Week Three: September New Beginnings

WOW! Tons of SHOUT OUTS this week! 💛 
Keep 'em coming!

A Big Shout Out to Mike Szotek for quickly responding to my request to add a program to the iPads.  Your turnaround time was nothing short of amazing!!!  Thanks again, Mike!! 

-From Gayle McManamon

Kudos to Gizelle for using her Westward mind to help keep the 8th grade team on top of things with the first day schedules.

and

Kudos to David Roat for helping me with my Smartboard situation.

and

Kudos to Katy Gardner and anyone else involved in allowing us to have classroom work time the morning of Meet & Greet.

-From Dan Olson

Huge thank you to Georgette Franco, Sonia Miller, Joan Kantenwein and Joseph Fernandez for helping with the new breakfast routine for Kindergarten!  2nd week in and the K students are pros!

and

Thank you to Lauren Nee, Bridget Dvorak, Molly Monk, Jessica Urban, Rachel Lundberg, Deb Marienau and Fiona Wisniewski for being flexible with our EC supported students needs and schedules.  You ladies are truly amazing.

and

Thank you to Matt Peters, Lynn Smolen and Heather Friziellie for helping start the first week of preschool with any task big or small the team needed support with! 

and

Thanks to Michelle Magness for bring everywhere and anywhere needed to ensure students are safely transitioning!

and

Thank you to the 4th grade students for helping out with K breakfast and PreK lunch....these students have stepped up to make sure all of our littlest learners are eating, happy and getting what they need!

-From Natalie Udstuen

BIG Thank you to Mike Szotek for always helping me.

From moving the register, bringing me longer cables to make a safe set up for the kids, to

Fixing the ticket printer!!!

Thank you!!!

-From Georgette Franco

Thank you to Norine Morris for taking the time to email about Route 6 and how well the kids are doing...and for all the All Stars you're giving out! The kids are sooooo excited!

HUGE shout outs to the entire Special Education team! There's soooo much to learn and so many new faces, and you are all rocking it. One step at a time...and deep breaths. You're a sensational team!

-From Heather

Grateful for...Christine Spittler and her patience with the third grade kiddos. 

and

Victoria Miller for planning a training after hours for us. 

And of course, grateful for all the adults and teammates checking in on our classroom to make sure we are running smoothly.  It matters. Thanks! 

-From Theresa Kovach

Thank you to EVERYONE who helped make the first week for the Early Childhood Team a success!  Thank you to Linda Rasmussen and Chris Brown for getting our bus tags ready.  Thanks to the whole maintenance team for moving furniture every time I changed my mind!  Thanks to Mike Szotek for constantly coming to our rescue.  Thanks to the whole admin team for being so available to help us with anything and everything to help our kiddos feel safe and comforted.  Thanks to all the office ladies for answering all my questions and tolerating my requests.  Thank you to the amazing kitchen staff for handling all new the changes and helping make lunch go as smoothly as possible.  Thank you to the Early Childhood Team-teachers, aides, specialists (Fiona Wisniewski, Jessica Urban, Molly Monk, Stephanie Silverman, Abbey Kadera, Cathy Jawnyj, and Erica Barraza) for truly working as a team to make our program amazing!!!! 

-From Michelle Magness

Thank you to Victoria Miller for helping me set up a Twitter account and teaching me how to use it. She was very patient and kind with her time. Thank you so much for bringing me into the 21st century! 

-From Joan Kantenwein

Thank you to all the grade level teams for awesome mtss meetings, so excited for this year!

and

Thank you to Kelly Roland for being you and caring about our kids!

and

Thank you to Becky Vedder for offering supplies and help!

and

Thank you to Maureen DeVoss for your support!

and

Thank you Erica Barraza for everything. You are amazing!

and

Thank you to everyone on the Lotus staff, all of you have helped me in one way or another and I am so grateful for your kindness.

and

Thank you Fiona and Alana for meeting with Erica and I about the speech process!

and

Thank you Keli and Lynn for being so supportive and helping me out with anything I need! 

and

Thank you Melissa Jakstas for being you and going above and beyond for our kids!

and

Thank you David Roat for all the help with AIMsweb and technology in general! You're awesome!

and

Thank you to the administrative staff in D114Heather,  Matt, Natalie, Jeff and Rachelle; thank you all for being supportive and helpful! 

and

Thank you Joan Kantenwein for making yourself available when we need your expertise in MTSS meetings!

-From Cathy Jawnyj

Kudos to Emily Armbrecht and Cherri Dory for their great ideas and help during our 6th grade Flex class.  Thank you!

-From Katy Gardner

I have to give a BIG shoutout to Madeline Espinoza for always being there to help me with any issues that come up! Starting with my surgery last year and now more stuff this year! I cannot thank her enough for everything she has done for me! From the bottom of my heart! You are AMAZING!! 
-From Amber Mysliwiec

Shout out to Russ for switching out our chairs!!  Our little learners are more grounded and have stopped the kicking wars that were happening! It is so appreciated!!

-From 2nd grade

Anyone can give a SHOUT OUT to anyone, so please send those positive notes to me and I'll publish each Monday! 

Social Media FIND of the Week...
Cool finds on social media! Pass them along if you find something great!

https://www.mrsrichardsonsclass.com/10-ways-to-use-alexa-in-the-classroom/
Check out these great tips for making life a little easier! Thanks, Tiffany Tardio Weber, for the find!

If you are into self-care and/or are reading Tina Boogren's book from the "read and pass" lottery, you may want to join her Self-Care for Educators Facebook group. She posts nuggets of wonderful! Love her!

Signing Up for a Workshop or Conference
If you're interested in attending a conference or workshop, all you need to do is go into the
Conference/Workshop Share Folder and complete the request form. There's a chart in the
folder that explains how the whole process works. If you have questions, please see your
principals or Heather.

Contract Numbers in Skyward
A great idea came up from the EAFL executive board...adding employees' total contract
earnings in Skyward so you can easily confirm pay as well as year to date earnings. Thanks
to the fabulous Maddie Espinoza, this is now a done deal!
Employees should now have access to view their assignment for the 2019-2020 year. This can be found in Employee Access under Employee Information > Personal Information > Assignments. The employee will need to scroll over to the far right to view salary information.

Curriculum Documents
Thanks to everyone who joined for my sort-of mini-lesson at Wednesday's CTT. After seeing
teams work in a few different documents, we found that there were some opportunities to keep
it simple.
Here are key curriculum links:
NEW--Math Fence Posts by Grade
These should help a TON in 15 Day unit planning. Thanks, Erica, for streamlining so teachers
only need to go one place to find the Math essential standard.

The "What Students Learn" document is still very much a work in progress, so I've
taken it offline for now to get it in a final draft for teams to review.
Later this week, I'll share everyone on a full curriculum folder that houses all our "go
to" documents. I need to review the documents with the Ad Team tomorrow then will
send out...trying to KEEP IT SIMPLE!

TOSA Corner
Thanks, Erica and Cathy, for the weekly blast of awesome!

New staff... don't forget our new member meet & greet is THIS WEDNESDAY, September 4th at 3:15 p.m. The meeting will take place at Stanton in the Health Room (room 10). If you have any questions, or are not able to attend, please let Melissa Jakstas know. Milk and cookies will be served! 

We have a new logo and will be getting new t-shirts soon for all members! Thank you to Tiffany Tardio Weber for your help in designing our new logo. You should have received an email regarding requesting the size of shirt you would like, if you didn't or need help, please contact Melissa Jakstas. If you would like to order long-sleeved shirts, hoodies, etc. that information will be coming soon! 

The EAFL is a proud sponsor of District 114's Day of Service, look for our new logo on all DOS shirts! 

If you ever have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to one of our EAFL board members! 

Melissa Jakstas, President

Maureen DeVoss, Vice President for Certified Staff

Chris Brown, Vice President for Non-Certified Staff

Katy Gardner, Treasurer

Betty Cwiak, Secretary

Cathy Jawnyj, Region Representative

Kendra Smeigh, Stanton School Representative

Tiffany Tardio Weber, Lotus School Representative

September Self-Care Calendar...thought this was a cool find!

And a great self-care opportunity from the fabulous D114 Wellness Committee:

It's hard to believe that September is upon us! 

The D114 Wellness Committee is so excited to step into our first monthly challenge of the school year! 

During the month of September, all D114 staff are encouraged to participate in our September Step Challenge. 

Here's how it works:

- Enter your name in the "D114 September Step Challenge" Google Sheet to sign-up. 

- Use any type of wearable fitness tracker or app to track your steps each day. 

- Periodically enter your steps for each calendar date (daily is best- pro-tip: bookmark the Google Sheet to help remind you to log your steps). 

- Earn 1 raffle ticket for every 50,000 steps you log for a chance to win a $20 gift card! 

- Raffle tickets are due to Melissa Jakstas by Thursday, October 3rd to be entered in the gift card raffle. (You can turn in a hard copy of the raffle tickets, or "Make a copy" of the raffle tickets, enter your name and share them electronically.) 

Looking forward to some healthy competition and challenging ourselves to step it up! 

Let Melissa Jakstas know if you have any questions! 

2019-20 Assessment Calendar

2019-20 Wednesday Early Release Plans

Link to D114 Business Office Share Folder

*check here for documents most frequently used/requested

Please let Heather know of suggestions for any documents to add to this folder!

Work Order Request

Technology Support Request

Blue Cross Blue Shield:

www.bcbsil.com

SEL Pacing Guides

Lotus

Stanton:

5th

6th-8th

September 4--EAFL Meet and Greet for new members (details to follow)
September 10--PTA Meeting (6:30 PM at Lotus)
September 17--Board of Education Meeting (7:00 PM at Lotus)
September 27--D114 Day of Service
October 5--D114 Wellness Expo
October 9--Maria Nielsen in D114 for 15 Day Challenge site visit and to present her
Engagement Strategies session from the PLC Institute to us
October 11-Institute Day--Pete Hall (co-author of Fostering Resilient Learners) on site to help
us learn ways to provide our kids even more connections and supports
October 19--Rotary Trivia Night (Bring it, Team Stanton!)
November 2--RD Sayles Foundation Celebration of D114 Arts (details to follow)

Why Teachers' Aides Deserve Our Appreciation Every Single Day

Loved this article and thought you might, too! Click the title to read. 
Not sure what we'd do without our ENTIRE support staff!

I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend! We were BUSY! Here's a peek at most of the Friz fam--Katie (16) not pictured because she was at Color Guard!

Thanks so much for a high-energy start to the year! I'm so lucky to get to work with each of you...and so are our students!!!

Heather