The Hawk Happenings: Pennoyer Staff Newsletter

Hawk Thoughts & Happenings

Team Pennoyer,

Even with the short week, we had plenty to celebrate around Pennoyer! Our pre-schoolers took a field trip to the apple orchard, our boy's soccer team got off to a successful start of their season with a 2-0 record, and marriage is in the air! Congratulations to Nataliia who was recently married, and Katherine who is about to walk down the aisle this weekend. We're so excited for you both as you journey through this next phase of your life.

Also, I wanted to give a shout out to our very own Ms. Bowden this week! Her class is currently reading The Hunger Games in 8th grade, and she has them host their own Hunger Games, minus the killing of course, every Friday! Last week's competition entailed a plank contest; Caydee Torres was the winner! What a creative and fun way to get our students engaged.

Hawk Action Items

2024 Golden Apple Teacher Nominations for Pre-K-3rd Grade Teachers if you're interested...

Nominations for the 2024 Golden Apple Awards for Excellence in Teaching & Leadership are now open throughout Illinois!

Honor an outstanding Pre-K-3rd grade teacher by nominating them for the Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching today: https://www.goldenapple.org/nominate-a-teacher

Our social media roll out officially starts this month! We're asking teachers to post one thing by the end of the month of October, and then we'll continue in that fashion each month. We created a real easy Google Form for teachers to complete. Just a little blurb/picture about anything going on in your classes and then our leadership team will approve it and set it up to go out sometime during the month...it's just that easy! Thanks for all of your support with this. We know this will be a great way to showcase all of the wonderful things you all do at Pennoyer and connect with our families and community.

Student Engagement PD w/ West 40 - All teachers; please don't forget to complete the "check out" form by this Friday, October 6th if you haven't done so already to indicate which lane you would like to drive down this first run. Here's the presentation again from our staff meeting, which is also linked in the agenda. Feel free to reach out with any questions. I'm truly so excited for this professional development opportunity for all of us this year!

Reminder our our Health Life Safety audit that will be taking place at Pennoyer next week on Thursday, October 12th first thing in the morning. We'll be walking around checking through our building and all of the classrooms. Please make sure you have your evacuation drill folders up and visible by your doorways in the classrooms.

Just a friendly reminder to work on completing your trainings that were assigned to you based and dependent on your position at the school or if you have taken the training in the past.

The trainings will be through 2 online platforms:
Infinitec & KnowB4

You should have received an email from both platforms with your required trainings. Again, everyone will have a different menu of trainings based on various factors. These trainings must be completed by Friday, November 17, 2023. If you have any questions or difficulties logging on to your trainings, please feel free to contact Kristin or Pat. Thank you for being on top of these trainings! I'm going to try and work in a little time (maybe 30 mins. if possible) on both Oct. 16th at our staff meeting and Oct. 31st at the start of our SIP day to give staff to work on these if needed.

Picture Day is coming up on Tuesday, October 10th next week!

Looking ahead...the CCC meeting on October 25th will focus on revisiting and reviewing Standard Based Grading at Pennoyer and our practices surrounding SBG to effectively support our students.

Creating new Clubs at Pennoyer and Submitting Club Information for Website (Existing or New Clubs)

If you’re interested in starting up a new club, it's certainly not too late. Please submit your ideas HERE! You can check out the CBA if needed for more information. For new clubs, we’ve created a helpful link on our website to showcase the wonderful opportunities for our students at Pennoyer. Please make sure once your club is approved that you create a one page Google Doc or Slide to share with Adam and Pat. Also, if you’re continuing a club from last year, please make sure the information is updated if needed...thanks! Here’s an EXAMPLE for your reference.

Friday Car Line Opportunity During Arrival Time - Want to be a "Guest DJ" and greeter during morning car line? Reach out to Adam if you're interested! You can have your own playlist if you'd like and be a part of a fun part of the day connecting with our families and students on Fridays during arrival time. This is from 7:50am- to around 8:10am if you're interested. HERE is a sign up sheet to make things easier, but reach out to Adam with any questions.

Stipend Opening for Varsity Boys Volleyball in the spring...Connect w/ Adam if interested.

Weekly Hawk Playlist/Lyric

Work Song by Hozier

Hawk Celebrations

The spotlight this week is our amazing Structured Learning program here at Pennoyer! I can't say enough about the incredible work that Ms. Wyrzykowski, Ms. Ellstrom, and Mrs. McManus have done this year as a team to support our students and families. Their dedication is unmatched. Our students have been thriving with thoughtful structures put into place to fully support their academic, functional, and social/emotional growth. At Pennoyer, we strive to always meet students where they're at and give them the best opportunities to learn and grow to their full potential. Our Structured Learning program is a model for that philosophy, and I'm so proud of the work our students and staff have put into making this a successful school year!