Week 9: Yay for Columbus Day!

Amber Mysliwiec for sharing her fabulous chef skills with the office! Yum! And inviting staff to the gymnastics presentation to watch the student presentations.

and

Victoria Miller for covering anything and everything for PST meetings. 

and

Tiffany McGranahan for planning a wonderful first mentor event for our students.

and

Joan Kantenwein for implementing reading mentors for students that need the "read a lot" program here at Lotus.

-From Natalie Udstuen

Kudos to Eddie for always jumping in to help us with anything we need and for keeping the kitchen nice & clean. 

And kudos to Sonia, Michelle & Yesenia for always being so helpful, positive and accommodating. You ladies are awesome. 

-From Penny Brown

Thank you to my Stanton family for their quick plan of action taking care of the students, so I could leave and I take care of me.  Thank you all!

-From Chris Katuzny

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!

EVERY CHILD NEEDS A CHAMPION
Pete Hall mentioned this on Friday. It's been shared before, but I thought I'd run it again
since it came up as a "must see" on Friday.

Facilities Priority List
The Board continues to examine options in finalizing the facilities priority list. When the list is final, I'll share it with everyone. If you have questions, please let me know, and if you want to see the tentative list, I'm happy to share it. This MUST be finalized in November in order to take action on a resolution to put a referendum on the March 2020 ballot.  

TOSA Corner
Thanks, Erica and Cathy, for the weekly blast of awesome! Click here to access!

Membership cards were passed out this week. If you did not receive your membership card for some reason, please let Melissa Jakstas know. 

New members can use their membership number at https://ieanea.org/ to register and create a log-in and password to start accessing their IEA member benefits. 

EAFL Spirit Day is Tuesday! 

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

Digging in a bit on Pete Hall's 10 keys to a healthy brain...here's the scoop on #1...

1.       Sleep. On average, school-aged kids need 10 hours of sleep each night. That number decreases to 8 as we enter adulthood. During that restful time, our brains “log off” and clean out toxins (that might lead to dementia), sort and file important learnings and memories, and clear the path for neurons to communicate with each other. Don’t believe it? Try depriving yourself of sleep and watch your ability to recall information, mood, and processing skills dwindle, while your risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity increase. So snooze away and let your brain “reboot.” (National Institutes of Health)

MTSS Ongoing Q and A

D114 Curriculum Resources--


2019-20 Assessment Calendar

2019-20 Wednesday Early Release Plans

D114 Friday Facts--Blog sent to all families each Friday--let me know if you ever have something you'd like added. Thanks to Sue Pinkawa and Jill Becmer for helping me with this each week!

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

October 15--Board of Education Meeting at Stanton at 7:00PM

November 2--RD Sayles Foundation Celebration of D114 Arts held at LOTUS 10:00AM-2:00PM.

Tuesday November 12th--Wellness Screenings from 6:00-9:00AM at Lotus

Thursday November 14th--Wellness Screenings from 6:00-9:00AM at Stanton

Please enjoy having Monday off! Thank you for ALL you do!
Heather

Week 8: A week full of learning!!!!

A big shout out to Eddie for his extra help in cleaning the art room after our mosaic work.  He did a beautiful job of making the floors sparkle and keeping the air clean!  Thanks a million, Eddie!! 

-From Gayle McManamon

Cathy Jawnyj and the grade level teachers:  MTSS this week was so rewarding going through Keys to Kids in every grade level from Prek-4th and seeing how many students have been supported and successful through the plans we have started.  I was smiling through every meeting seeing how much informal problem solving has already gone into helping our students. 

and

Michelle Magness- being everywhere and anywhere needed to help coverage being short with subs in the building and readjusting her lunch to make this work!

and

Gina Crosthwaite- knowing it's not always easy to change a schedule at the last minute, went in to support a room in need while the classroom teacher was out.  

and

Matt Peters for making it possible for me to attend all my MTSS meetings this week.

and

Sherry Tietjen for ensuring students are rewarded for their appropriate behavior immediately and often.

and

Amber Mysliwiec for incorporating positive relationships and team-building into PE lessons. 

and

Paula Kvacik for being timely in preparing documents needed for meetings.

and

Alana Carlson for helping us problem solve for a student in need!

and

Jessica Urban for reminding us to "keep it simple."

-From Natalie Udstuen

Kudos to Melissa Jakstas for her leadership in executing the Wellness Expo, Victoria Miller for her super organizational skills in setting up our vendors, Georgette Franco for securing those beautiful bags and donations and the Wellness Committee for reaching out to our community partners and inviting them to promote wellness!
-From Cindy Carlino

Thank you to David Roat for the quick response regarding how to sign into Promethean boards for the Wellness Expo this past weekend.

and

Thank you Mike Szotek for always being on top of my requests even if they are last minute. Also thank you for helping with MAPS. 

and

Thank you to everyone administering MAPS and working so diligently to make sure all students finish. 

-From Victoria Miller

Thank you so much to Andrea DeMatteo who does an amazing job coordinating transportation and is able to always come through when athletic events sometimes get cancelled and rescheduled. 

Thank you to Michelle Burgess and Paula Kvacik who have worked countless hours to make standards based reporting the best that it can be in Skyward. 

Thank you to Betty Cwiak for making our accelerated reader program the best that it can be! Thank you for communicating your updates to students, staff, and parents. 

Thank you to our lunch room supervisors-Betty Cwiak, Lemar Wilson, Emily Armbrecht, Cheri Dory, Chris Carvell, Molly Goodsite, and Sarah Groebe who always go above and beyond supervising students during lunch and recess. 

Thank you to Jessica Lanners for planning the Ronald McDonald Mobile Clinic and for even holding a student's hand who just needed the support!

Thank you to Jill Becmer and Michele Burgess for planning all our fun activities for attendance week. We are wild about attendance and you! 

-From Rachelle Peters

I want to give a kudos to Liz Puhr for helping me put my IEP goals into embrace. She has been so much help, and I can't thank her enough!

-From Mandy Bartlett

A monster should out to the team who made the Wellness Expo come to life! What an awesome event! Thanks to Melissa Jakstas, Cindy Carlino, Kim Husko, Victoria Miller, Tyler Lam, Laura Livesay, Georgette Franco, Amber Mysliwiec, Kim VanHoorelbeke, Cathy Jawnyj, and Michelle Serini!!!

-From Heather

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!

This one makes me think about how cool it is that our teams work so hard focusing on data kid
by kid, skill by skill I'm also grateful to have not 1 but 2 experts coming to work with us this
week!

MTSS Q and A
As we continue digging into MTSS processes, some AWESOME questions
are coming up. In order to clarify what's happening and why, we've started an ongoing
Q and A document. It's linked here, will be sent out in a separate email, and will be
in the links list below so it's always easy to find. If you read this and have input, please
share it. If you have questions that you think should be added, please email so we can
discuss, get to clarity, and share out the answers...and maybe ask you to help figure them out!
THANKS!

Reporting Absences

Please, please, please---if you know you're going to be out, put the absence in Frontline ASAP. If you're sick, the sooner the absence is entered, the better chance we have to get a sub to fill it. We are in process on onboarding new subs, so we'll have more people looking at what's open...so please do your part and get those absences in ASAP and definitely before 6:00AM the day of whenever possible. THANK YOU!

Upcoming Learning Opportunities
Wednesday, October 9--Maria Nielsen will be on site all day to see our 15 Day Challenges in
action and to provide support and coaching. She'll also offer her Engagement Strategies
session (offered at the PLC Institute) during Collaborative Team Time. This will take place
at Stanton to maximize time. ALL teachers and instructional aides are asked to attend.
Her session will be 90 minutes in length and will start at 1:50, so if you need to leave at the
end of your professional day, you may do so. If you stay, you will be paid for time and we'll use
a sign in sheet to track this.

Friday, October 11--Pete Hall, co-author of Fostering Resilient Learners, will be on site for a
day of learning with us. He will focus on how we can all help our students, and you'll leave with
a better understanding of them, of your own triggers, and...most importantly...strategies to use
with our kiddos. All staff should plan on attending this, which will be held at Lotus with
breakfast at 8:00 and Pete's session starting at 8:30. Lunch will be provided, too, thanks to our
fabulous kitchen team!

Please let me know if you have questions about either event!

TOSA Corner
Thanks, Erica and Cathy, for the weekly blast of awesome! Click here to access!

EAFL Spirit Day is Tuesday! Hope to see everyone in their new t-shirt! 

Membership cards are in! We will be sorting them this week and getting them out to everyone, so keep an eye out for your card. 

Don't forget to checkout the IEA Member Center for details about your member benefits, professional development opportunities, and more! You can find the IEA member center at: https://ieanea.org/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

Because some days we all get a little down...

MTSS Ongoing Q and A

D114 Curriculum Resources--


2019-20 Assessment Calendar

2019-20 Wednesday Early Release Plans

D114 Friday Facts--Blog sent to all families each Friday--let me know if you ever have something you'd like added. Thanks to Sue Pinkawa and Jill Becmer for helping me with this each week!

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

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!)
PLEASE LET ME KNOW ASAP IF YOU
WANT TO ATTEND!

November 2--RD Sayles Foundation Celebration of D114 Arts held at LOTUS (details to follow)

Looking forward to a great week of learning for EVERYONE in D114!
Heather