The Raven's Call
Raven Homeschool
April 2022 Edition
Dear Raven Families,
Welcome to Raven's Call, your digital newsletter to keep you up to date on all things Raven. This quarterly newsletter via SMORE will have an overview of highlights from each of our 6 Raven offices. Within this electronic version of our newsletter, you have easy-access to your local office news and resources.
We are looking forward to another successful year and hope you will share pictures of your learning adventures with your local offices to be included throughout the year.
If you have questions, please contact Maegan, mmascagno@yksd.com.
- Raven Homeschool
From the Director's Desk:
- Anchorage Office Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/anchorage1
- Delta Office Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/deltaraven
- Eagle River Office Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/eagleriver1
- Fairbanks Office Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/fairbanksraven
- Juneau Office Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/juneau1
- Wasilla Office Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/wasilla
Additionally, we have added a link to our website for comments and suggestions that is available to parents 24/7. This link is on the right hand side under Resources and is titled "New! - Community and Employee Suggestions".
Here is the link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdG49-9nmaCCz5WSDOoqMPjb-D8zk9_yfS0etjIR6MPZuJ3zg/viewform
Re-enrollment has been open for a little over a month. Asking parents to make this decision greatly helps us to plan appropriately for the coming school year. It is my hope that you have enjoyed your year of homeschooling with Raven and that you would continue to allow Raven to serve your children and family for the 2022-2023 school year. If you have already completed your re-enrollment, hopefully this list will highlight the benefits you will receive in the year ahead.
To support on-site activities, each student's local office will receive $5 in its student activities account for each student re-enrolled by March 21st, 2022.
For the 22-23 school year, Raven is increasing and restructuring the allotment amount to support additional opportunities for student learning and achievement.
- Grades K-3 will receive $2,200 for full time enrollment
- Grades 4-8 will receive $2,400 for full time enrollment
- Grades 9-12 will receive $2,600 for full time enrollment
- Pre-K students with a sibling enrolled full time will receive $300
Re-enrolling allows any remaining allotment dollars to be carried forward to the next school year so you will have them as your children get older and things become more expensive. Unfortunately, if you withdraw or are exited any allotment is forfeited.
Additionally Raven families have freedom of choice in how they spend their allotment, freedom of choice in the curriculum you choose, Raven provides MIFI or home-based internet choices along with one to one student laptops or tablets and access to a multitude of program options such as Office 365, Minecraft Education and many more.
New this year, we will have more vendor options for families participating in private schools. There will be more information about these options in the near future.
Each Raven family has access to highly qualified advisory teachers to assist and support you throughout the many stages of your homeschooling experience and experienced academic counselors to provide the additional support high school students need to transition successfully to life. Each year Raven offers multiple scholarships only to its graduating Raven seniors.
We are planning for a full slate of in person activities this fall. If you would like to be involved in this planning please contact your local office and join the Parent Advisory Committee.
If you need assistance or have questions about re-enrolling or helping a friend to enroll please do not hesitate to reach out!
We appreciate your being part of the Raven Homeschool family and would cherish the opportunity to serve your wonderful family’s educational needs for the 2022-2023 school year.
Kim Bergey
Raven Homeschool
Director
Raven-Wide Parent Meeting Recording:
Counselor's Corner:
Are you planning to graduate this year?
If you already have or plan to graduate, graduation is just a few months off, and it is essential that you are aware of a few things:
All seniors wanting to graduate this year must have all school work completed by May 15th.
If you plan on participating in the graduation ceremony, make sure you reach out to your local office and your advisory teacher for details. Each office plans its own ceremony for their students.
For more information, please read this newsletter: 21-22 Graduating Raven Students
Are you re-enrolling for the 22-23 School Year?
If you are in 8th, 9th, or 10th Grade make sure you attend an Introduction to High School Workshop with Megan and Ryan BEFORE you sit down to do your ILP!
If you are a Junior or Senior make sure you attend an Introduction to Your Senior Year Workshop with Megan and Ryan BEFORE you sit down to do your ILP!
PLEASE CALL YOUR SCHOOL COUNSELOR WITH QUESTIONS!
Megan Rosendall | Anchorage, Eagle River, Wasilla | mrosendall@yksd.com | 907.622.6631
Ryan Tilbury | Delta, Fairbanks, Juneau | rtilbury@yksd.com | 907.374.9432
Anchorage Office:
The Anchorage office has been keeping busy all year with a variety of workshops, field trips, holiday parties and much more!
We celebrated the winter holidays with a sledding and crafting party at the Kincaid Chalet. Kaladi Brothers kindly donated carafes of hot cocoa for everyone to enjoy! While at the party students and parents made ornaments with beads, decorated placemats to donate to a local fire station, got their faces painted, played a “Find a Friend” game and went sledding in the fresh snow!
Poetry, Health Club, Spanish Lessons and Sewing School continued weekly. Our play production will be on April 26th and our students have been hard at working rehearsing and memorizing their lines, and created the entire set from scratch!
Deb Fancher has taught some incredible workshops for our office. Students were even given the opportunity to dissect turtles! They also learned all about winter science, the aurora borealis, bugs and insects and all about lotions and potions.
Our family liaison led families on some fun hands-on field trips. Students learned how to make holiday wreaths and centerpieces at a local greenhouse. We also went bowling and ice skating. Next, we’ll learn all about the dinosaurs that roamed Alaska during a field trip to the Museum of Science and Nature.
We are excited to see how many of our families have re-enrolled for the next school year!
Story-Time Craft Corner:
On the last Monday of each month during the 3rd quarter, students came to the Anchorage office for Storytime Craft Corner with Rebecca and Erika! The students listened to a book and created various art projects! We made adorable Valentine’s monsters, beautiful rainbow-covered pots of gold, and we’ve got hot-air balloons coming up next!
Battle of the Books:
We would like to give a big shout out to the Anchorage Battle of the Books High School - Raven Rock Stars, and the Middle School - BoB Squad teams. The High School team for the Anchorage office was Bianca Pagel-Miller & Ashley Abbott. The team for the Middle School was Xienna Solberg & Tucker Edwardsen. Both teams did absolutely fabulous & came in 2nd place. They put in many hours reading & answering questions about the books. We appreciate how well they represented the Anchorage office with all their efforts. Congratulations to both teams - Raven Rockstars & The BoB Squad.
Cursive Handwriting Workshops:
Rebecca met with students to go over proper form in cursive handwriting. They started with the basics and will be moving on to enrichment activities as students’ skills progress.
Join our Facebook Group!
Have you joined the Anchorage Office Facebook group yet? Our group is a place where currently enrolled Raven Homeschool families can connect with one another safely and securely. This group is private and limited to families enrolled with the Anchorage office only.
The Play
When: Tuesday, April 26th, at 6pm
Where: Loussac Library
Cost: $2/person
Student Spotlight - Daylin A.
Student Spotlight - Veronica W.
The Play - Set Designing
Holiday Party in December
STEAM: Rube Goldberg Machines
Delta Office:
We ended December with our Holiday Celebration. There were games, prizes, delicious food and good company!
January was much more challenging with the snow, rain and more snow! Puffins made Ice Luminaries to help keep the darkness at bay. Our K-2 Battle of the Books team made it to the second round. A great job was done by Riley and Cassidy, the Raven Wonder Dogs! We celebrated School Choice Week with our lovely yellow scarves. Then the challenge was on for the Bake-Off. We had four delicious entries for our Judges to taste and critique. It was definitely not an easy task
February was all about Valentines, legos and Tea! We held two craft days for Valentines. One was geared towards creating boxes for the Valentine’s Exchange. The other for making cards for friends and family. It all culminated in a Valentine’s party where we showed our boxes and had fun sharing candy, gifts and more with everyone that signed up for the exchange. Students made some really creative boxes!
The Lego teams (Jr Lego League and Lego League) gave presentations and shared their challenges with each other at our End of Year Party. We had tasty cupcakes with Lego blocks and people!
The end of the month was given over to planning and hosting our Girls Only Tea Party. Our decorators did a wonderful job transforming the office into beautiful setting for a high tea. We shared delicious food and treats; played games; received door prizes and generally had a great time being together.
March started out with Dr. Seuss/Read Across America Day with our Community Library. Librarian, Tiki Levinson, treated students to stories, a treat and some activities.
We celebrated Pi Day on March 14th with a reading of Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi as well as pizza, cupcakes and of course, pie! It was a great time learning about pi, circumference and diameter.
We had one entry for our Leprechaun Trap. Very ingenious! Thanks for sharing Forrest and Vaida. The last of the month has been spent preparing for the STAR testing.
Looking ahead
March 30th-April 14th: State Testing
April 11th: Walk to Castner Glacier Ice Cave
April 19th: Spring Craft
April 21st: Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) meeting
April 25th: Courthouse Field Trip
April 29th: Senior Meeting and Pizza with Ryan
Important Dates Ahead
April 18th: You can call to schedule your ILP meeting for 22-23
April 29th: Deadline to submit reimbursements date January-April (including internet)
April 29th: Deadline to submit encumbered funds requests
April 29th: March Healthy Futures logs are due
May 24th: Kindergarten Graduation at 6 pm
June 3rd: High School Graduation at 6 pm
Welcome to the Family!
Eagle River Office:
We have been having too much fun in Eagle River! Our calendar is exploding with our usual clubs, plus a few new ones. Thanks to Raven parent Molly, Game Group is the most recent addition to our calendar, and it was more of a hit than anyone could have imagined. We had a full house of kids and parents learning Farkle, a dice game that also teaches math and strategy! Molly then made arrangements for Game Group to meet once a month at the local senior center so the kids can play games with seniors. The first session went well with several families joining the activity.
Parties are always on our calendar! We celebrated Pi Day with a special edition of Game Group. Everyone baked mini versions of their favorite pies and we played games while eating tasty treats. A few days later we hosted a St. Patrick’s Day scavenger hunt. The families met in the office where they received instructions about the hunt, then went outside where they got really creative in finding the items on the list. When real airplanes couldn’t be found in the sky, some families made paper airplanes as a substitute! Then they came back to the office for a baggie of cookies and to find out the winner of the “most green” contest. Mikey was the winner; he took home a bag of green items - Bananagrams, candy, bubbles, a bath bomb, and more.
With the addition of our new family liaison, Melissa, field trips are happening again. Within days of being hired, she was at the Extreme Fun Center with about 60 people for a few hours of fun. A trip to Carrs in Anchorage showed kids how a store runs behind the scenes and they even got a lesson in rolling sushi. And there is a lot more in the works! We are going to the Anchorage Museum this spring, and there’s already an overnight trip to the Alaska SeaLife Center on the books for next spring. Melissa is also working on a sealife cruise this fall.
Lastly, but most importantly, we welcomed a new little one into our Eagle River family. Cortney and her husband Jack welcomed a baby boy on March 15th; he weighed 9 lbs 2 oz. and was 20.5 inches long. The whole family is smitten with the newest addition.
Battle of the Books
Eagle River Book Battlers did a fabulous job all year long, reading and meeting and quizzing, (OH MY!). James K. (9th grade), Ruthie M. (10th grade), and Corbin S. (10th grade) were the trio that made up our terrific team. The students met on a regular basis and read about 2 books per month. Our meetings would consist of riveting discussions about their likes and dislikes of each literary piece. After our book chats, we then would quiz the kids using the questions from the Battle of the Books website. Their comprehension skills are commendable, to say the least. The team made a valiant effort winning the championship at the district level competing against Anchorage and Minto. This victory advanced them to the state competition level where they had fun in the first round and that is where their journey ended. "Most of the books were good," commented Ruthie. Corbin said, "I really enjoyed being a part of a team and laughing together." James agreed with the above comments and then added..." I liked the snacks." Spoken like a true teen.
Student Recognition - Elijah
Fairbanks Office:
January
Children’s Museum Magnet Workshop
Students were able to experiment with magnets of varying strengths and sizes. They were able to learn how a compass is like a magnet and how the opposite poles of magnets will attract each other. Stations were set up for students to run experiments to see which items were magnetic, what the varying strengths of magnets could hold, and what happens when the same poles of a magnet face each other. Upon completion of the workshop, participants could have free play in the Children’s Museum.
Share Square
The Fairbanks Raven Office began a new monthly event in January called Share Square. During this event, students are given the opportunity to practice their public speaking skills. A set of predetermined topics are given each month for the students to choose from. On the last Friday of the month, students present their chosen topic to an audience of their peers.
February
Great Harvest Bread Co.
Tricia, the owner of Great Harvest Bread Co. in Fairbanks allowed our students to get a behind the scenes look at her bakery. The students learned the anatomy of a kernel of wheat, how grain is ground in the shop and how bakers can cook large quantities of goods. Each participant was able to roll out and design their own bread. Once the bread was baked, it was available for pick up later in the day. The teenagers that participated were even offered a job!
Open Gym
We are able to rent gymnasium time from one of our local elementary schools. Students can engage in free play, running, playground games, or pick-up games of basketball. This is a great opportunity for students to move freely without wearing snow gear and enjoy recreational activities that are often put on hold due to the snow.
March
Dr. Seuss Birthday Party
We kicked off National Reading Month by celebrating Dr. Suess’ Birthday. The Fairbanks Raven Office hosted a small lunch, book swap, story time and Dr. Suess inspired crafts and games. It was great to see the students gathered around the book swap table to decide which new-to-them book they would take home. Our Raven families outdid themselves with book donations!
Cookie Bake-Off
We hosted an in-house Cookie Bake-Off in which our culinary savvy students could compete for the chance to represent the Raven office at the Annual Homeschool Golden Heart Cookie Championships. The recipes presented were most impressive! There were hearted shaped Linzer cookies, velvety macaroons, thumbprint cookies with homemade jam, decadent death by chocolate cookies, maple pecan cookies and so much more! The students really outdid themselves! They were able to work on their public speaking skills while answering any questions the judges had about their creations.
We are happy to announce our finalists: Leah, Steller and Madison. They will go on to represent the Fairbanks Raven office at the Golden Heart Cookie Championships. Congratulations to Stella for winning the cookie contest!
Student Recognition:
Cheyenne S.-M.
Cheyenne was a new student to Raven in the 20-21 academic year. She came to us as a 12th grader with the hope of getting her diploma by having the flexibility to not have to be in a classroom setting. She was a single mom of a baby girl, which meant she was a full-time working mother. Raven was able to provide her the academic support and flexibility she needed. This academic year, Cheyenne became a hard-working single momma to two girls. As you know, this proved to be a huge challenge, but Cheyenne didn’t give up. She knew her diploma was important for hers and her daughter’s future success. Together we kept in touch on a weekly basis to set goals and readjust plans. I am so pleased to say that Cheyenne’s hard work and perseverance paid off as she earned her high school diploma with Raven in January of 2022. I am so very proud of her and would like to nominate Cheyenne for school board recognition.
Peyton K.
Peyton was a new student to Raven in the 20-21 academic year. During her 8th grade year with us, Peyton had a lot of adversities thrown her way, including moving a couple of times and having to go into a treatment facility. Through all her trials and tribulations Raven Homeschool was a constant for her. She thrived with Acellus and the support and flexibility we were able to give her. This academic year as a freshman Peyton has been nothing less than a Rockstar. She has already completed 9.75 credits and I anticipate in the next couple of weeks she will be finished with her current load which will put her at a whopping 10.5 credits (all of which are A’s and B’s) with over a quarter of school left to go! Peyton is hoping to graduate early and go onto beauty school. I have no doubt with her high work ethic and determination to rise above that she will reach her goals. For such hard work with academic excellence, I would like to nominate Peyton for school board recognition.
Kendall S.
Great Harvest Bread Company Field Trip
Great Harvest Bread Company Field Trip
Great Harvest Bread Company Field Trip
Leah G. Cookie Contest
Madison K. Cookie Contest
Stellar G. Cookie Contest
Juneau Office:
January, February, and March have flown by in a whirlwind of activities, events, re-enrollment, packing, moving, and unpacking. We are very thankful to be settled into our new office, and to now have more space for activities. Our superintendent visited our office with one of our School Board members for a quick tour while they were in town and both were impressed with our new setup. We are also looking forward to our Open House event to show our families around our new space.
Students from all the Raven offices got to visit a number of locations inside and outside of Alaska through an assortment of excellent virtual activities organized by our family liaison. Two UAA professors taught students about engineering through the failure of a wind turbine in Nome, AK and various arctic coastal hazards. A Glacier Bay National Park ranger taught students about the uniqueness of cold water coral. We visited Joshua Tree National Park in CA to learn about geology through rocks and minerals located there. Students got to travel to Longwood Gardens in PA to study about a plant’s life and to Indiana Dunes National Park to do some incredible bird watching. We learned about historic presidential inaugurations during a virtual trip to Washington, DC, and the impacts of WWII from the National Army Museum. In preparation for the Iditarod, we got to meet author and former musher Shelley Gill who told our students many stories about her experiences and encouraged them to follow their dreams. Our virtual activities even took us as far away from Alaska as Australia for Creative Chemistry with Fizzics Education and Talk with an Aussie which were both very popular with the students.
Our in-person activities have been popular as well, especially since the relaxing of the local Covid mandates. Math Club continued to meet monthly for middle school students to have fun together with mathematical concepts. Each Monday, students joined with their peers for Marvelous Monday activities that included a variety of art projects, coding, robots, racing, puzzles, and so much more. The last week of January was jam-packed with National School Choice Week which featured Raven students in the Kickoff video, The Great Kindness Challenge, the district Battle of the Books battles, a quarterly Raven-wide Parent Meeting, and the January Parent Book Club meeting. Morning Mug Book Club continues to meet monthly, and we are having a great time getting to know each other better as we read and discuss different books each month. Our K-2nd BOB team took first place for our district, as well as our Middle School team who also continued on to tie for 8th place in the state battles. We are very proud of all the hard work that our students did preparing for the competition this year. Our annual Valentine’s Exchange had the largest participation of any year since we started with 36 students making and exchanging cards and treats with one another. March featured the IditaRead Challenge with 44 students racing from Anchorage to Nome during our reading race. We even were able to have Family Movie Night again downtown at Goldtown Nickelodeon Theater which was a nice return to more normalcy.
High School Counselor Ryan visited our office both in January and March to meet with students, host workshops, and support families. Between the two visits, he met individually with over 30 students to talk specifically about their interests, progress toward graduation, class opportunities, future plans, scholarships, and more. Ryan organized a tour of the Juneau Labor Center, led an Intro to High School Workshop, participated in our Graduation Meeting, and traveled to Sitka with Joan to visit families living there also. We even got to celebrate two of our graduates living in Sitka through a small graduation ceremony there with family and friends. It was a really nice preview of more to come in May with our Juneau graduation ceremony.
Overall, this past quarter has been very full and we are looking forward to even more to come this spring. We encourage families to stay apprised of happenings by checking flyers sent out through email, being a part of our Facebook Group, viewing the online calendar, and attending our monthly PAC meetings. There are many avenues for giving us feedback and letting us know what opportunities interest you, so be sure to get involved and let us know what else you would like to see happening as we plan for this spring and plan ahead for the 22-23 school year.
Student Spotlight:
Karita A.
Karita got the "High Viz" award from the Middle School Juneau Nordic Ski Team for her bright personality and how she lit up the trails everywhere she went! She didn't go to the Buckwheat race, but she did help Anika with her Athena costume - the theme this year was Toga!Toga!Toga!
Nordic Ski Team
Anika, Megyn, and Karita had a great Nordic ski season with the Juneau Nordic Ski Team. This was Anika's first year with the Middle School Team - she practiced and raced all around Juneau and even went to Log Cabin, BC to participate in the Buckwheat Ski Classic race. Anika worked on setting goals and achieved each one - even exceeding her own expectations! She raised money and skied 20 K for the Communi-ski event--her original goal was 12 K! At the end of the season banquet, she was awarded the "Most Likely to Achieve those Goals" award. Megyn participated in the elementary program with weekly nordic lessons and had a fantastic time making new friends and being active on the Campground and Eaglecrest trails. She also participated in the Communi-ski event and skied 10 K!
Anika. L
Ben and Anika both did the 10k race at Buckwheat. It was a tough race, but Anika pulled out a W over Ben! It sounded quite exciting. Apparently, Anika had quicker access to her timing stick to turn in! The best part was that they did it together. Karita also did an awesome job making sure that Anika was stylin' with her costume!
Megyn L.
For her piano recital, Megyn played, "Romantic Flight" by John Powell, from the movie "How to Train Your Dragon." Megyn is also back swimming with the Glacier Swim Club and working towards their annual Aqualaps event where she will swim at least 75 lengths of the pool!
Morning Mug Parent Book Club
Visit with Superintendent, Kerry Boyd
Graduation Meeting
Marvelous Monday: K-2
Marvelous Monday: 3-5
Marvelous Monday: 6-8
Wasilla Office:
In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb
By Lorie Hill
March roars in like a lion
So fierce,
The wind so cold,
It seems to pierce.
The month rolls on
And Spring draws near,
And March goes out
Like a lamb so dear.
We started the new year off with a wild windstorm here in the Valley and are happy that March didn’t actually “roar in like a lion”! This Month’s highlights included Games Club, Bowling Club, Skiing, and the American Sign Language Club. Students also enjoyed making beaded bracelets at the ARTiculate Workshop.
January’s Culinary Cook-Off Results: Wasilla students brought some very tasty chili to the Chili Cook-Off! Our hopeful competitors came to the office carrying crockpots of chili and the dream of winning a title. The visiting judges voted on first and second place; and there was a People’s Choice winner as well. Much to the crowd’s amusement, the young man (well, he and his brother; they were a team) who won the People’s Choice, loudly exclaimed, “People’s Choice means that we had the best chili! There are more people voting then judges!”
In addition to the regular monthly clubs, Athaliah taught a Handwriting Bootcamp, which turned out to be quite popular, and Steve taught the Cursive Handwriting Bootcamp. We will offer both of these workshops again next year as there seems to be a lot of interest in them. Some students took the opportunity to sharpen their math skills by participating in Wasilla math help & tutoring workshops offered by Bridget.
February was SWEET in Wasilla. For the February Culinary Cook-Off we held a Cupcake Bake-Off with tasty treats! Families also took part in our Valentine’s Party, which coincided with our Scholastic Book Fair! This year’s Book Fair brought so many new interesting reads that our office gnomes were seen sneaking off to explore the titles, and more than one was spotted absconding with Book Fair goodies.
For March, we hosted a Pasta Cook-Off, Test Prep Workshops, Crafternoon art time, and an Alice in Wonderland-themed Tea Party! Fun was had by young and old(er) alike at the tea party. Students dressed in their best Wonderland Tea Party attire. We had Mad Hatters, the White Rabbit, Alices, The Queen of Hearts, the Cheshire Cat, and more dashing gentlemen and beautiful ladies in attendance. There were amazing, scrumptious, fairytale cupcakes baked and decorated by our very own Wasilla Raven parent, Brittini – check out the photos! Parents Laura and Shay led students in some new games that the kiddos enjoyed playing. The Tea also offered a fun Wonderland-themed photo backdrop for pictures.
Our Wasilla Raven office is rocking re-enrollment and leading the Raven offices with 502 students ready to finish strong and soar into next year!