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@D114Stanton
@D114Lotus
@FLGSD114
#District114proud
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Kudos to the Fox Lake Police Department for voluntarily coming to patrol the building on a number of occasions over the last few weeks. They are providing comfort and safety to our staff, students and parents. Thank you!
-From Natalie Udstuen
Fred Miller for jumping right into AIMSWeb, and Social Studies planning!
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Cathy Jawnyj, Maddie Kerr and Michelle Serini for all the collaboration on porfolios.
and
Colleen Hitzler and Jeff Sefcik for attending an extra meeting with me for our team.
and
Kendra Wedl, for continuing to support our special student in your free time!
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Keli Swiercek and Rachelle Peters for attending and supporting me in an unplanned meeting last week.
-From Greer Lally
A BIG thank you to Matt, Natalie, Cary, Amanda and Maureen for driving all the way out to Rosemont to support me at the Golden Apple brunch and for just supporting me in life! I'd be a hot mess without all of you!
-From Erica Barraza
Amber Mysliwiec, thank you for all of your help with the Movie & Popcorn event! Your willingness to set up the projector in the gym made it a unique movie watching experience. Georgette Franco, thank you for all of the delicious treats!
and
Cary Scarpino, thank you for graciously cleaning up and organizing the staff lounge, after the past two staff lunches.This is a late kudos, but I really appreciate you and your selflessness!
and
A big thanks to Mrs. Hower and my Kindergarten team for your patience and help with my sub and students. I am thrilled to announce that my sister is officially Ashley Brooks (as of March 3). What a joy it is to be able to go and celebrate her with my family and to not have to worry about my Kinders!
-From Tiffany Mihovilovich
Kudos to Georgette for going out of her way to save boxes for me for moving. I truly appreciate her help and kindness,
A big thank you,
-From Ellen Stirrat
Thanks to everyone who participated in Wednesday's math articulation! It was AWESOME!
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Kudos to Matt Shannon for leading learning at Stanton! What a GREAT book study!
-From Heather
Kudos to our social workers in Fox Lake School District 114. Thank you for your tireless efforts and interventions in assisting our students with their social and emotional needs; collaborating with staff on strategies and interventions; reaching out to the parents to provide resources to assist them with coping strategies and family needs; and for providing leadership in best practices in school based mental health services. School Social Workers in Illinois are being honored during School Social Worker Awareness Week from March 4-March 10. I’m proud of the accomplishments of our school social workers, Keli Swierczek, Beth Rendon, Christina Marturano and Cari Miller. Many have received their LCSW certification and presented at state conferences, and all continue to develop curriculum and activities for the children in District 114! May we continue To Grow Together in understanding and collaboration with our colleagues!
-From Cindy Carlino
Thank you Rachelle Peters for finding a solution that helped a student's family on my case load that was in a difficult situation. You are awesome!
-From Cathy Jawnyj
Many thanks to Cathy Lamberty for always going above and beyond in helping outside her own classroom duties, for example during the para work time last week, she just jumped in and did laminating, copying, assembling of books for our Blended PreK room. She's a wonderful team player!
Thanks Cathy, for all you do!!
-From Gayle McManamon
A big THANK YOU to Liz Andersen for being so helpful this week preparing all the work for my substitute teachers and meeting with my PD students to ensure their week was successful. I appreciate all you do!
and
To Kathleen for ensuring the STEM kids had activities to do this week while I was out. Thank you for all your help and support!
-From Donielle Williams
Thank you to everyone that participated in the math articulation this past Wednesday. There were a lot of great conversations that took place and I truly appreciate everyone's efforts in strengthening our core math curriculum.
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Thank you Jeff and Rachelle for making arrangements with your staff and students, so teachers could attend the math articulation.
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Thank you Pam Exon for reinforcing the cafeteria expectations with your students.
-From Matt Peters
When you have a kudo to share for someone, please just email me and I'll include it here! The goal is to create system celebrations--so your input is truly welcome!
News from the Business Office
Buying Old Technology
I've gotten some requests about staff members asking buying old iPads, computers, etc. Given everything I know and prior legal guidance--along with the wisdom of Becky--we just cannot allow this. As you may or may not know, there is a significant legal process you have to follow to dispose of district owned property...it's almost a reverse bid process. We would need to request permission to dispose of property from the Board of Education, and then accumulate all equipment and advertise it for sale, applying a minimum price and hope we get rid of it...if not you have to find other ways of disposing. Bottom line---it's super time consuming with a great deal of red tape around it.
Purchasing Lunches from our Kitchens
After reviewing results of our food service audit as well as applying best business practices, please note that the following will be in place for the 2018-19 school year:
*Anyone getting a school lunch MUST pay for it.
*To purchase a lunch, you must have money on your account that is pre-paid by you.
*We cannot allow lunch charges.
*If funds remain on your account at the end of the year, we will cut a check back to you.
Again, this will be in place for NEXT year, but I wanted you to know now so it wasn't a surprise. If you have any questions, please let me know!
Tax Tables
The 2018 tax tables have been updated in Skyward; you should see a difference in the amount of Federal Income Tax on the March 15 payroll.
INFINITEC MONTHLY NEWSLETTER FOR MARCH/APRIL
Infinitec is an Special Education and Assistive Technology Initiative that provides webinars, workshops, resources and other services to member districts. Their website not only includes a calendar of events of one day webinars and workshops, but also free archived webinars of a variety of topics for staff with any level of knowledge. Please contact Brandt Rosen (brosen@elced.org) for more information of what Infinitec has to offer.
CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE NEW ELC ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY WEBSITE!!! This newsletter will be posted there, as well as, cheat sheets for a variety of common assistive technology tools.
VIEW FREE WEBINARS WHEN YOU SIGN UP FOR A FREE ACCOUNT:
Click here to register for a free account. For ELC member district staff and parents ONLY. When signing up, under "District/coop," be sure to type in the "Exceptional Learners' Collaborative." Please remember that if you sign up, one day webinars are archived for a certain amount of time following the time of the webinar, so it's good to sign up even though if you may not be able to attend the exact date and/or time of the webinar. You will be able to watch the webinar later. Click on the "Online Classroom" tab to view all archived webinars.
FREE WEBINARS:
- 3/6/18 Adapting on the Fly for Students with Intellectual Disabilities by Dr. Phyllis Brodsky
- 4/12/18 Mindfulness: A Strategy for Success & Wellness for People with Disabilities by Stefanie Patterson
WORKSHOPS/CONFERENCES:
FUN APPS, SOFTWARE OR RESOURCES:
Speech and Language Tips from Abbey
Check out this week's tips from Abbey! She came up with the fabulous idea of putting each week's ideas on a slide, then adding the slides so all the info is in one place...you can go back and look at any time!
Click here to see her amazing ideas! Updated today!
FACILITIES UPDATES
Keep watching here for updates!
YES, YOU CAN CHAT!
Thanks to our amazing tech team (aka Mike and David), Google Chat/Hangouts is now open for staff use. Please note that students cannot access this feature. I LOVE Google Chat--it's a huge timesaver.
Below is a link to a great video explaining the basics of Hangouts. I did have to edit it to shorten. I also have the link to add the Google Hangouts extension to Chrome. The extension and Hangouts are only available to staff.
Video link:
Extension:
Mike and David are happy to help if you need assistance!
Education Association of Fox Lake News and Updates
The EAFL executive board will be meeting Wednesday of this week for our quarterly meeting. We will be working on an agenda for our upcoming articulation meeting that will be held on Wednesday, March 21. If you have any topics that you would like addressed, please email Melissa Williams with agenda suggestions.
Listen to short (3 minute) Legislative Update by IEA Government Relations Director Jim Reed using the link: https://ieanea.org/2018/
The IEA-NEA is offering ideas, guidance, and additional resources to help put an end to gun violence in our schools. To read more about this topic, use the link: https://ieanea.org/safe-
The IEA-NEA is supporting March For Our Lives, a student organized march taking place in Washington D.C. and communities worldwide (including nearby Woodstock, Huntley, Elgin, Downers Grove, Rockford, and Chicago), that aims to demand the topic of safety in our schools become a priority for lawmakers. If you are interested in participating in a march or contributing financially, use the link https://www.
Maureen DeVoss, Vice President for Certified Staff
Chris Brown, Vice President for Non-Certified Staff
Katy Gardner, Treasurer
Betty Cwiak, Secretary
Barb Brown, Region Representative
Matt Shannon, Stanton School Representative
Tiffany Tardio, Lotus School Representative
17-18 Payroll Schedule--UPDATED 10/22/17
Blue Cross Blue Shield:
Guardian:
Questions for thought as you read...
George did it again!
Who is your "whole world"?
How can you be the whole world to a child who needs a little more TLC?
“Someone else’s whole world.”
This past weekend, I met a fantastic educator. He had just won an award as “teacher of the year,” and he made his way toward me in the morning to thank me for my talk. We sat and chatted for a bit, and it was a true pleasure to talk to him. As we sat there, his three sons came and sat down with us, and I started to ask them about what they loved in school. The one son told me that what he appreciated about his teacher was that “she loves us.” It was a beautiful answer and one that reminded me that every student that walks into our schools needs to feel valued and that if they weren’t there, they would be missed.
As I talked to his sons, the dad beamed with pride, as he should. I then had to speak to the large group again and asked his son to share his thoughts with the group, to which the father was still beaming. I thanked him and his family for coming and appreciated that moment.
When I finished speaking, the teacher’s father, who had been in attendance to celebrate his son’s recognition, came out of his way to thank me for my kindness towards his son and grandchildren. I had no idea he was there, and it was a sweet moment to see three generations of a family there to celebrate the day.
It was a beautiful reminder that at no matter what age, we are somebody’s everything.1 I love this quote from Tom Murray:
I wrote about this idea years ago, and told the story about dealing with some disgruntled fans in a game I was reffing:
I distinctly remember reffing a basketball game and having some fans yell some really nasty things while in the game. At the break, I walked over to the fans, and introduced them to my mom and dad who were sitting in the stands. They didn’t yell anymore. Our parents always care about us, even when we are adults.
My dad is no longer with us, and I miss him daily, and to see that father beaming over his son reminded me of how much I missed my dad, and how much my mom still makes sure that I know how much she loves me every time we talk. My friend, Jimmy Casas, called my mom to tell her how much he appreciated me, even though they have never met. It meant a lot to my mom, and I know it said a lot to the parents of Jimmy’s teachers that he would call with kind words as a principal.
These things matter and they are always a good reminder to do our best to be kind to each other.
This past weekend, I met a fantastic educator. He had just won an award as “teacher of the year,” and he made his way toward me in the morning to thank me for my talk. We sat and chatted for a bit, and it was a true pleasure to talk to him. As we sat there, his three sons came and sat down with us, and I started to ask them about what they loved in school. The one son told me that what he appreciated about his teacher was that “she loves us.” It was a beautiful answer and one that reminded me that every student that walks into our schools needs to feel valued and that if they weren’t there, they would be missed.
As I talked to his sons, the dad beamed with pride, as he should. I then had to speak to the large group again and asked his son to share his thoughts with the group, to which the father was still beaming. I thanked him and his family for coming and appreciated that moment.
When I finished speaking, the teacher’s father, who had been in attendance to celebrate his son’s recognition, came out of his way to thank me for my kindness towards his son and grandchildren. I had no idea he was there, and it was a sweet moment to see three generations of a family there to celebrate the day.
It was a beautiful reminder that at no matter what age, we are somebody’s everything.1 I love this quote from Tom Murray:
I wrote about this idea years ago, and told the story about dealing with some disgruntled fans in a game I was reffing:
I distinctly remember reffing a basketball game and having some fans yell some really nasty things while in the game. At the break, I walked over to the fans, and introduced them to my mom and dad who were sitting in the stands. They didn’t yell anymore. Our parents always care about us, even when we are adults.
My dad is no longer with us, and I miss him daily, and to see that father beaming over his son reminded me of how much I missed my dad, and how much my mom still makes sure that I know how much she loves me every time we talk. My friend, Jimmy Casas, called my mom to tell her how much he appreciated me, even though they have never met. It meant a lot to my mom, and I know it said a lot to the parents of Jimmy’s teachers that he would call with kind words as a principal.
These things matter and they are always a good reminder to do our best to be kind to each other.
March 14--Kindergarten Round Up!!!!
March 20--Board of Education Meeting--Final 18-19 calendar approval
I received this lovely basket of flowers from all of you! Since I’m home a lot right now, I placed it where I will enjoy it most of my waking hours. It really is beautiful! Thank you all for your kindness and well wishes! It’s a privilege to be part of such a thoughtful, wonderful work family! I am truly blessed.
-From Yvette Stauner
Enjoy your day off, and know that YOU are appreciated!
Heather
