The Hawk Happenings: Pennoyer Staff Newsletter

Hawk Thoughts & Happenings

Team Pennoyer,

With all of this up and down weather we've been having, I had to take a moment to honor one of the great ones. If you haven't heard, Tom Skilling of WGN news is finally retiring after all of these years. I always liked his stories and little side narratives he would go off on during his weather segments. It really set him apart and his personality really shined through. You can tell he was someone that truly loved his job and was passionate about what he did. I wish him the best in retirement.

On another note, I had to share this picture that made me smile. I've always made comments to this student, 4th grader Marina, about her rock -n- roll shirts she wears sometimes and how much I love those bands. Yesterday, she shows up at my office saying, "Hey Mr. G, check out this outfit!" I told her it was awesome, and what a great band Pink Floyd is. She told me, "Don't worry, it comes in a boy sweatsuit too." I seriously have to find that outfit online. She's the best!!!

Hawk Action Items

We're still looking for a few more staff members to join the Parent/Student Handbook Revision Committee for this year. Our first meeting will be after school on Thursday, March 21st from 3:15-4:15pm. After that, we'll probably just meet one more time in April, so it's not a huge time commitment. Please reach out to Adam by next Wednesday, March 13th if you're interested...thanks!

Using our New Behavior Flow Chart and Updated Referral Policy started this week with all of our students. Just a friendly reminder to make sure you're following things with consistency and fidelity working with our students and contacting parents for all minors and majors. 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.

Remember our Student Construction Plan goes into affect next Monday, March 11th. Thanks for all your time, flexibility, and support as we navigate through some of these changes. Please reach out along the way in the coming weeks if you have any feedback on changes that need to be made or things that might need to be addressed. Also, HERE are the new plans for lunch/recess rotations and the arrival/dismissal process and supervision that will also begin next Monday, March 11th. *Homeroom teachers and/or teachers that have students right before their lunch/recess, you'll probably want to post the daily/weekly rotations of what grade level is inside so students know. If you have any questions or we need to tweak anything along the way, please just reach out to Adam.

Just another 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'm continuing to push out the parent 5 Essentials Survey as well. Thanks for your time and support with all of this!

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

Lump by The Presidents Of The United States Of America

Hawk Celebrations

This week is National Social Workers Week, so we definitely want to celebrate our amazing group of social workers at Pennoyer that do so much for our students, staff, and families each and every day. Mrs. Slawson, along with our two social work interns this year, Miss Gloms and Miss Sheedy, are a special group of social workers that we're so lucky to have at Pennoyer. They take on so much as a team and support our students in many areas such as academics, behavior, social emotional health, and attendance. Their impact reaches far beyond the classroom and school walls. They connect with our students on a daily basis to help them thrive both in and out of school. They support our staff and administration in building a restorative, thoughtful, and positive culture at Pennoyer that helps everyone achieve at high levels and reach their full potential. Mrs. Slawson, Miss Gloms, and Miss Sheedy are dedicated, thoughtful, creative, passionate, and they always put the needs of our students first. They model the best of how we want to interact with our students and teach them to be successful in their lives. We couldn't get through our days without this amazing team of social workers...#Pennoyerpride for sure!!!