• A Sports Basket, an Arts and Crafts Basket, and a LEGO Basket were this year’s raffle prizes for a fundraiser hosted by the PTO. The lucky winners were Natalie and Armen Khatchadourian, June Aprahamian, and Bradley Bickart. The raffle drawing took place online on November 5.

• Our PTO also sold fun fall activity kits to raise funds. The activity kits included a clay pumpkin, a dish painting kit, play dough, a customizable picture frame, and much more.

• Each preschool student received a special face mask, compliments of PTO. Additional Merdinian face masks are available for purchase at $10 each. The face mask is designed with the Armenian flag and the first 3 letters of our Aypupen.

• Sourj anyone? Coffee is better when we drink it while raising funds.

Our PTO has organized another fundraiser by selling coffee and coffee sets from Henry’s House of Coffee, which is an Armenian owned coffee company based in San Francisco.

The founder of the company is the Kalebjian family, who has been roasting coffee since 1965 in Northern California. We read the following on their website. “For us coffee is more than a business venture, it’s a part of our heritage.”

PTO has offered four different coffee/gift sets to choose from. Merdinian will receive 50 percent of the proceeds of the coffee sales and 25 percent of the gift set sales.

The fundraiser will end on December 4.

To whom it may concern,

My name is Jacob Yeghishian, and I am 10 years old. I attend a Christian Armenian school, and after attending this school for about 6 years, I have learned a lot about Armenia over time. I learned about the Armenians and how brave they are. I also learned how they would sacrifice their lives for their country. Since I live in Los Angeles, I try to read, speak, and write Armenian as much as I can to keep the legacy of Armenia and pass it on. In the past few weeks, something tragic happened to my home country; Azerbaijan and Artsakh went into war. This made me sad because of what Armenia has already gone through. What really makes me sad though are the Armenian soldiers putting their lives on the line and sometimes losing their lives for their country but also the poor children losing their homes and losing their parents. For what all is going on, I just ask for everyone in the world, to understand the horrible things happening in Artsakh. While a lot of us are sitting in our warm homes, there are soldiers dying and children losing their parents. Even the president of Artsakh was fighting and putting his life on the line. I mean that is what you call a good leader. My parents always told me to be a good example of Armenia. Right now is the perfect time for people who don’t live in Armenia but want to help, to get together and donate money. Remember many families have lost their loved ones, and this needs to stop right now. That is why everyone should donate because every dollar counts; you can be saving multiple lives just by donating money. I pray every night that God protects all the soldiers and families in Artsakh or anywhere else and I think you should too.

Jacob Yeghishian

Facing the challenging demands of distance learning and online instructions, our faculty and staff have been participating in on-going professional development webinars suggested by the school.

Mrs. Carmen Bezerdjian, our third grade homeroom teacher attended the webinar titled, Develop Growth Mindset in Mathematics to Increase Students’ Perseverance, Engagement, and Success.

Mr. Fred Sayadian, our computer teacher attended Distance Learning: Strengthening Online Science Instruction.

Mrs. Lina Arslanian, our principal and Mrs. Betty Nazarian, our curriculum director attended the following webinars:

• Leading Learning from a Distance: Creating and Maintaining School Climate and Professional Learning for Adults

• Leading Learning from a Distance: Instructional Supervision - A Framework for Distance Learning

• Leading Learning from a Distance: Mindframes for Leaders

• Supporting Your Teachers in Effective Online Instruction (Part 1 & 2)

Our faculty participated in the following webinars:

• Distance Learning Playbook: Engagement in Any Setting

• Distance Learning Playbook: Planning Learning

• Distance Learning Playbook: Feedback and Assessing

• Teaching in the Online Classroom (Part 1 & 2)

Additionally, a few teachers participated in numerous webinars of their choice including use of Google Classroom and various educational applications they utilize in their classrooms during remote learning.

Natelle Ezadjian, 7th grader, got inspired by the young couple who tied the knot in Shushi’s Ghazantchetosts during the war

There are over 1500 national days in America, and November 18 was Mickey Mouse’s National Day to celebrate his 92nd birthday.

Merdinian students took part in this celebration with Mickey Mouse’s spirit day. The students wore their Mickey Mouse t-shirts, hats, and headbands instead of their regular school uniforms.

Mickey Mouse was created after a modification of Walt Disney’s Oswald the Rabbit. The first Mickey Mouse film, “The Bad Concert” was released in 1935.