best way to gauge what you are most interested in.
3. LinkedIn has become the number one network in which employers and employees can both actively and passively participate in the job search and hiring process.  You can now even turn your LinkedIn profile into a resume, without using Word or another program like it!
4. Social media is about showing, and focusing on, your passions.  Be honest, but remember, what you write within the digital space, really does stay there!  Ask yourself this question before writing a status update, tweeting, sending a Snapchat, or posting an image on Instagram: “What will my employer 3, 5, and 10 years from now think of this?” If you don’t like the answer, or the thought, it’s probably not something that needs to be shared with the world.

(Source: 5 Reasons Why Your Online Presence Will ReplaceYour Resume in 10 years)

Social media is nothing to be afraid of.  Merely, it should be thought of as a tool that will help you build a strong future, no matter what you decide to do with it.  If you have questions about how to best use social media, ask your counselor for some tips.  Make sure you are following MEWA for even more tips and to stay updated on what’s happening!

What's your favorite social networking site to use?