The Hawk Happenings: Pennoyer Staff Newsletter

Hawk Thoughts & Happenings

Team Pennoyer,

When the week starts out with a Monday of making cookies and sweets or getting a HIIT workout in with music all around, you know you're off to a good start! I had so much fun seeing our staff connect and celebrate a little with each other this past week. I can't thank Katherine and Alicia enough for leading the way and helping to make these types of staff meetings happen. I hope these times where we can just hang out, unwind, and support each other are meaningful for all of you and a helpful way to stay positive and charged up to take on the day to day ups and downs of being an educator. It's not easy doing what we do and at the level we do it at, so I think these moments and opportunities are important. We'll definitely try and work more of these types of staff meetings into the future.

Well, as we move into this weekend, I hope everyone that cares about it, enjoys the Super Bowl on Sunday! It's not the teams I wanted to see there (I was hoping for the 49ers and the Bengals), but whether you have Squares you've purchased with money riding on the results of each quarter, you have some good food planned out to nibble on, you can't wait for Rihanna's half time show, or you just want to see the commercials that cost millions of dollars to make for a 30 second slot, I wish you all the best, and hope you find time to enjoy yourself and relax.

Finally, I want to welcome Ivana Jonic, mom of our 7th grader Milan, to our Pennoyer family. Ivana has been hired to take on the open Media Center Specialist position in our LRC. We're so excited to have her with us. Please make her feel welcome if you see her next week. Her first day is on Monday, February 13th and her hours will be from 9am-2:30pm Monday-Friday. We will be opening the LRC back up to classes officially the following week most likely. We just want to give Ivana time to learn the system and her job responsibilities. You can certainly bring students down on your own if you'd like to use the space next week as long as it's not being used during Reading intervention times or when Mr. Smith is here to teach Math 1. Thanks for your understanding and patience as we get this special space up and running again at Pennoyer. We're excited!

*Just a heads up that I will be out of town on Thursday, February 16th and Friday, February 17th next week. Rachel and Alicia will be around to support our students and staff.

Hawk Action Items

West 40 is coming to do a Compliance Check and Health Life/Safety Walk on February 15th at our school. Just a reminder to take care of anything in your spaces that fall under the compliance list before February 15th next week. These are common things that often need to be cleaned up and altered for these types of check ins, but you can certainly change back your rooms and spaces after February 15th if you wish. If you have any questions or need help with anything, please reach out to Alain. Below is part of the Top 10 list that is most commonly found in classrooms and spaces. Please do what you can to address these if they pertain to your space before February 15th. Perhaps some staff will have time if you're not booked on Feb. 10th during Conferences. HERE is a slideshow you can reference that was shared with us from West 40 and there are the Top 10 things shown that schools often fail on.
Clearance above storage and clearance from sprinkler heads (18 inches or 24 inches)
Storage in corridors and lobbies (should not have anything obstructing hallways, etc.)
Furnishing and decorations - You can’t have any more than 20% of things in the classroom on the walls or hanging that are fire hazards.
No Hold open devices (door wedges, etc.) *These can be brought to the custodial offices and then picked up afterwards.
Extension cords/multiple plug adapters. Any appliance devices need to be plugged into the wall directly (coffee makers, refrigerators, etc.)

Love and Appreciation to our wonderful staff on Tuesday, February 14th - Valentine's Day. Julia Peters helped secure a Pennoyer Spa Day experience for our staff. If you're still intersted in a 10 minute slot for a relaxing massage, sign up HERE. If you need coverage in your class that day for 10 minutes and you can't fit this in during a plan period or lunch, feel free to reach out to me and I'll either try and cover your class if I can or find someone who can help. We'll also have some special surprises and treats in the Staff Lounge and messages of Love and Appreciation for the best staff ever!!!

For the third year, Norwood Park Township will be funding a summer enrichment program for the area elementary students and we are looking for teachers to staff the program. The program dates and times are:

Monday-Friday | July 17-21 and July 24-28 from 8:30am-12:10pm
Pay is $1500 for the two weeks
Location will be at Union Ridge School

This is an opportunity for you to create fun and enriching sessions for students in the community. Last year, there was everything from theater, sports, to literacy programs. We will be able to support your sessions with materials, and you will have a high school teaching assistant as well from Main South. If you need help conceptualizing a session, please let me know and we can find time to meet.

For those of you who are interested, please fill out this form by February 17th.
https://forms.gle/F7pfdk7fXUeQo4R39

Just a reminder to staff to continue to check emails each morning by 7:30am if you signed up to help out with internal subbing when we need coverage. Thanks so much for the support with all of this. Anyone else is able to check their email as well and pick up any coverage they might be interested in moving forward. HERE is the doc we'll use every day. You can just fill in your name in the spaces you're available to cover...thanks again!

Weekly Hawk Playlist/Lyric

Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters by Elton John

Hawk Celebrations

Well, I'm not much of a world traveler, but I couldn't stop smiling as I got a chance to experience our brand new Travel Club this year at Pennoyer! It's been incredible to see how much this club has taken off this year. It's popularity is infectious, and if you don't believe me, all of you have to do is show up! Mrs. Tronco and Mrs. Kula are the masterminds and leaders behind this creative and thoughtful club that gives our students opportunities to travel the world through simulations in the classroom setting. They have a K-4th group and a 5th-8th group so all students can participate and explore places all around the world together. They have opportunities to learn about the sights, sounds, food, and so much more as students journey to destinations and share their experiences and inquires with one another. They even have passports!!!