Tomorrow marks the start of Teacher Appreciation Week! The entire week is about celebrating ALL OF YOU who influence the lives of our Kubbies. I certainly appreciate all the little things you do, but what I appreciate the most is the safe, nurturing learning environments you create for our children. I can see how hard you work, especially despite our circumstances, to make a difference in your students’ lives and maintain a sense of normalcy via e-Learning. Thank you for being a constant presence of SAFETY, LOVE and HOPE in the lives of your students. I hope you know how much I enjoy working with you and how proud I am to be your colleague. Thank you for all that you do here at Kennedy School. You are changing lives!
Wednesday, May 6th Nurse’s Appreciation Day! Let’s celebrate and recognize ANNA virtually! HERE’S a FLIPGRID: Staff/students…..Add a video! SD81 Car Parades (Kennedy’s is at 11:00am)
**Meet at LMS at 10:45am!
CPT Meetings (reschedule to Tuesday or Thursday)
Thursday, May 7th SD81 Mentor Celebration (Virtual) @ 4:00pm
As we enter Week 6 of E-Learning (7th week since we’ve been able to hug our students)……..remember how PROUD we are of your efforts to continue connecting in MEANINGFUL WAYS with our Kubbies!
Continue to make CONNECTIONS and RELATIONSHIPS your primary focus! Thank you for caring for ALL of our KUBBIES, even from a distance. Please know that Donna, Sara and I are here to support you and support our families in any way!
Are you the carrot, egg, or coffee beans?
Our 6th and 8th grade BUDDIES at LMS are definitely COFFEE BEANS…..during online meetings with their teachers, our LMS students talked about how the quarantine has affected their everyday lives and regular school routines. Out of this conversation sparked an amazing idea — and the LMS students wanted to spread some joy to the younger students at Kennedy during this uneasy time. HERE IS A LINK to a folder that the 6th and 8th grade students recorded videos of themselves reading picture books. Please feel free to share with our Kubbies!
This week is our Autism Acceptance VIRTUAL SPIRIT WEEK!
Here’s our week at a glance:
Monday, April 27th Pokemon Monday: Wear your favorite Pokemon character or create your own!
Tuesday, April 28th Sensory Friendly Tuesday: Dress in your comfy clothes, or wear sunglasses
Wednesday, April 29th What’s Your Passion Wednesday? Wear something to share your passion CPT Meetings
Thursday, April 30th Neurodiversity Thursday: wear rainbow or tie-dye clothes to school
Friday, May 1st Show Your Support Friday: Wear Kennedy Blue to show your support of Autism Acceptance
School Lunch Hero Day! (*Let’s celebrate Miss Cindy and ALL of our amazing cafeteria team ladies virtually! Cindy, Chris G, Marta, Maria & Betty).
As we head into the final weeks of the school year, here are some tips/phrases on how we can frame a positive mindset, despite these unfortunate circumstances:
Consider end-of-the-year activities that you would normally do with your students, and engage in conversations with your team this Wednesday during CPT on how to make adjustments to ensure your students can still experience some of those things….just differently!
HOT TIPS!!!!!!!!
If you’re like me, every morning I need MULTIPLE different tabs to start my day! Head over to @aprimarykindoflife on Instagram and check her “TIDY BROWSER” story highlights — she’ll show you can, with one click, you can open all of your tabs automatically!
Do you have an OSMO at home?
Did you know you can download a free app called OSMO PROJECTOR and you can turn your iPad into a document camera? Use it to airplay/show a book while you do a read aloud on Zoom, or use the SCREENRECORD button on your iPad and record a lesson!
If you haven’t had a chance already, please take a minute to complete this survey re: a car parade!
Dear #BestStaffEVER:
We see you! We know you didn’t sign up for e-Learning. You’re probably tired, stressed, and worn out! And you’re allowed to feel that way! But we also see you showing up EVERYDAY for our Kubbies! We see you learning new things (Loom…can you say AMAZING) to help them learn! And above all, we still SEE your passion for teaching/learning …. and your LOVE for your STUDENTS!
I hope you still remember to take time to recharge……and take ONE DAY AT A TIME! You can do hard things!
Here’s our week at a glance:
Monday, April 20th Happy Monday! Thank you for your continued commitment to the students of District 81!
Tuesday, April 21st Happy Birthday Anna Kaminska (Yellow Bus Driver)
Wednesday, April 22nd Administrative Assistants’ Day! Let’s celebrate Eva, Sue & Mirta virtually and show our love and appreciation for them 🙂
Earth Day!
CPT Meetings — be sure to contribute to your team’s weekly agenda!
Please be sure your virtual meetings (zoom/Google Meets) with students for this week are updated in the school schedule here.
Check out this Reading Challenge below…..how else can we foster and continue a love of reading at home? While our Kubbies can access Scholastic resources, EPIC and NewsELA resources…..did you know that MyOn News has been activated for our district? Students should now be able to find a NEWS tab next to their Library tab where they can access 5 daily news articles written specifically for kids.
While West40 has unfortunately cancelled the Butterfly Kits, if you’re still interested in ordering a cup of butterflies for your students to learn/observe, check out www.insectlore.com where you can purchase a cup of caterpillars, or a butterfly kit! Are there other learning opportunities that our Kubbies are missing out on, that we can still re-create via e-Learning???
Looking for an easy way to plan your week out & communicate with parents?! Sharing information for the whole week in one place will be well-received by our families! Please be sure you are communicating your weekly zoom times, as well! Remember — our parents may be feeling overwhelmed with e-Learning, just like the students. Please be sure you are regularly communicating with families about what students are learning about throughout the week, and how parents can support their child/children at home. How did you communicate with families prior to COVID-19? Are you at least communicating that same level of engagement? What would you want to know as a parent?
Remember, Donna, Sarah and I are a phone call/text away! Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions, feedback or concerns! We are here to support you. Please let us know howwe can help!
Let’s have an amazing week!
Here’s our week at a glance:
Monday, April 13th
Tuesday, April 14th
Wednesday, April 15th CPT Meetings!
Thursday, April 16th
Friday, April 17th ABC COUNTDOWN BEGINS!! (click to see the PDF version)
A – ARTIST DAY! WEAR BLUE to PROMOTE AUTISM ACCEPTANCE!
5 by Friday! Continue making positive connections! Parents would love to hear how their children are CRUSHING e-Learning! Pick up the phone or consider sending a positive postcard!
(04/19) Happy Birthday Chris Gonzalez
Looking Ahead……
(04/22) Administrative Assistants’ Day
I hope you were able to enjoy time during your Spring Break resting and relaxing and making new memories with those you love (while social distancing).
As we welcome our students back tomorrow, and return to e-Learning, please remember that you are just as instrumental in developing the social and emotional needs of your students as you are in developing their academic needs.
You have risen to the occasion and done an amazing job implementing e-Learning. The love, purpose, grace, compassion and innovation you’ve demonstrated are commendable! Our Kubbies have been amazing, too — adjusting to the new world of learning they’ve been thrown into! Thank you for supporting our students and families. We will come out of this stronger, living and loving differently than we ever have, with new levels of appreciation and gratitude that we never even knew we had! This may be the toughest thing we’ve ever done, but let’s keep going! Our Kubbies and their families are counting on us!
We all became educators because we care about kids…..now more than ever, they are counting on our presence (albeit, via an iPad). Your relationships with your students and your commitment to their well-being will sustain your connections in the weeks to come. Relationships matter, now more than ever!
Focus on COMMUNICATION, CONNECTION, CARE, COMPASSION, and COMFORT!
Let’s kick off another amazing week of e-Learning tomorrow. Remember, no e-Learning on Friday.
Donna, Sara and I look forward to connecting with each grade level/team tomorrow via a ZOOM meeting to catch up and look ahead together. Please check the Kennedy calendar for your grade level’s timeslot & ZOOM link.
Have a great Sunday….and see you all (virtually) tomorrow!
We’ve got this!
Here’s our week at a glance:
Monday, April 6th Welcome Students Back to e-Learning: Week 3
We are about to embark on WEEK 2 of E-Learning! Thanks for all you’ve done to keep in touch with our Kubbies, check-in on their well-being, bring smiles to their faces, ensure their safety, and provide them with engaging, FUN learning experiences virtually. I’m amazed at how quickly this all came together, and how much you’re all doing to keep the relationships STRONG between home/school.
This week, we want our students to start the week FRESH….a NEW START…..
Please archive your assignments and daily tasks assigned from last week…..we want students to log-in tomorrow morning with a clean slate and clean mind ….ready to tackle Week 2 (the less, the better….as e-Learning on Showbie is new for everyone).
As you saw from Stacey’s email, the team leaders worked this weekend to create a school-wide VIRTUAL SPIRIT WEEK for our Kubbies! Whether students/families post on Instagram, Showbie or Seesaw, please use this as a chance to bring our students/staff together this weeK!
Donna, Sara and I also challenge all of our KUBBIES and their families to participate in an e-Learning CHALLENGE. We are asking every student to draw their very own Kubbie or Kubbie Paw to show their love for our #kennedykubbies school community! With many people going for neighborhood walks to get fresh air, let’s see how much KUBBIE LOVE we can see in our neighbors’ windows!
Teachers: Please share this CHALLENGE and the videos with your students in their E-Learning folders tomorrow!
*Amazing job to all of you who have created their own YouTube channels to share content! Such an awesome way to share read alouds, etc!
We are here to support you in any way we can! We are an email, text, call or Google Hangout/Zoom call away (and we love joining in on your class calls, too, so please be sure to invite us)! We will be working from home as well, starting tomorrow.
Stay healthy, be safe, and be sure to take care!
Leaving you with these daily quarantine questions to reflect on each day this week:
I imagine we all experienced a sense of uncertainty today. I’m hopeful that some of your questions were answered and you feel ready to take on e-Learning together on Monday morning!
THANK YOU for being positive, flexible, and GROUNDED today for our Kubbies!
Thank you for your hard work in creating meaningful e-Learning activities for our students.
Here is the folder (in our shared Kennedy drive) where we will house the e-Learning materials. Feel free to continue adding ideas and resources you may find over the weekend to share with your team. Here are some Showbie Resources you may want to revisit over the weekend if you need a refresher!
We (all staff) will meet on Monday morning at 8:30am in the cafeteria. We will review some more info about e-Learning and will make sure we’re all on the same page before launching our morning welcome message for our 1st e-Learning day, together shortly after!
If any of your students were not at school today (to take their iPad home), they have been contacted and you will receive an email from Sara with a specific appointment time on Monday when your student and their parent(s) will stop in the office.
We will take time on Monday to review training/learning functions on Showbie. We’ll make sure that each teacher JOINS the classrooms that they need to join and that we are all situated! Together we’re better, and together we’ll provide the best learning experiences for our Kubbies!
We’ll also take this time to SHARE awesome e-Learning resources, ideas, materials to keep our students excited about learning and engaged with us over the next two weeks.
PLEASE take the time to add resources or activities so we can learn from one another and create some amazing e-Learning days for our students. Feel free to add a slide, and fill in information so we can share-out and learn from one another on Monday! Collectively, we’re better! Many of you have already shared such amazing resources with one another! Let’s keep this going!
We are going to get through this the way we always do….with care, compassion, community and support!
We got this….and we’ll be stronger on the other side for it.
Thank you to every single person who pitched in to help today — we so appreciate your help and willingness to just lend a hand!
A big thanks to Dr. B for her courageous leadership!! Thank you for always keeping the safety of SD81’s students and staff at the forefront of every single decision you make! We are grateful for your leadership.
Donna, Sara and I couldn’t ask for a better work family to ride out a pandemic with.
Be well, and let us know if you need anything!
(Please be sure to forward any questions or concerns so we can navigate this together).
See you on Monday at 8:30am in the cafeteria!
Wash your hands!
Stay healthy!
(and let me know if you have any spare toilet paper….just kidding).
I hope you enjoyed the sunshine and beautiful weather this weekend!
Here’s our week at a glance:
Monday, March 9th 2nd Grade Data Review Meeting with RR
Yearbook/Technology Club (2:30pm-4:00pm)
Tuesday, March 10th AXA Visits during Lunch Periods in Teacher’s Lounge
Faculty Meeting @ 2:50pm
Mentor Meeting (4-5pm)
Kindergarten Round Up (6:00pm)
Wednesday, March 11th 1/2 Day of School (click here for agenda)
*IAR TESTING BEGINS FOR 3RD GRADE (click here for schedule)
Lincoln Buddies Visit 2nd Grade (9:15am-10:00am)
WENDY’s Pennies for Patients Event!
Thursday, March 12th FLASH 48 – Pennies for Patients
Talent Show Rehearsal (2:30pm-4:00pm)
SEL Committee Meeting (2:40pm)
Friday, March 13th FLASH 48 – Pennies for Patients
5 by Friday! Continue making positive connections with families!
Monday, March 2nd Hop on Pop: Hop out of bed and wear your PJs to School
Happy Birthday Bonnie Bricker 🙂
3rd Grade Data Meeting with RR
Dr. Seuss Committee Meeting @ 2:45pm (D115)
Tuesday, March 3rd Fox in Socks: Wear a pair of silly socks!
Happy Birthday Natalie Barcas 🙂
PreK Students Visit Kindergarten (8:45am & 12:25pm)
Faculty Meeting @ 2:50pm
Wednesday, March 4th One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish: Wear RED and BLUE to school!
Dr. Seuss Night! 6:30pm-8:00pm *Hope to see you all there!*
Thursday, March 5th Cat in the Hat: Wear your favorite hat to school
Happy Birthday Debi Cesario 🙂
2nd Grade Rehearsal @ LMS (8:45am-10:00am)
Talent Show After School Rehearsal (2:30pm-4:00pm)
Friday, March 6th Green Eggs & Ham: Wear GREEN to school
Non-Tenured Summative Evaluation Meetings (scheduled by admin)
PreK Screenings
2nd Grade Dr. Seuss Musical Performance @ LMS (9:00am)
Pennies for Patients Mini-Presentation (Click here for schedule)
Keep in mind we will have many visitors in our building on Wednesday for the big event! Please give your classroom spaces and common spaces some extra TLC. This is our opportunity to shine! Let’s continue to make Dr. Seuss Night a memorable event for our students, families and the community of Schiller Park!
Monday, February 24th Happy Birthday Shannon Keating 🙂
Kindergarten DATA Meeting with RR
Yearbook/Technology Club Meeting (2:30pm-4:00pm)
Dr. Seuss Committee Meeting @ 2:45pm (D115)
Project Unify Basketball Game @ 3:45pm (Lincoln Gym)
Tuesday, February 25th Happy Birthday Briahna Santoro 🙂
1/2 Day Parent/Teacher Conferences
NO FACULTY MEETING
Wednesday, February 26th Washington School Community Forum @ 6:30pm
Thursday, February 27th PreK Parent Workshops
SPIRIT ASSEMBLY 8:15am-9:00am ***NOTE NEW DATE AND TIME
BUILDING TOUR @ 9:30am
Charity Committee @ 2:30pm
Talent Show Committee Meeting @ 2:30pm (D209)
Friday, February 28th Happy Birthday Alicia Peccatiello 🙂
SPRING PICTURE DAY (in gymnasium) *Everyone gets their picture taken!
SLBC Swimming Day
