Pennoyer Staff Newsletter - 4/28/23

                                             Hawk Thoughts & Happenings

Team Pennoyer,

I can't believe we're in our final week of April already!  There's so many great things going on at Pennoyer that bring a smile to my face every day.  Last week's Literacy Night on Thursday was an absolute hit!!!  Mrs. Tronco, Mrs. Kula, and an incredible team of our staff members put such a fun and engaging night together for our students.  The carnival theme was awesome, and it was so cool to see our students of all ages engaged in having fun with literacy.

It was also Earth Day this past Saturday, April 22nd, so many of our students and staff made sure to celebrate with some teachable moments of Friday last week!  Mrs. Mardula took her students outside to study photosynthesis in the natural world and how important this phenomenon is to life on our planet.  The 3rd graders had a very special visiter.  Mrs. Adkin's sister Emily is a nature conservationist who currently works for the Environmental Defense Fund, and she has also worked for The Nature Conservancy. She visited on Friday with a great presentation and stories that truly amazed our students!  Finally, our 2nd-grade students celebrated Earth Day by working as a group by picking up all the garbage in the back of the school area.   Students were excited and proud to make a difference at Pennoyer.   They were eager to continue this at home and outside of school as well! Thanks to Mrs. Michaels and Ms. Torossi for putting this all together!

Finally, this week we got to take the 8th graders to Maine South to see the Addams Family musical production.  It was so great, and our 8th graders were definitely impressed and represented our school proudly!  Thanks to Mrs. Brunell, Ms. Bowden, and Dr. Kopta for supporting this field trip and special opportunity for our 8th graders.

*Staff Meeting AGENDA for Monday, May 1st in the MPR

                                              

Hawk Action Items 

• Interview Update For Next Week - We'll most likely have interviews for our open positions next Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday next week after school.  They'll start about 30 mins. after school is out each day.  I plan on putting a specific schedule together this weekend and pushing it out to staff again.  I really appreciate anyone who would like the opportunity to be part of the interview process.  I truly value your input in this collaborative process.  I definitely understand those that are not able to be a part of these interviews though, or staff that are not interested.  Just wanted to share these general days so you can start thinking ahead...thanks!  Reach out with any questions.

• Chick-fil-A Staff Appreciation Week - Check out this flyer if you're interested for next week!

• Culture the Change Workshop opportunity - Click HERE if you're interested.

Weekly Hawk Playlist/Lyric

I'm On Fire by Bruce Springsteen

                                                                      

Hawk Celebrations

Recently, our 7th and 8th grade students participated in an essay contest sponsored by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a human rights organization that teaches about the Holocaust and confronts hate, bigotry, and terrorism. Students wrote essays about how technology combined with hatred can hurt mankind. Two 8th grade students, Isabella Behnke and Natalia Piwowarczyk, have advanced to the final round! They are submitting video presentations of their essays and these videos will be viewed on Sunday, May 7th by a panel of judges. Winners could receive a laptop computer, an iPad, or a $250 gift card. We look forward to the next round of results! Thanks to Mrs. Brunell and Ms. Bowden who helped to support their students through in ELA with this opportunity.

April Birthdays! 🎂

Jenny Arencibia - 4/12

Diana Muntean - 4/13

Monica St. John - 4/15

Audrey Sampson - 4/16

Rachel Michaels - 4/17

Adam Greenberg - 4/21

Katherine Kopoulos - 4/21

Alain Ramirez - 4/22

Patrick Christl - 4/25

Connect - Collaborate - Celebrate

Pennoyer Staff Newsletter - 4/21/23

                                               Hawk Thoughts & Happenings

Team Pennoyer,

So starting this week with snow, 20 mph winds, and temperatures in the 20's was maybe a bad sign on Monday, but things certainly turned around, and it was a good week.  I'm so excited for the Art Showcase/Variety Show that had their auditions this week, and can't wait to see it all come together in late May.  We had a lot going on at Pennoyer for sure, but the highlight for me was bringing our 7th graders to Camp Edwards up in East Troy, Wisconsin on Tuesday.  Thanks to our incredible team made up of Mrs. Kula, Mrs. Tronco, and Mrs. Strokova that took on this adventure that literally started at 5:45am in the morning on Tuesday and didn't finish until around 9:40pm that night.  I couldn't be more proud of our 7th graders as a group!  They were so appreciative of this special opportunity and brought so much energy to everything we did all day long!  It was truly special to see this group of students come together, have fun, and push themselves out of their comfort zones.

Throughout the day, our 7th graders worked together at meal times as they took on leadership roles of setting the tables for their groups, bringing out food, and cleaning up together.  As far as the activities went, our students spent the day with NO CELLPHONES, and immersed themselves in nature and cooperative team building opportunities.  We started off with groups taking on the climbing wall and supporting one another to do the best they could.  Students also ventured through the low ropes course that challenged their balance and persistence.  In the morning activities, 7th graders got to test their aim and skill during archery, and so many of them hit their target!

After lunch, it was time for compass frisbee golf and building shelters.  Students learned how to navigate a course with their own compass, while testing their throwing a accuracy with a frisbee.  I have to say, my favorite part of the trip was watching this incredible group of 7th graders work in teams to come up with the most amazing shelters built out of all natural materials in the middle of an opening in the forest.  One of the structures was so creative and innovative, the camp staff chose to keep it standing for other schools to see moving forward!

Our students also had time just to hang out, talk, play basketball, soccer, and volleyball, and end their day by a campfire making s'mores.  It was the perfect end of a perfect day, and I know our 7th graders will hold onto this Pennoyer memory for many years to come.

 

                                                                           

Hawk Action Items 

• My plan is to begin setting up interviews for various open positions at Pennoyer in the coming weeks.  I am going to try and make these after school as much as possible, and I'd like to extend invites to any teachers who would like to join in this process.  I really value staff members being a part of the hiring process, so more to come on this.  Please feel free reach out to me with any questions.

• Pennoyer Parents Night Out - 8th Grade Fundraiser.  Click HERE for more information if you're interested.

Weekly Hawk Playlist/Lyric

"Babe, you know you're growing up so fast.  And mama's worrying that you won't last to say, "Let's play." Sister Christian, there's so much in life.  Don't you give it up before your time is due, it's true."

                                                                    Sister Christian by Night Ranger

                                                                      

Hawk Celebrations

I couldn't wait for the celebration this week that's all about the hard work, vision, and dedication of our Principal's Crew!  They did an absolutely amazing job updating both locker room bathrooms last Saturday.  This incredible group of students came up with the idea to update the bathrooms early in the school year, and we finally made it happen last weekend.  This special group of students showed up and put in the work for over 5 hours to make this all a reality.  In the end, I know how appreciative all of our students and staff are that get to utilize these bathrooms with a fresh coat of paint, and a lot of positivity up on the walls!  Thanks so much to Lara, Nicole, Aidan, Alexa, Ava, Stevan, Miriana, Alexandra, Alex, Marcus, and my very own 6th grade daughter...Sadie!  What an incredible effort from all of the students that really showed their dedication to our school and their Pennoyer Pride!!!

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

April Birthdays! 🎂

Jenny Arencibia - 4/12

Diana Muntean - 4/13

Monica St. John - 4/15

Audrey Sampson - 4/16

Rachel Michaels - 4/17

Adam Greenberg - 4/21

Katherine Kopoulos - 4/21

Alain Ramirez - 4/22

Patrick Christl - 4/25

Connect - Collaborate - Celebrate

Pennoyer Staff Newsletter - 4/17/23

                               Hawk Thoughts & Happenings

Team Pennoyer,

What an amazing week of weather we had!  I know looking ahead it's going to drop down to more normal temperatures next week, but hoping we're out of the woods with the real cold stuff around here.  Of course I just jinxed us all and we'll have snow sometime in late April, but you can blame me.  (It looks like this might actually happen Monday...lol).  Anyways, if you have time over this weekend and want to go see a real cool movie, check out Air.  Last weekend, Jamee and I took Sadie and Lennon to go see it over at the AMC in Hawthorn, and it was really good!  We hadn't seen a movie all together in a theater in probably almost three years.  If you don't know, it's a Matt Damen and Ben Affleck movie that focuses on the story of Nike and getting Michael Jordan to sign a contract with them when he first starting playing for the Chicago Bulls in the mid 80's.  For a kid like me that grew up in the 80's and 90's, it was such a rush of nostalgia sitting through this movie.  Made me feel old at times, but also brought me back to how much I loved growing up through those years.

If you remember Atari, Downtown Julie Brown on MTV when they actually played videos all day long, getting coffee out of a vending machine in little white cups, perms, VHS tapes, floppy disks, phones in cars with chords attached, and how tight you could roll the bottom of your jeans, then you know the eras I'm talking about!

                                                                                     

*Staff Meeting AGENDA for Monday, April 17th in the MPR  

**I'm out of the building all day on Tuesday, April 18th with the 7th graders at Camp Edwards                                   

Hawk Action Items 

• Thanks again for all of your hard work and time away from your lessons to administer IAR testing to our students.  We just have a little more makeup testing to finish up this coming week by April 21st.  I will make daily schedules as needed and update the makeup tabs on our  Dashboard each day until we're finished.  Don't forget to lock all your testing sessions when you've completed that session with students.  I will go in and "stop" all the test sessions when all make ups are completed.  Also, please turn in your folders if you haven't already with all of your testing tickets, reference sheets, sign, test admin booklet, and scratch paper to me in my office.  You'll also need to fill out the rest of your Chain of Custody form, so stop by my office anytime to do this...thanks!

• Staff and Parent Survey From Northeastern.  Please take a look at the information below and take this optional survey if you have time.  This is from my former professor and Department Chair for the Education program at Northeastern University.

As professors at Northeastern Illinois University, we would greatly appreciate your time to complete an anonymous online survey.  The purpose of this survey is to obtain your opinions regarding the skills and attributes that you feel are important for a school principal to be considered respected. Your responses are completely anonymous and are not about any specific principal. The survey consists of two parts:  Part I - Effectiveness (principal skills); and Part II - Attributes (personal leadership characteristics). 

We respectfully request that you complete the following survey which includes a consent letter. Please direct any questions via email to a professor listed below. The survey is for faculty, parents/students and community members. You will be asked to indicate your identified group.  Students (grades 3-12) complete a separate survey using the same link as their parents. This survey takes approximately 10 minutes to complete.

Thank you in advance for participating in this research study which will contribute to the field of educational leadership.  Please click the link below to take this survey.

Survey Link

Sincerely,

Howard J. Bultinck, Ph.D.     Lynn H. Bush, Ph.D.              Noreen A. Powers, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus                  Professor Emerita                    Associate Professor

h-bultinck@neiu.edu              l-bush@neiu.edu                     n-powers@neiu.edu

• 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

Weekly Hawk Playlist/Lyric

  Valerie - Amy Winehouse

                                                                      

Hawk Celebrations

Our celebration this week focuses on our 7th graders and Mrs. Garcia and Miss Hauer.  As middle school math teachers, they collaborated and came up with a creative leadership opportunity for our 7th graders paying it forward with academic support for our younger grades.  In the end, they decided to try something to make SEL time for 7th graders a growing opportunity and put their social and mentoring skills to the test. This year they created a system where they asked teachers if they would be willing to have 7th grade students in their classes once a week on Thursdays during 7th grade SEL time.  From that, they created a weekly rotation where they send three students to Mrs. Dylag to work with Kindergartners, three students to Mrs. Adkins, and three students to Mrs. Loring to work with 3rd graders.   7th graders have done an amazing job stepping up and working with the students in small groups in the Kindergarten and 3rd grade classes to support their learning and growth this year!

April Birthdays! 🎂

Jenny Arencibia - 4/12

Diana Muntean - 4/13

Monica St. John - 4/15

Audrey Sampson - 4/16

Rachel Michaels - 4/17

Adam Greenberg - 4/21

Katherine Kopoulos - 4/21

Alain Ramirez - 4/22

Patrick Christl - 4/25

Connect - Collaborate - Celebrate

Pennoyer Staff Newsletter - 4/7/23

                               Hawk Thoughts & Happenings

Team Pennoyer,

What an amazing week of celebration and Pennoyer Pride coming back from Spring Break!  Tuesday night was a true culmination of hours of dedication and effort from so many of you and our community members that has been going on for a long time now.  Thank you so much for hanging in there every step of the way and riding this emotional rollercoaster that I know has been difficult.  We can finally exhale now, and smile with positivity and hope for what lies ahead.  I'm so excited for all of the amazing things to come for our entire staff and all of our students in the coming years.  I can't wait to take this journey with all of you and do everything I can to make the most of this victory.  We are small...but we are certainly MIGHTY!

I hope you all enjoy your long weekend and the holiday for those celebrating.  I'll leave you with a "taste" of my New York trip over Spring Break.  Our Greenberg style "One Bite Challenge" was so fun as we visited Joe's pizza in Greenwich Village, John's of Bleeker Street, and Prince Street Pizza.  "One bite, everyone knows the rules."  Here's what the Greenbergs' ratings of these on a scale from 1-10...

                                                                John's of Bleeker Street - 8.6

    

                                                            Joe's in Greenwich Village - 8.4

    

                                                                 Prince Street Pizza - 8.3

Hawk Action Items 

• If you're interested as a teacher in perhaps moving grade level assignments, I'm open to setting up a short meeting to talk through things.  I can't promise anything, but I'd like to give all of our teachers an opportunity to at least have a voice, and I will certainly take things into consideration as we start to build the Master Schedule for next year.  Feel free to reach out to me anytime over the next week to set up a time to meet if you'd like.

• Thanks for all of your hard work and time away from your lessons to administer IAR testing to our students.  Don't forget to continue to use the Dashboard and fill in students for make up testing.  We may start doing make ups a little early next week based on our numbers and needing to be completed by April 21st.  Don't forget to lock all your testing sessions when you've completed that session with students.  I will go in and "stop" all the test sessions when all make ups are completed.  

• Staff and Parent Survey From Northeastern.  Please take a look at the information below and take this optional survey if you have time.  This is from my former professor and Department Chair for the Education program at Northeastern University.

As professors at Northeastern Illinois University, we would greatly appreciate your time to complete an anonymous online survey.  The purpose of this survey is to obtain your opinions regarding the skills and attributes that you feel are important for a school principal to be considered respected. Your responses are completely anonymous and are not about any specific principal. The survey consists of two parts:  Part I - Effectiveness (principal skills); and Part II - Attributes (personal leadership characteristics). 

We respectfully request that you complete the following survey which includes a consent letter. Please direct any questions via email to a professor listed below. The survey is for faculty, parents/students and community members. You will be asked to indicate your identified group.  Students (grades 3-12) complete a separate survey using the same link as their parents. This survey takes approximately 10 minutes to complete.

Thank you in advance for participating in this research study which will contribute to the field of educational leadership.  Please click the link below to take this survey.

Survey Link

Sincerely,

Howard J. Bultinck, Ph.D.     Lynn H. Bush, Ph.D.              Noreen A. Powers, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus                  Professor Emerita                    Associate Professor

h-bultinck@neiu.edu              l-bush@neiu.edu                     n-powers@neiu.edu

• 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

Weekly Hawk Playlist/Lyric

    "Hey, I've got nothing to do today but smile, and here I am.  The only living boy in New York."

                                            -The Only Living Boy in New York by Simon & Garfunkel

                                                                      

Hawk Celebrations

Well, there's certainly no bigger celebration than the incredible accomplishment of passing our two referendums this past Tuesday night!  What an amazing collaborative effort of our staff, families, and community members to come together for the most important reason we show up at Pennoyer each and every day...our students!  This is all about creating the best and most enriching learning environment possible for every student that will walk through our hallways for years to come.  I'm so excited, grateful, and optimistic about the future for our Pennoyer community.  We have an amazing foundation of students, staff, and families to build on already, and it's only going to get even better moving forward.  WE did it!!!

April Birthdays! 🎂

Jenny Arencibia - 4/12

Diana Muntean - 4/13

Monica St. John - 4/15

Audrey Sampson - 4/16

Rachel Michaels - 4/17

Adam Greenberg - 4/21

Katherine Kopoulos - 4/21

Alain Ramirez - 4/22

Patrick Christl - 4/25

Connect - Collaborate - Celebrate