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