Girls on Ice is a unique, FREE, wilderness science education program for high school girls that takes place in the North Cascades in Washington state. Each year a team of 9 teenage girls and 3 instructors spend 11 days exploring and learning about mountain glaciers and the alpine landscape through scientific field studies with professional glaciologists, mountaineers and, some years, artists.

For more information visit http://girlsonice.org/about/

Mark your Calendars if you have a 5th grade or 7th grade student !!
Test Dates for TerraNova Testing are February 8-12th:

Monday Grade 5 Reading/LA  3:45 - 5:20
Tuesday Grade 5 Math  3:45 - 5:00
Wednesday Grade 7 Reading/LA 3:45 - 5:20
Thursday Grade 7 Math 3:45 - 5:00
Friday Make-up Test   3:30-5:30
  (both 5th and 7th grades combined)

These after school tests will be held in the PEAK office located at 4240 Old Seward Highway Suite 10 next to Chickabiddy Books. We will provide light snacks so kiddos will be at their best for testing.

 

All works samples, elective course journals, and quarterly online assessments for grades 3-10 are due on March 12th, 2010.  If you have not complied with Quarter 2 requirements, please take this time to get current and continue to be eligible for reimbursements.

This is a friendly reminder that 2nd Quarter Work Samples are due on December 17th.  Please be sure to complete Quarterly Progress Evaluations (Online or Printable Download off E-ducate) for grades 3rd-10th. 

Semester Grade Reports are also due on December 17th.  Log onto E-ducate, click on downloads, scroll down to the Semester Grade Report that suits your student(s) grade, print, and complete the form.

The Anchorage PEAK office will close December 17th at  4pm and reopen January 4th at 8am. 

Jim and Kelli wish your family a safe and enjoyable Christmas Holiday!

 The Denali PEAK offices will close at 2:00pm on Wednesday November 25 and will reopen on Monday November 30.  We wish you a happy and safe Thanksgiving!

The PEAK Office in Anchorage will be closed Monday November 2 and Tuesday November 3rd for inservice.  We will resume our regular office hours of 8am-4pm on Wednesday November 4th.

Thanks, and we will see you Wednesday!

The Anchorage office will be closed from 8:00 am until noon Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday October 6,7, and 8.  The office will be closed all day on Monday October 19.

 Several federally mandated notices are available for you to read in the downloads section of our website.  These documents include a No Child Left Behind cover letter, Family Education Rights Privacy Act notice, Pupil Privacy Rights Amendment, and a Right to Request Teacher Qualifications letter.

 Healy Office Hours:

Monday-Thursday 7am-4pm

Friday 8am-4pm

1-907-683-7325

Anchorage Office Hours:

Monday-Thursday 8am-4pm, 5pm by appointment

Friday 8am-4pm

1-877-683-7325

 The PEAK Handbook has been revised to reflect our new graduation requirements as set forth by the school board in May.  

 The fourth quarter ends this week.  If you haven't already done so please gather together and submit your 4th quarter work samples and class logs (journals).  For students in grades 3-10, please be sure to complete the quarterly progress evaluations online or in print format.

The end of fourth quarter is rapidly approaching.  Although the actual end of quarter date is May 28 and you have a window of a couple of weeks to turn in work samples, course journals and quarterly progress evaluations, we encourage you to consider turning materials in soon if you're wrapping up your year (if not, don't worry).  Jim's last day for the year is May 27.  Cindy's last day is May 29.  The Anchorage office will be closed From June 1 - June 17 and will reopen on Thursday June 18.  Summer hours will be Monday - Friday 9:00 - 5:00.  The Anchorage office will be staffed with a secretary until Jim's return on July 13.  Although the state allows parents to assign grades for students in grades K-8, a certified teacher must assign grades for high school students. There won't be any teachers available to evaluate work samples or assign grades between May 30 and July 12, so if you have a high school student who needs transcripts they must have all materials in by May 22 so we will have time look them over.  Students using pre-packaged curricula (Global Student Network, BYU, etc) that assign grades don't have to worry about turning materials in for teachers to evaluate.

Next year there will be staffing changes in the Anchorage office.  We will be hiring a full time secretary to help with administrative tasks.  Unfortunately we're losing a teacher.  Cindy is moving back to Anderson and will be teaching a multi-age K-5 classroom. Although we'll miss her dearly, her passion lies in the classroom.  She's excited about returning to her former classroom but will miss working with the many fantastic families we have in our program.

The deadline for reimbursement requests is April 15.  If you will incur educational expenses between April 15 and June 30, please prepay those expenses and submit a receipt, or ask the vendor for an invoice and submit that as a requisition for payment.

Please remember that in accordance with state law we cannot process reimbursements if you are not in compliance with PEAK's program requirements.  This includes regular contact with PEAK staff, quarterly work samples/logs, quarterly progress evaluations in math & reading (grades 3-10), semester one grade reports, and participation in state mandated testing in April.

Whether you’re a veteran mac user or new to the platform you’re apt to learn something new from Apple’s “Find Out How” video tutorials.  These are focused, bite-sized videos providing excellent how-to information.  Check them out at http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/

Another resource worth checking out if you want to learn the basics about the Mac OS is Mac 101, located at: http://www.apple.com/support/mac101.

Please remember that when you submit semester grade reports you are reporting on your child’s progress in their PEAK homeschool courses, not for any private school courses in which they may also be enrolled. According to state regulations only a certified teacher can assign grades for high school classes. PEAK staff rely heavily on parent submitted grade reports when determining a high school student’s grade, but must ultimately base their decision on the work samples submitted. If there are only a few samples to evaluate, a grade of incomplete will appear on a transcript should one be requested.

Just a reminder…the default password for the denalipeak user account on all laptops is “peak” (no quotation marks).  The password for the online quarterly progress evaluations is also “peak.” There are no pre-defined usernames.  Students just type their first/last name and the session ID for the test they need to take.