Celebrating One Year

As you may or may not have heard, we are celebrating the 1 year anniversary of the Metro East Web Academy on April 16^th, at 6:00pm.  The celebration will be held on the MEWA campus and all teachers, staff, parents, guardians, family members, and students are invited to attend.  Now, in order to alleviate any confusion, it’s important to clarify one thing: the Gresham-Barlow Web Academy was founded in 2009; however, GBWA changed its name to Metro East Web Academy last year when the curriculum and program was updated.  Therefore, while the Web Academy is five years old, MEWA is turning one.

We are celebrating the event with refreshments, food, and good company.  Our teachers will be present to answer questions about our program as well as converse with our current students and their families.  MEWA is excited to show our current, potential, and future students everything our web-based education has to offer.  For parents interested in learning about the benefits of an online education for their children, our Open House is a good time to ask questions and the information needed to make that decision.

Now a little bit about MEWA:

“The Metro East Web Academy is an online, public charter school approved by the Oregon Department of Education.  The school’s web-based curriculum does meet Oregon State Standards and our instructors are all highly qualified teachers.

Each academy student receives a personalized education program designed to meet their unique needs.  This allows students to login anytime, anywhere and online learning is supported in a variety of ways, including:

•  Daily E-mail communication with teachers
•  Face to face check-in sessions with instructors
• Field trips and community service projects with other academy students

Students enrolled in the Metro East Web Academy will get the best of both worlds—an online learning program designed just for them, and the benefits of being part of a learning community with opportunities to interact with teachers, students, and the world around them!” (mewebacademy.com)

MEWA is extremely proud to be able to offer a beneficial academic program to help the students in our community succeed.  Our school has continued to grow in the past year, and we look forward to continuing this trend in the coming year.  Thank you to all our MEWA families and students for the support of our school and your student’s education.  Above all, thank you for choosing MEWA.

The Season of Giving With Metro East

It’s November.  The days are getting dark earlier, the storms have arrived, & Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away.  Celebrating the holidays marks the beginning of the "Season of Giving."  This year, Metro East is excited to partner together with SnowCap Community Charities, the Service Learning Club, and the Volunteer Club to sponsor a canned food drive!  Our drive will run through November 22^nd and we have a large collection barrel in our school lobby for donations.  Foods such as canned fruit and vegetables, peanut butter, dry pastas and grains, soups, stews and chili, canned meats, tuna fish, shelf stable milk, breakfast cereals, soups and sauces, baby food and formula are much needed in our community and are appreciated.  All non-perishable donations can be brought to the school.  For every item donated, students will receive a ticket for a chance to win a $10 iTunes gift card.  The more you donate, the higher chance of winning the iTunes gift card!  Contact Ms. Hathaway with any questions.

About our partner, SnowCap Community Charities:

“SnowCap Community Charities is a philanthropic organization created to provide food, clothing, advocacy and other services to the poor.”  The organization began in 1967 when members of the East Multnomah County Community noticed many of the needs of the residents were not being met.  SnowCap (which stands for Suburban Neighborhoods Operation Witness Community Action Program) originally set-up three centers from which the community was served.  By the organization’s 40^th anniversary it had served over 1.4 million people, had a staff of 7 and a budget of $500,000.  With this, SnowCap was able to implement new programs including: English language instruction, community gardens, and home delivered food boxes for seniors.  For more information about SnowCap visit: http://www.snowcap.org/Home.aspx.  We at MEWA are proud to be partners of this organization and a member of the community at large.  Thank you for your generosity and participation in our canned food drive!

Important Announcements…

Tomorrow is a sequential calendar date!  “Each century contains twelve such sequential number calendar dates, the first being 01-02-03 and the last one, 12-13-14. So, December 13, 2014 will be the last such sequential calendar date in the 21st century” (Aziz S. Inan, Ph.D., Professor, Electrical Engineering, University of Portland, Portland, Oregon).

MEWA Student Leadership Club.  This club is open to all students with a focus on building leadership skills for those who join. If you are interested in joining, please attend the next meeting on Thursday, November 14, 1:30 PM at MEWA.  You do not have to be present to participate.  Contact Ms. Norrander for more information: Julie Norrander <norrander@mewebacademy.org>

Our Parent Booster Group will have the next meeting November 20^th at 6:00 PM at MEWA.  Participation in this group is open to all MEWA parents, grandparents, guardians, and staff members.  The focus of this group is to organize and support activities that promote our school and provide enrichment and growth opportunities for students and staff.  Snacks and refreshments are provided.

College Bound Students: Take a Free ACT/SAT Practice Test! Warm up for the test and find out how you would score.  Get realistic practice and try your hand at the types of questions you’ll face on the actual exam.  You’ll receive a personalized score report pinpointing your strengths and weaknesses.  Princeton Review Assessment:  1-888-578-8378 ext. 1030. The dates for the 4-hour test are 11/16 – 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM or 12/8 – 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM.  They are located at 421 SW Hall St., Portland.  You can check them out at: PrincetonReview.com.  The test and results are free – this is a for-profit company and they will offer students the opportunity to take prep classes at a cost.

Field Trip Opportunities…Our school is scheduling a field trip for November 26^th to the Portland Art Museum to see the Samurai exhibit. We plan to take the kids there via MAX.  Please contact Mr. Kennedy or Ms. Powell if you have an interest or questions.  Join us December 4 as we tour the new Portland-Milwaukie Lite Rail Project! Fill out the permission form here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1uMUH-gpVorp3hCGy4JUujeCNG2QwEYfNX_UxnOivjYU/viewform

Stay Active! We have many incentive programs right now including: a drawing for (2) 16GB iPod Touches, weekly drawings for Drop-In Lab goal achievements, & Student of the Month awards.

Remember the ME in MEWA; at Metro East you come first.