Friday, Feb 25 at 11:30pm - Whole-School Community Circle

Saturday, Feb 26 at 9:00am  - Monthly Governing Board Meeting 

Saturday, Feb 26 at 11:30am  - Open House

Friday, Feb 18 from 1:30-6pm - Monkey Joes NJHS Fundraiser

Saturday, March 26 at 11:00am  - Verizon Fun Walk

Check out all upcoming events on our website calendar.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. We are very excited to be able to honor the teachers and staff of Amana Academy with the new and improved lounge space (pictured on the left). 

Amana's Partners' In Education (PIE), along with the administration, spent the last three months fundraising, planning, soliciting donations and shopping to redesign the teachers' lounge. Our dedicated parents painted the walls, built new cabinets, purchased new tables and chairs, mounted wall décor and more!  All of their special decorating touches reflected the Amana spirit and we are indeed grateful for the hard work and effort that the PIE put into this project.  A very special thank you to Hala Al Bahloul, Shaheen Bharde, Khadeejah Farooq, and all of the parents, alumni and students who helped during the last Hands on Amana event.  This is a "teacher appreciation" gift that will keep on giving for years to come! 

Amana students are participating in the St. Jude Hospital Math-a-Thon again this year.   Last year we raised over $4000 for to benefit the children at St. Jude Hospital!  Please visit the web site for more information at St. Jude at www.stjude.org and www.mathathon.org to learn about the amazing research being done to diagnose, prevent and cure pediatric cancer.  This week, your student/s brought home a program envelope with instructions.  On the front of the envelope is a permission slip asking if they can participate in the fundraising activities.  On the back of the envelope are the prizes they can claim depending on how much money they raise. 

We do not recommend door to door solicitation; rather we suggest students ask relatives and family friends for donations.  Regardless of whether they participate in the fundraiser or not, all students will have the opportunity to complete the Math-a-Thon book.  It is an excellent review for the upcoming CRCT.  The Math-a-Thon book will be collected by the homeroom teacher on Friday, March 8, 2011.  Donation envelopes will be collected on Friday, March 15, 2011.  We thank you in advance for your support of this noble cause!

Amana's NJHS members go the extra mile to boost their leadership skills!  This past weekend, 11 Amana NJHS students went an extra 760 miles to represent Amana at the NASSP LEAD Conference held Chicago, IL, Feb. 18-21.   

During the conference, student NJHS members joined nearly 2000 students from across the country to network, and participate in sessions that focused on improving their public speaking, time management, communication, and community outreach skills.  They also learned  from nationally recognized keynote speakers how to think and act like leaders and gained tangible skills that they will carry forward throughout their high school, college and professional careers.  For more information about the NASSP's LEAD Conference, visit the LEAD webpage.  

Student delegates also enjoyed a day of sightseeing in downtown Chicago.  They visited the world famous Willis Tower Sky Deck, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Navy Pier and Michigan Avenue's Magnificent Mile!

Congratulations to our NJHS student representatives:  Nicholas Otranto, Uzar Okebalama, Abdullah Budeir, Muhammad Hajaj, Ibraheem Budeir, Shakiba Shirazi, Sarah Dhrif, Maya Diab, Maryam Jaleel, Sarah Ghalayini, and Tanya Panwala.  Many thanks to advisors Jean Jacques Credi, Peter Epstein and Merry Herdt as well as our dedicated chaperones Nada Diab, Carlos Otranto and Lemiya Alexander for making this wonderful experience possible for our students!

If you are the parent of a TAG student at Amana and you did not receive the emailed February TAG newsletter, please send your new/changed email address to Mary Jo Malowney to update and receive all newsletters.  Thank you!

The Arabic Department wishes to announce the upcoming FLAG World Languages Competition.  Amana students in grades 6-8 will soon have the opportunity to demonstrate their Arabic language proficiency!  The deadline to register for this contest is March 18^th.  Students will be notified of their eligibility by our Arabic Department in the coming week.  Educators are increasingly hearing from our colleagues in higher education that language study is among the most important criteria in determination of college and university admission, so we encourage all eligible students to take advantage of this exciting opportunity!

Be sure to visit the Amana Academy website on a regular basis for the latest information.

Do you still need to order your child a 2010-2011 Amana Academy yearbook, but you keep forgetting your checkbook?  Now you can order it online with your Visa or MasterCard.  The price is $30 per copy.  Please click here to the secure online ordering page at Entourage Yearbooks, Amana's yearbook vendor.  You must order by March 15th to ensure your child will receive their copy before the last day of school.  All yearbooks will be shipped to the school and then distributed in May.

Our next Open House is Saturday February 26th at 11:30 am.  A general information session will be followed by a campus tour.  Prospective parents will meet the Executive Director, Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Director of Student Services, faculty and staff.  Administrators, students and alumni accompany each tour.

Click here to view the Open House flier; and please be sure to share this information with others you know who are interested in learning more about Amana.   

Help Amana reach its Box Tops earnings' goal this year!  Search your cupboards, refrigerator and freezer for all the Box Tops you have in your kitchen.  Then send them to school in a sealed baggie/envelope on or before this Friday, February 25^th (collection box located in the front office).  This will give our PIE Fundraising coordinator time to collect, count and mail in our Box Tops before the February 28^th cutoff date.  Thank you for your continued support!

It costs you nothing except participation!  Listed on Amana's Indirect Fundraising page are the various ways you can help.  Schools the size of Amana often generate thousands of dollars a year by fully participating in indirect fundraising programs. REMEMBER - start participating NOW!  The potential for Amana is fantastic. T hese programs operate all year round and anyone can participate.  So pass the word on to friends, neighbors and relatives! If you have any questions, please contact our school Fundraising Chair, Mary Bass.

We are very fortunate to have the Verizon Fun Walk coming to our school on March 26th at 11am as a result of our parents who are Verizon employees. This is an excellent health-promoting fundraising opportunity for our school, as Verizon will match up to $10,000 in donations. 

We will send out more information regarding the Fun Walk in the coming weeks.  In the meantime ask your friends and family to make a pledge and participate!  All of the money that is collected for this event will support our future STEM Education initiatives.  

Your support in this endeavor in getting as many people signed up as possible will be greatly appreciated!

Seventh graders have been glued to CNN, NPR, etc. watching current events unfold before them in the areas of the world they are learning about now: Africa and the Middle East. They are fascinated to watch daily updates about countries in their books such as the Sudan, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya... We are conducting case studies on these areas as our studies take us through the continent of Africa and see how these events relate to reoccuring themes such as colonialism, racism, nationalism, civil war, protest and more.  Maya Diab exclaimed, "It is cool to see history happening before our eyes!"