The Hawk Happenings: Pennoyer Staff Newsletter

Hawk Thoughts & Happenings

Team Pennoyer,

What an awesome Spirit Week and way to end our Trimester 2 of the school year! I can't believe it's March already. This week's weather and the ups and downs, was certainly one for the record books. In the end, we got through it all like we always do, and I really felt like this week had a lot of good vibes and positives. I saw so many amazing things walking around the hallways and in and out of many of your classrooms, and with "some" of the amazing weather this week, I got to test my soccer skills against our 2nd graders at recess! They certainly tested me...lol.

We have two staff shout outs this week from Ellen Mardula to Megan McManus and from Ellen Mardula to Jenny Arencibia...

"Megan is great to work with. Anytime I have questions or need support with her students, she is there to help. She is great at brainstorming different ideas for accommodations for her students and works so well with our middle school team. I see how much time, effort and care she puts into helping her students and it is really paying off. I think she is doing a wonderful job!"

"Jenny has been so supportive especially this last week. She has helped come up with new accommodations for students and has been helping me to reach out to parents as well. Whenever I have a question to help me better support her students, she makes time to meet with me so we can collaborate."

*HERE is the agenda for our Staff Meeting next Monday, March 4th, at 3:15pm in the MPR.

Hawk Action Items

Trimester 2 ends TODAY, so final grades/comments are due in Skyward by Wednesday, March 6th, next week by the end of the day. Grades/Comments will go live to families in Skyward on Friday, March 8th after 4pm.

New Behavior Flow Chart and Fresh Start for our Updated Referral Policy starting next week on Monday, March 4th with all of our students. Thanks again for your support and collaboration with all of this! Reach out any time along the way with any questions, concerns, or support you might need. HERE was the presentation for students.

All teachers, please take a few minutes sometime next week that's convenient for you to go over this Student Constructions Plans Presentation with your classes before we begin on Monday, March 11th. You can do this in Enrichment, SEL, homeroom time, or whatever works best. Please reach out to Adam with any questions...thanks! I plan on sharing this with our families as well next Friday in my newsletter to them.

Just a friendly reminder about the staff 5 Essentials Survey. If you haven't had time to do it yet, I'm planning to keep our staff meeting open without any other agenda items on March 18th if you'd like to complete it then. It's just due before March 29th, and last year we had almost 100% of our staff complete it. I really appreciate this feedback for our school as whole. There are some questions on the survey that might not be fully applicable for our non-certified staff, so just do the best you can to answer them. If you need help getting onto the survey, just let me know. Also remember, if you didn't receive an email to your school account to log in, you can always go on to take the survey through this provisional link and it will count with our school data. Here it is...https://survey.5-essentials.org/illinois/survey/teacher/provisional/ As I said, please reach out to me with any questions. Our 4th-8th grade students may have already taken the student version of the 5 Essentials Survey sometime starting last week, but if not, please make sure they have the opportunity before Spring Break. Login cards should have been distributed to all 4th-8th grade teachers by Team Leaders, and the following is the link you'll need to put up on Google Classroom and share with your students when you're ready for them to take the survey... http://survey.5-essentials.org/illinois/survey/student/ I've already started pushing out the parent 5 Essentials Survey as well. Thanks for your time and support with all of this!

We're still looking to get a lot more teams signed up for our 1st Annual 3 on 3 Pennoyer March Madness Basketball Tournament after school on Friday, March 15th...Check out this flyer and if you work with our 3rd-8th graders, please do what you can to advertise and talk this special event up! We're hoping to have a good turnout and raise some money for the American Cancer Society. Reach out to Adam with any questions.

For our younger K-5 teachers, could you give a gentle reminder to students to make sure to ask for adult assistance in the main office when they're leaving. A couple of students this year have gone by Denise's desk when she's not there and tried to find the button to press for the door. There's a button for lockdowns that alerts the authorities and we just want to make sure they don't accidentally press that one...thanks.

If you're interested in signing up to supervise and facilitate any Behavior Academies after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, feel free to sign up on the spreadsheet. Here's a reminder about the protocol for our Behavior Academies if you're interested. *New addition to the protocol...please make sure to let the supervising teacher know you're sending someone when you sign a student up for a Behavior Academy. Thanks to everyone who has been supporting these.

Wanna make somebody's day at Pennoyer...don't forget about our staff shout outs we'd like to get started up again this year! It's real easy; if one staff member wants to give another staff member at Pennoyer a positive shout out for something that week, just send a quick email blurb to Adam, and he'll feature it in our weekly Hawk Happenings!

Great job with all the social media posts shared for the month of February! Keep it up in March. Here's the Google Form for teachers to complete. Thanks!!!

Weekly Hawk Playlist/Lyric

"I'll be home again before you know it. All this careful thought has left you stoic."

- Unstoppable by Keaton Simons

Hawk Celebrations

We have an amazing celebration to share this week!!! Our very own Reading Specialist, Melissa Tronco, was nominated for the prestigious Chicago Bears Classroom Legend award, and she was 1 of only 10 teachers in the entire state that was chosen for this honor during the Bears off season! This is such an amazing accomplishment and certainly well earned. Mrs. Tronco is truly a pillar of our school and community that lives and breathes Pennoyer Pride. She's an amazing advocate for students, staff, and families, and goes above and beyond in everything she does. As our only Reading Specialist, Mrs. Tronco takes the lead on literacy interventions for all of our students and helps to support their learning in and out of the classroom. Mrs. Tronco is also both our ELA and MTSS Department Chair, helps to run the successful Travel Club with Mrs. Kula, runs our Literacy Night, is the Camp Edwards Director for 5th graders, a mentor to our new teachers, and so much more! Mrs. Tronco was also an integral part of our success with passing our referendums last year as a teacher and community leader in this effort every step of the way! In addition, she also happens to be one of the biggest Chicago Bears fans I know, so this award couldn't be more fitting. We surprised Mrs. Tronco this past Thursday at our PBIS Trimester 2 Spirit Assembly, and it was an awesome sight!!! For this special honor, Mrs. Tronco was awarded $1000 for her programming and students, custom Chicago Bears swag, which included an official jersey and football, and tickets to the NFL draft party at Soldiers Field in April. Last, but certainly not least, she had some exciting visitors at our assembly, which included: Mrs. Tronco's family, the official Bears mascot, Staley Da Bear, Chairman and owner George McCasksy, and public relations coordinators of the Chicago Bears. They were so impressed with her accomplishments and our school as a whole. Our students were freaking out when they entered the gym, and I know it's a day they'll never forget as well. Their energy was amazing!!!

CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO HERE TO SEE THE SURPRISE!