Woodlawn Principal's Blog 12/21/18

Winter Break! We have been working so hard this year and it is time for our longest break of the school year.  I want to wish everyone a safe break and if you are traveling, I am happy for you...slightly envious, but happy.  Spirit week was a lot of fun this week. LOTS & LOTS of Chicago Bear jerseys! It is good to see that the kids are into their team.  We ended the week with a wild student vs. faculty basketball game.  Fittingly, it ended in a 19-19 tie.  Just a few things in the blog this week.

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Public Service Announcement

Your child brought home their gym uniform today.  There is a possibility that this is the first time all semester that the uniform has been brought home.  Just so you don’t find it in their backpack on the morning of January 7th, ask your child where it is because we made everyone take their P.E. clothes home.  That is a special scent.

The 7th Grade Boys “B” Basketball team won two games on Wednesday defeating Aptakisic and Daniel Wright to take home the conference championship in exciting fashion. The first game ended in Hollywood style with Jake Shapiro, who had been on injured reserve for most of the season, putting up a fade away jump shot with 2 seconds left with the Wolves down by 1 point. You could feel the emotions in the crowd as the incredible shot went in. The entire Woodlawn family is very proud of this team. Congratulations to Tom, Kush, Ryan, Devin, Mikey, Cole, Connor, Abinav, Luke, Jake and Hunter.

Congratulations to the 7th Grade Boys “A” Basketball team on their first place finish in both the regular season and the PMSC tournament. The Wolves were 12-0 going into the tournament and beat both Daniel Wright and Aptakisic last night in dominating fashion. Their ball movement, unselfish play, unbreakable press, and aggressive trap defense were so much fun to watch. Congratulations to Ethan, Aarnav, Randy, Ben, Kaiden, Preston , Enzo, Sharan,  & Christian.Great season Wolves!!!

Girls Volleyball Tryouts

The Woodlawn girl’s volleyball teams are going to hold tryouts right after winter break. Please make sure you have a current physical on file in the nurse’s office before you attend tryouts.

7th Grade tryouts will be held Wednesday and Thursday, January 9th and 10th from 3:15-5:00pm

8th Grade tryouts will be held Friday, January 11th from 2:30-3:15pm and Monday, January 14th from 3:15-5:00pm

5Essentials

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
 

Finally, I am officially on vacation.  

Have a wonderful break and school will resume on Monday, January 7th at 7:45a.m.