The Hawk Happenings: Pennoyer Staff Newsletter

Hawk Thoughts & Happenings

Team Pennoyer,

I can't believe we're in our ABC countdown already and next week brings in the month of May! I know this is a difficult time of year for teachers with their students and keeping the energy levels up, while also managing behaviors and apathy often creeping in with many of our students. Hang in there, and please reach out to me if you need any type of support at any time. I'll always do everything I can to lend a helping hand, support with students and/or parents, or just be there to listen if you need to vent or problem solve through a situation. I'm not going to let being 50 slow me down!

I was excited near the start of our week as I got the opportunity to hang with our 8th graders and some of the teachers at the Maine South musical Pippin, that I honestly didn't fully understand. I did get the inappropriate parts though, and our students certainly picked up on those as well. It really was cool for them to have the experience and see a high school production, so thanks to Ann, Alexis, Megan, and Jenny for supporting the field trip and being there for our students. I really appreciated it.

Then, near the end of the week, we got something bigger than a musical event. We got the #1 pick overall in the NFL draft...our new quarterback, Mr. Caleb Williams!!! My son and his friends went crazy in our basement last night when the pick went off. It didn't matter that all of Chicago and the entire country pretty much knew who the Chicago Bears were picking. Just a cool moment that I'm truly excited about and hopeful for the future in our city. Hoping Melissa and I brought some good luck with our opening ABC countdown day clothing choices, and a special season is on the horizon with Patrick and Melissa getting to be guests at the Bears official draft party at Soldiers Field. Da Bears!

Hawk Action Items

When you get a chance, take a look at the Parent Night presentation HERE that Adam, Rachel, Maura, and Officer Zage and Officer Pina put on with our parents this past Wednesday night. Building off of last year, the focus was social media awareness and online safety/digital citizenship. On May 6th, we're excited to offer 30 minute assemblies with this same group presenting to all of K-8th graders to continue to educate our students in the online world that they live so much of their lives in. We'll be giving follow up surveys to our 5th-8th graders afterwards to gauge their understanding and connect on possible supports they might need.

Pennoyer Teachers...just another friendly reminder if you still haven't gotten a chance to complete the follow up Culture and Climate survey, please take a moment to do so by April 29th. I really appreciate the thoughtful feedback.

HERE are the final results from our Professional Development poll from our last staff meeting. Thanks for participating in this and giving your voice. We need to create a PD committee moving forward to help guide our decisions for our school and staff. I'm really excited about this opportunity for our staff to collaborate together. I'd love to get as many participants as possible. HERE is an example of the form we'll utilize for some of our major PD days. I'm thinking this committee will most likely meet once a month, and I can certainly be flexible and work with staff who are interested in being a part of it. Please reach out with any questions, and let Adam know if you'd like to be a part of this new committee for next year by Friday, May 3rd. Thanks so much!

Just a final reminder that we're getting ready for the new Skyward Qmlativ, and I wanted to share out information again that Patrick sent out a few weeks ago.

We are well into our migration from Skyward SMS to Skyward Qmlativ. The final data migration will take place in July, where we will be exclusively using Qmlativ by Skyward for our student information and business systems.

Your teacher account for the Qmlativ test and training environment is now active and is accessible through the Pennoyer OneLogin portal. It is listed as Skyward Qmlativ.

Direct Login

You will be able to use this database while training to practice what you have learned in the training modules. Please note that this is just a training environment, so you can explore and change whatever you want -- it will not affect REAL STUDENT/STAFF DATA and will be erased after the migration. The data in the training instance contains data that was migrated in October 2023, so you will not see any recent data that has been added since then. It is only a copy from October.

You should have already received an email with access to the Skyward Knowledge Hub, which contains all of the training tutorials to help you on your way to learning the system. You will be assigned training videos and tutorials that are specific to your role as a teacher. You will be able to watch the training videos and practice in the test environment well in advance of the actual migration so you are comfortable when the migration happens and you return from summer break. It is recommended that these assigned trainings will need to be completed by the end of April so that you have an opportunity to become familiar with the new platform. Feel free to reach out to Patrick with any questions.

Below is a sneak peak at the Qmlativ system. If you have a few minutes, take a look at some of the quick videos to get a look at the interface:
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 March! Keep it up in April. Here's the Google Form for teachers to complete. Thanks!!!

Weekly Hawk Playlist/Lyric

1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back by Olivia Rodrigo

Hawk Celebrations

This week is a celebration for three individuals at Pennoyer that really hold down so much of the foundation that make our school and district run the way it does every single day. It was Administrative Professionals Day this week, and we're so incredibly lucky and honored to have Ms. Jill, Ms. Teresa, and Ms. Denise as our amazing colleagues at Pennoyer. Ms. Jill does so much in the District Office that supports our staff, current and new families, and daily routines at the District level. She is always willing to lend a helping hand, and is so incredibly thorough and organized with everything she does. Ms. Teresa keeps our financials in order and supports our entire staff and families when it comes to benefits, payments, invoices for resources, budgets, professional development, and beyond. She always has a smile on her face and takes every moment she can to connect with our students as well. Finally, there's Ms. Denise in the school office. She finds a way to be everything for everybody and juggles so many tasks from day to day to help our school operate on the level it does. She is a huge support for me, our entire staff, our families, and of course, our students. Whatever role she plays from day to day or minute to minute, she gets the job done and then some. We couldn't do what we do every day without the hard work and dedication of all three of our Administrative Professionals. #Pennoyerpride for sure!!!