Pursue Excellence Issue No. 4: December 2020

December was a festive month for Merdinian as we prepared for the birth of Jesus! During Chapel every Monday in December, students had the opportunity to share their talents by singing and sharing Christmas carols through Flipgrid, an app used to pre-record "grids" and share safely within our school's users. Students said their goodbyes to their teachers and to each other with a celebratory Christmas sweater spirit day on December 22nd, before they took off for their Christmas break.

The highlight of the day was the Christmas assembly at 2:15, when the students logged in to our assembly room for the much anticipated surprise, which was a video clip of faculty and staff presenting the "All I Want For Christmas Is You" video production. The video presentation was edited and produced by Ari Ekmekjian, our Religion Department Chair, Lena Ekmekjian’s, oldest son. Teachers and staff participated with festive selfie clips of lip synchronization. The production incorporated clips of the previous year’s teachers' dance performance as well. “Students enjoyed watching it, and some of them even had tears in their eyes,” said our principal. Teachers and staff are anxiously looking forward to having the students back in their classrooms. We hope they have their wish come true soon!

After the surprise assembly for the students, it was the turn of the teachers and staff for their surprise. At 3:30, our principal along with Mrs. Hasmig Douzjian, Ms. Sandra Bessos, Mrs. Mariam Petrossian, Mr. Fred Sayadian, and Mr. Tomas greeted the teachers in the drive-through area of the parking lot to hand them their Christmas surprises on behalf of the Board of Directors, Administration, and parents.

It was a bitter sweet moment. All exchanged their Christmas wishes and expressed hope for better days to come.

Online Voting To Elect Student Council

2020 was an election year in the United States. However, elections take place every year at Merdinian, where students vote for the Student Council members during the first semester.

Fundraisers for Armenia, Monarch spirit days, crazy hair day, Middle School dance, bake sale, and many other events and activities were promised by the candidates during their speech campaign on Google Meet on December 3.

The following day, the students completed their ballots to vote. The same day the winners were announced. The 2020-2021 Merdinian Student Council cabinet consists of:

President: Anthony Aywazian, 8th

Vice-President: Ella Kiramichyan, 7th

Secretary: Natalie Khatchadourian, 6th

Treasurer: Jacob Yeghishian, 5th

Congratulations and best wishes for a successful year!

“I excel” or IXL, in the world of education, is a math & language arts practice subscription-based website for K-12. It is an assessment tool that identifies challenge areas allowing teachers to get specific information on each student in order to help differentiate instruction and focus on individual student needs. It has unlimited questions on thousands of topics and a comprehensive reporting system. IXL offers a 45-minute assessment tool, and the results from the data provide a personalized recommendation for each student. It is used by 400,000 teachers worldwide, according to sources.

DIBELS, The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills is a set of procedures and measures for assessing the acquisition of early literacy skills. They are designed to be short assessment tools used to monitor the development of early reading skills.

Merdinian has adopted IXL and DIBELS as assessment tools.

DIBELS assessments for Language Arts were administered at the end of the 1st semester for kindergarten through fifth grades and IXL assessments for Mathematics were administered to the elementary and middle school students. During the last three days of the first semester, the middle school students took their midterm exams as well.

We thank our December chapel guests:

• Mrs. Anahit Hokhikyan, a Pediatric Nurse and a Merdinian parent who shared stories from her recent visit volunteering in Armenia

• Dr. Mariet Shanazarian, Director of Children's Ministry at the United Armenian Congregational Church (UACC) and a Merdinian Board member

• Mr. Timothy Ketenjian, singer and song writer

Merdinian Preschool

This year, the Merdinian Preschool resumed differently. On August 24, all preschool families and children were greeted and welcomed by their teachers at various entry gates on school premises, all wearing masks.

It was different for everyone; children and teachers were not able to see each other’s full faces and facial expressions. However, through the teacher's loving voice and nurturing care, children transitioned and acclimated nicely into their new environment.

To ensure everyone's safety, as a team, we have done an excellent job in implementing and respecting the specific COVID guidelines. The Merdinian Administration is thankful to all the parents and the teachers for following these guidelines.

Our safe practice resulted in an increase in the number of preschool students. Thus, in January of 2021 we are planning to open another class to meet the needs of our community and interested parents.

We have also extended our license capacity. Merdinian is licensed now by the Department of Social Services to accommodate and service 104 children, an additional 30 students compared to the current capacity of 74.

"I thank the principal, Mrs. Arslanian for her continuous support and all the teachers for their hard work and willingness to go above and beyond to ensure fun learning experiences for our children," said Mrs. Marijan Kevorkian, our Preschool Director and Kindergarten teacher.