The Hawk Happenings: Pennoyer Staff Newsletter

Hawk Thoughts & Happenings

Team Pennoyer,

So on my way back and forth with Lennon to his soccer tournament last weekend in Indiana, he actually turned me onto someone I had never listened to before. Lennon, my 15 year old son, and a few of his soccer buddies, are obsessed with David Goggins. We spent the whole trip to Indiana with the rain pouring down, listening to Joe Rogan's podcast with David Goggins on and it seriously got to me. He can certainly come off extreme in his ideas and level of profanity in the way he talks and presents himself, but once you get through all of that and really listen to the "why" behind the way he talks, it's pretty powerful stuff. He's got a couple books out as well that my son and I are starting to read, but I thought I'd leave you all with a few David Goggins quotes that stuck in my head, and I found connected to in my own personal life and our profession in the world of education...

- "The only way we can change is to be real with ourselves."

- "If you don't challenge yourself, you don't know yourself."

- "I don't stop when I'm tired, I stop when I'm done."

- "We all want to take the four lane highway, but we always step over the shovel. All I did was pick up that shovel and made my own path."

- "You want to be uncommon amongst uncommon people. Period."

Draft Bingo Night - Thursday, March 16th - Check out this flyer if you're interested!

*Don't forget to "Spring Ahead" this Sunday and adjust your clocks an hour forward for Daylight Savings Time.

Hawk Action Items

Internal Subbing Opportunities During Learning Walks Next Week - Please consider putting your name in a time slot for Thursday, March 16th next week to support teachers doing their Learning Walks. We have one group going in the morning and another group in the afternoon. Thanks so much for any help you can provide! HERE is the doc.

Professional development opportunity taking place at West40 on March 13th. The SEL Hub is sponsoring this free opportunity in partnership with University of Illinois in Springfield. Together, they will be offering the "Night Before", a trauma-informed, experiential training for teachers, administrators, social workers, counselors, and any staff working with our students. The team has designed this 3.5-hour training to encourage staff to engage with the 12 core concepts for understanding trauma and to consider alternative explanations for students’ behavior and actions. Participants will learn ways to identify and address the needs of their students.

Please use the link below to learn more about this opportunity and to sign up for Monday if you're interested.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/523999034217

PTC is looking for a few teachers at any grade level to help support the Pennoyer Pride Essay contest that our 8th graders participate in. If you're not aware, this is an annual activity where our 8th graders write essays about what brings them Pennoyer pride, and then a panel made up of parents (not 8th grade parents) and teachers take time to score them, interview the finalists, and students will be celebrated at graduation with the winner receiving a gift from the PTC. They also get their name added to the plaque in the District Office. If you're interested, please contact Tina Giarmidis at our PTC. Essays will be read and interviews will conducted the last couple of weeks in May.

As we look towards Spring Break, please make sure that all food items are cleaned out from your classroom spaces and the staff lounge/refrigerators before leaving on March 24th...thanks!

A reminder to staff to please put in work orders (SchoolDude) whenever you have something in your classroom or the building that needs attention from our maintenance crew (i.e. HVAC, leaks, etc.). This is the best way for us to keep track of work needing to be done and collect data on our systems and general maintenance of the building. Here is the link you can find on our OneLogin page - https://assetessentials.dudesolutions.com/PennoyerSchoolDistrict/Requester/Home/Management

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

Tomorrow's Gonna Be a Brighter Day by Jim Croce

Hawk Celebrations

This week we're celebrating our 5th graders, along with Mrs. Shearer, Mr. Widd, and Officer Steven Deutscher as they begin their journey through the D.A.R.E program at Pennoyer. This was week one where students started to understand the importance behind the program and getting to know a little bit about the things they'll be learning moving forward. In the D.A.R.E program, 5th graders will be visited by Norridge Police Officer Steven Deutscher once a week until near the end of the school year, when they'll be ready for a celebration and graduation of the program. The D.A.R.E program is more than just about the avoidance of substance abuse and its downfalls, it's also a program that teaches students how to make healthy choices in life, build solid relationships, and understand how to support themselves and others when faced with difficult or dangerous decisions. We're lucky to have this partnership with the Norridge Police Department and give our 5th graders this opportunity to grow and learn.