Week 8: 09/30/13 – 10/04/13

Here’s our week at a glance:

Monday, September 30

Tuesday, October 1st
1st Grade Field Trip to Safety Town
3rd Grade Field Trip to Goebbert’s
Happy Birthday Sarah Sicher 🙂 

Wednesday, October 2nd
SLC/SLBC Outing to Super Low
TAPS Common Plan

Thursday, October 3rd
SLT Meeting @ 3:00pm

Friday, October 4th
Fall Picture Day <–click for schedule
Happy Birthday Stephanie Alessi 🙂
Happy Birthday Patricia Shastri 🙂

(10/05) Happy Birthday Barbara Brzozowska 🙂
(10/06) Happy Birthday Anna Gabriel 🙂 (Green Bus)

Article worth reading: To The Teachers Already Tired…

Week 7: 09/23/13 – 09/27/13

Here’s our week at a glance:

Monday, September 23rd
Happy Birthday Amanda Peterson 🙂

Tuesday, September 24th
Faculty Meeting @ 2:30pm
Happy Birthday Britney Taylor 🙂
Happy Birthday Lorena Esqueda 🙂 

Wednesday, September 25th
CCSS Common Plan: Assessment
Happy Birthday Marta Ocon 🙂 

Thursday, September 26th
PreK & PATS Field Trip to Brookfield Zoo
Happy Birthday Nicole Duffy 🙂 

Friday, September 27th
Spirit Assembly @ 9am (Friendship)

09/29 Happy Birthday Stefanie Widmaier 🙂

Week 6: 09/16/13 – 09/20/13

Here’s our week at a glance:

Monday, September 16th
Cycle 1 Common Assessments this week
Happy Birthday Jody (orange bus driver) 🙂

Tuesday, September 17th

Wednesday, September 18th
SLC/SLBC Outing to Schiller Park Library
CCSS: Curriculum Common Plan
Board Meeting @ 7:00pm

Thursday, September 19th
SLT Meeting @ 3:00pm
Happy Birthday Roger Pape 🙂 

Friday, September 20th
Reading Room Plan
Happy Birthday Michelle McMorrow 🙂

(09/21) Happy Birthday Bridget Elliott 🙂

“Here’s to teachers that see the awesome. What are you going to teach the world? This is for teacher’s everywhere. We gotta make the world awesome!” 

A Sandy Hook Parent’s Letter to Teachers

Article written by Nelba Marquez-Greene

As another school year begins and old routines settle back into place, I wanted to share my story in honor of the teachers everywhere who care for our children.

I lost my 6-year-old daughter Ana Grace on Dec. 14, 2012, in the rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School. My son, who was in the building and heard the shooting, survived.

While waiting in the firehouse that day to hear the official news that our daughter was dead, my husband and I made promises to ourselves, to each other, and to our son. We promised to face the future with courage, faith, and love.

As teachers and school employees begin this new year, my wish for you is that same courage, faith, and love.

It takes guts to be a teacher. Six brave women gave their lives trying to protect their students at Sandy Hook. Other teachers were forced to run from the building, stepping over the bodies of their friends and colleagues, and they came right back to work.

When I asked my son’s teacher why she returned, she responded, “Because they are my kids. And my students need me now more than ever.” She sent daily updates on my son’s progress, from his behavior to what he’d eaten for lunch. And four months later, when my son finally smiled one day after school, I asked him about it. His response? “Mom. My teacher is so funny. I had an epic day.”

While I pray you will never find yourself in the position of the teachers at Sandy Hook, your courage will support students like my son, who have lived through traumas no child should have to.

Your courage will support students who are left out and overlooked, like the isolated young man who killed my daughter. At some point he was a young, impressionable student, often sitting all alone at school. You will have kids facing long odds for whom your smile, your encouraging word, and your willingness to go the extra mile will provide the comfort and security they need to try again tomorrow.

When you Google “hero,” there should be a picture of a principal, a school lunch worker, a custodian, a reading specialist, a teacher, or a bus monitor. Real heroes don’t wear capes. They work in America’s schools.

Being courageous requires faith. It took faith to go back to work at Sandy Hook after the shooting. Nobody had the answers or knew what would come tomorrow, but they just kept going. Every opportunity you have to create welcoming environments in our schools where parents and students feel connected counts.

Have faith that your hard work is having a profound impact on your students. Of the 15,000 personal letters I received after the shooting, only one stays at my bedside. It’s from my high school English teacher, Robert Buckley.

But you can’t be courageous or step out on faith without a deep love for what you do.

Parents are sending their precious children to you this fall. Some will come fully prepared, and others not. They will come fed and with empty bellies. They will come from intact homes and fractured ones. Love them all.

When my son returned to school in January, I thought I was going to lose my mind. Imagine the difficulty in sending your surviving child into a classroom when you lost your baby in a school shooting. We sent him because we didn’t want him to be afraid.

We sent him because we wanted him to understand that while our lives would never be the same, our lives still needed to move forward.

According to the 2011-12 National Survey of Children’s Health, nearly half of America’s children will have suffered at least one childhood trauma before the age of 18. They need your love.

A few weeks before the shooting, Ana Grace and I shared a special morning. Lunches were packed and clothes were picked out the night before, so we had extra time to snuggle. And while I lay in bed with my beautiful caramel princess, she sensed that I was distracted and asked, “What’s the matter, Mom?” I remember saying to her, “Nothing, baby. It’s just work.” She looked at me for a very long time with a thoughtful stare, then she told me, “Don’t let them suck your fun circuits dry, Mom.”

As you begin this school year, remember Ana Grace. Walk with courage, with faith, and with love. And don’t let them suck your fun circuits dry.

Week 5: 09/09/13 – 09/13/13

Here’s our week at a glance:

Monday, September 9th
Book Fair Begins
SLT Meeting (Re-Schedule) @ 2:30pm
Happy Birthday Karen Niewinski 🙂 

Tuesday, September 10th
AXA Rep in Faculty Lounge
Faculty Meeting  @ 2:30pm <–click for agenda

Wednesday, September 11th
1/2 Day (agenda will be emailed)
Happy Birthday Jaime Bolognone 🙂
Happy Birthday Beatriz Diaz 🙂

Thursday, September 12th
Curriculum Night 6:00pm-7:30pm

Friday, September 13th
Lunch with SPEA Co-Presidents in Lounge

(09/15) Happy Birthday Blanche Dougal-Kane 🙂

*If you have a website that you frequently use on your iPads, you can add the link to your home screen (to make it look like an app) to get to it quicker. Watch this video clip to find out how.

*A reflective blog post on homework

Some Curriculum Night Ideas from Pinterest:

     

Week 4: 09/02/13 – 09/06/13

From Venspired:

“You cannot walk into a discussion about education and not hear the word ‘standard’ mentioned at least 16,432 times. I may be exaggerating, but the focus on Common Core, on rigor, on assessing students’ knowledge has become the entire discussion. What about kids? What about guiding them to think about others? What about helping them understand that they can make a difference? This quote sums up everything about education. We want our students to excel academically. We support them in learning to read, write, and problem solve. We want them to do well in their studies, to achieve standards, to reach goals. But beyond that….Do good. We want that too. Even more importantly, we need to guide learning experiences so that students can have the opportunity to want it. Inspire them. I’m not saying standards aren’t important, but standards won’t change the world. Our kids will.”

Here’s our week at a glance:

Monday, September 2nd
NO SCHOOL: Labor Day

Tuesday, September 3rd
Mentor Meeting @ 3:45pm

Wednesday, September 4th
10:30am SLC/SLBC Outing
CCSS Common Plan Time

Thursday, September 5th
SLT Meeting @ 3:00pm

Friday, September 6th
5 by Friday!

(09/08) Happy Birthday Bailey Stenzel 🙂 

The start of the school year is the best time to begin building positive relationships with our families, too! I encourage you to meet our goal of 5 positive contacts by Friday over the next few weeks (phone calls, post cards, notes home, etc). Let’s remember our goal for the 2013-2014 school year….to make sure that 100% of our parents experience communication/contact with their child’s teacher prior to the November conferences: