3-15-24

 Monday night before the board meeting Nicole, Sherry, Nicole J, Jessica E, Principal Smith and myself had a blast at the PTA Culvers event serving some great Benjamin families and other Carol Stream patrons.  

Speaking of the board meeting, Megan Peterson was at the board meeting with her husband to receive her NBCT recognition from Dr. Woell and the school board.  

I appreciate Greg being in house for our IAR training.  It is not easy getting everything ready for testing.  Also, shout out to Kim G who also worked extremely hard to get the IAR accommodations entered for all of our students and getting them pulled to the correct testing room.  

I will be talking with all of our students during lunch periods on Monday about getting ready to give their best on the upcoming IAR tests.  On Tuesday I will be getting slimed at the end of the 8th/5th grade lunch period (11:20) outside in the back.  This is for students that raised enough money in the fun run in the fall.  

Increase your students math literacy

improving math literacy

I appreciate the hard work that Chris is putting into the BB300 each week.  I especially liked her having kids do the pledge while using american sign language.  

Spring sports are right around the corner.  Dan sent out the sign up genius link for supervision.  We will need lots of help  especially for our two home track meets so please sign up!

Using daily reflection writing to check on connections with students.

https://www.edutopia.org/article/daily-reflective-writing-teachers

The 8th grade students had a great time on their golf reward trip.  I am proud of how this group of 8th grade students have handled themselves this year.  

Joe has been doing a great job with his students in the healthy cooking class.  It is a very demanding task to get it all accomplished in 45 minutes!

                                               Words Matter

The musical stage is empty now but very soon will be filled with song, dance, and nervous kids about to have the time of their young lives. Before it's all over I want to take the time to thank Danielle, April and especially Melissa who will be at the helm of the musical for her very last time.  I know how much she loves what she does and we all appreciate how much time and energy she pours into making each musical the best it can be.  Bravo!

Newsies

"You use a glass mirror to see your face: you use works of art to see your soul." 

George Bernard Shaw

"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better."

Samuel Beckett

"Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world."

Oscar Wilde

3-8-24

 The musical is just one week away.  Melissa, Danielle and April  will be putting the motors on full blast next week for tech week leading to the first school performance. Shout out to April for all of the extra work she has put into the backdrop the last few days.  . 

I hope everyone had a good time at the first annual Contest of Champions at the staff learning meeting.  Congratulations to the Specials Team for taking home the coveted "Wilson" trophy.  I know it will travel amongst their rooms in a place of honor for the next year!  You are all winners in my book.  

Jessica and the Tiger Times put out another outstanding issue this week.  I am always amazed at the detail the students put into each article.  They definitely earned their issue release party!

Colleen, Alex and student council have kicked off the food drive to help the Carol Stream Rotary fill the food pantry shelves. Since next week is the last week, please encourage and remind your students to participate and bring in non-perishable food and nonfood items for charity. 

3 strategies to increase student participation.

increase student participation

I am looking forward to Greg's IAR presentation on next Wednesday's early release schedule.  It will be in the multipurpose room and it will start at 1:45pm.  

Thanks to grade level teams for ensuring that all students take the 5 Essentials Survey before the March 29th deadline.  I appreciate the extra time put into explaining the purpose and process so students take the survey seriously.  

8 Great Tech tools to try this year.  (actually check this one out when you have time or maybe in team) From Cult of Pedagogy

https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/ed-tech-tools-2024/ 

Both  Michele Davis and Sherry tied in awards presentations/themes to their classroom to ramp up the engagement and excitement in their lessons this week.  I appreciate the effort that all of you put into your lesson planning each day.  

Dr. Woell and Dr. Filas did a great job of setting the stage with the three architecture presentations to the school board on Monday.  This involved a lot of work leading up to the presentations to put us in the best position to have great choices to do the work that needs to be done in the next couple years.  Special thanks to Michele Davis, Megan Dusing, Dan Baker and Sherry Anderson for staying for the three hours of presentations.  

Shout out to Catherine Miller for returning to Benjamin to finish her MS-SLP internship with Megan Dusing.  The student is now the teacher! I look forward to seeing the work she does to help our students.  

"The very meaninglessness of life forces man to create his own meaning." -- Stanley Kubrick

"Persistence is stubbornness with a purpose." -- Richard DeVos

"With a purposeful story, you can change a 'wanna be' to a 'gonna be' to a 'be'." -- Peter Guber