Principal's Message 12/21/18

12/21/18

TGIF...Twin Groves it’s Friday!  I hope everyone has a happy and healthy new year! Enjoy your time off during Winter Break. See you in 2019!
 

In an effort to spread positivity, Twin Groves uses our 5 Traits to recognize exemplars of the following qualities: Responsible, Accountable, Respectful, Safe, and a Community. In addition to the 5 Traits, we are also recognizing students for being an Upstander.

As part of this focus, the Twin Groves Staff would like to recognize and reward students who consistently demonstrate these qualities each month. For our first month of recognitions, we are pleased to announce that the following students have been selected for displaying these characteristics.

Sruthi Bharath Kumar

Jacob Edley

Jacob Helfer

Paula Lescinskaite

Mary Martova

Saanvi Sharma

Veronika Upart

Counseling Corner
Mrs. DiMare and Ms. McDevitt, School Social Workers
Mrs. Koulentes, School Counselor
Mrs. Leverentz, School Psychologist

Exercise from the Book Mindfulness for Teen Anxiety,  Christopher Willard PsyD.
If you or your child is feeling overwhelmed, try this exercise to calm down.

Clearing the Mind

Sometimes when you have so much going on in your life it is hard to see what is actually important and what you need to focus on in your life.

Imagine that your life is like a snow globe or a glitter ball and all of your thoughts are the pieces of glitter inside.  Shake the ball either a lot or a little and just watch and wait for the glitter to settle.

Now close your eyes and bring your attention to your mind and breath.  Try to imagine all of your thoughts settling with each breath. Your thoughts  never go away, but they can move aside and this can allow more clarity and calm in your head.

You can even make your own snow globe from a kit and put in inspirational images and/or quotes in it.

5 Essentials Survey Information

District 96 parents are asked to complete online the parent portion of the Illinois 5Essentials Survey by Jan. 18, 2019. Access the survey: https://survey.5-essentials.org/Illinois/

As a parent, this is your opportunity to share your thoughts on important elements of your child’s school’s effectiveness. The survey gathers data related to five indicators that can predict important student outcomes, including improved attendance and larger test score gains.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact 5Essentials Client Services at 1-866-440-1874 or [email protected] or Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Jeanne Spiller

Current Patriot Consortium Mathematics Placement Process

Over the last few years, Stevenson High School and the feeder middle schools have created a scope and sequence and aligned the curriculum to the Common Core Standards for Mathematics, as well as created common benchmarks for the end of each unit for both the Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 courses. The consortium has created criteria that defines the four strands of mathematical proficiency to highlight the attributes of a proficient mathematical thinker. The criteria are grouped into three categories (See chart on second page):

• Procedural Skills & Fluency (How well you can correctly use mathematics.)

• Conceptual Understanding (How well you utilize mathematical ideas, transfer your knowledge into new situations, and apply it to new contexts.)

• Problem Solving with Adaptive Reasoning and Strategic Competence (How well you can apply strategies and sound reasoning.)

Over the course of the year, the mathematics teachers will be discussing these criteria with the students in class to create a portrait of each student. This portrait will be used to recommend the students into the mathematics course at Stevenson High School that matches their content knowledge as well as level of mathematics proficiency at this time.

As a district and consortium, it is our vision that each student move on to the next course in the sequence providing that there are not significant gaps in content knowledge. If there are significant gaps in content knowledge and a change in recommendation occurs, we will contact you. We feel that this process allows a mathematical picture of the student to develop over time, which will provide a more informed recommendation.

Daily Announcements

The Daily Announcements will be posted each morning. Please see Twin Groves website for up to date school announcements.  The announcements let you know what exciting activities and clubs are going on at Twin Groves. Please click here to access the Daily Announcements.

PTO

Attention PTO Volunteers!

When you are volunteering for an event at Twin Groves, please don’t forget to sign in and out in the front office. Thank you!

Upcoming Events

-Dessert Day is on January 23rd

-Special Lunch is on January 30th

-Winter Bash is on February 8th from 3PM-5PM

Please click here to access the Membership Toolkit. All items for sale from the PTO will be available on this website.

Band & Orchestra Boosters

Please click the BLOG to access the latest news from the Band & Orchestra Boosters.