2/2/24
It was another good week here at Woodlawn. Mrs. Cameron and I have been getting into classrooms, meeting with teachers and teams, and focusing on improvement as we are now past the halfway point of the school year. We are going to have an all-school assembly on Monday to focus on our achievements and look forward to the next couple of months of school.
7th Grade PTO Lunch
Our 7th graders were treated to lunch on Wednesday, celebrating the tipping point of their middle school experience. For you first-time middle school parents, it is amazing how quickly this time passes and seeing your child getting ready for high school. Thank you again, PTO for this tasty treat!
Upcoming Dates:
February 16th - Half Day 11:10 a.m. dismissal
February 19th - No School
6th Grade Dental Forms
Parents of our 6th graders, Dental Forms are due in to Nurse Kaufmann by May 15th. Please get on this right away. If you have any questions, please contact our nurse at [email protected]
Woodlawn Wolves of the Month - January
Congratulations to our Woodlawn Wolves of the Month for September. Each team chooses a Woodlawn student to be their representative. The characteristics we look for are consistently demonstrating respect, kindness, responsibility, and perseverance, as well as serving as a role model for outstanding expected behavior. Congratulations to Maya Nordlund, Jamell Brown, Arya Khedekar, Jocelyn Ladden, Patrick Lin, Julia Rapaport, Theo Nunez, Acha Ruiz.
Click here for the Woodlawn Daily Announcements!
NEW *5Essentials Student Survey*
Beginning the week of February 12th, District 96 students in 4th-8th grade will be administered the Illinois 5Essentials Survey. This 25-minute survey is based on over 20 years of research at the University of Chicago and asks students about their experiences in school to provide school leaders with critical student input to help develop school improvement plans. Students’ identities will be completely confidential, and teachers and administrators will never see individual responses to survey questions and will only receive aggregated information.
Please be aware that under the Protection of Pupil Rights Act. 20 U.S.C. Section 1232(c) (1) (A), you have the right to review a copy of the questions asked of your student(s). Survey questions can be found at the UChicago Impact Support Center. (https://impactsurveys.my.site.com/s/article/illinois-5essentials-survey-questions)
If you do not want your child’s input to be considered for school improvement purposes, please contact Greg Grana [email protected] by February 9th.
NEW *5Essentials Survey for Parents/Guardians*
Beginning January 30th through March 29th, District 96 invites you to share your thoughts on the inner workings of your child’s school. On behalf of the Illinois State Board of Education, the Illinois 5Essentials Survey will be administered online by UChicago Impact at the University of Chicago.
As a parent, this opportunity will allow you to share your thoughts on the important elements of school effectiveness in a survey about your child’s school. Your participation will help us understand the conditions at your child’s school and guide our improvement. Parent identity and survey responses will be kept completely confidential and will never be connected to you or your child.
Please visit http://survey.5-essentials.org/illinois/survey/parent/ to begin the parent survey. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact UChicago Impact Client Services at 1-866-440-1874 or [email protected].
Registered Yet? Addressing Toxic Achievement Culture
On February 7, District 96 co-hosts the Parent Network Program "Addressing Toxic Achievement Culture." This session features author Jennifer Wallace talking about how we can "teach our kids to strive toward excellence without crushing them.”
This virtual session begins at 7 p.m.
To register, visit http://tinyurl.com/VAPLDToxicAchievementCulture.
This session is hosted in collaboration with District 102, District 103, and District 125, and the Vernon Area Library.
Illinois Youth Survey- 8th Grade Only
On Monday, February 26th, the 8th Graders will be taking the Illinois Youth Survey.
Please click HERE for more information.
If you would like your child to opt out of the survey, please email Greg Grana at [email protected].
Side Notes:
Congratulations to our Science Olympiad team and their performance at the Rockford Invitational last Saturday. Both of our teams, varsity, and junior varsity, had excellent placements as our varsity took 2nd place overall and our JV team took 3rd place overall in their perspective divisions.
The Woodlawn staff is an amazing team and we have the best Social Committee ever. Working in a school, when you get into January and February, things get challenging. Expectations are high, students are very familiar with each other, poor decisions are made, the weather is bleak, and everyone is just tense. As a staff, we each brought in a box of cereal on Monday to share. It is funny how quickly the sugar cereal goes compared to the Special K. Each day of the week our clothing choices were planned, fleece day, white out, blackout, twin day (partner outfit) and today was Hawaiian day. I didn’t have to think about what I was wearing all week. Happy staff members equal more patience. This staff is the best.
Finally, I love the movie Ground Hog Day. The message is so clear to me but I worry that my children can never watch a movie deeply enough and get the true meaning from it because they are on their phones at the same time. In my world, the movie Ground Hog Day is about being happy with your life and making the most of it. If you think about your life, there is no one day that you can say, “I want to live that day over and over again.” Every day is a chance to build upon and improve. Now, are there days when things were awesome? You betcha. Possibly birthday parties as a child, I have the pictures to prove that I looked really happy. The day you get your driver's license and experience a newfound freedom. The day I hit four doubles in a college baseball game and drove in the winning run (now I’m just bragging). My wedding, the days my children were born (my wife might disagree, we had different experiences), vacations, meeting special people for the first time and remembering every detail, etc. All of these are great, but to live that day over and over is not what it is all about. Saver the glimmers, those special moments that happen every day and string together good days. The thing is, even on those good days, crummy things might be happening to you. Show resilience and move on. Be better, know more, do better. Life is good.
Happy Ground Hog Day! Sunday is 2/4/24. <--------- glimmer