Mr. G's Corner: Pennoyer Family Newsletter

Pennoyer Families,

We had another successful week at Pennoyer as we count down to the end of the school year...3 weeks left! Last week it was our butterflies, but this week, Pennoyer celebrated our baby chics being hatched in Preschool. They're all doing great and many other classes got to come visit throughout this week!

We also had our Online Safety/Digital Citizenship Assemblies to kick off our week with Sergeant Zage and Officer Pina from the Norridge Police Department. Our K-8th graders did a wonderful job listening, answering questions, and continuing to be educated on how to best navigate being online, playing games, and social media. Please continue as parents/guardians to do everything you can to educate yourself about online safety and work with your children. It's important to have open and honest conversations with our students. As a school, we'll continue to educate them on these topics as well. If you're interested...HERE is the K-2 student presentation, HERE is the 3rd-6th, and HERE is the 7th/8th grade one. Thanks for your teamwork with all of this.

Finally, I just want to wish a happy Mother's Day out to all of our Pennoyer moms out there celebrating this Sunday! We so appreciate each and every one of you, and I hope you have a peaceful day with whatever you choose to do. Thanks for everything you do each and every day!

Want to get involved, volunteer, or have ideas for our school...Check out the PTC Link!

We Celebrate at Pennoyer!

It's all about our amazing staff this week at Pennoyer as we come to the end of our Staff Appreciation Week. In all honesty, every week we need to appreciate our staff that make Pennoyer such a special place for all of our students and families. From the teachers, to support staff, to paraprofessionals, student services, related services, office staff, and our facilities team, they truly all make it work for our school, and their dedication and passion for educating our students is unmatched. I was in the classroom for almost 20 years, so I know firsthand who the true heroes of a school are. Our staff connect with our students beyond just academics. They're role models, social/emotional support, mentors, coaches, and advocates every step of the way. As I walked through the hallways and classrooms this past week and throughout the entire school year I get to witness firsthand the creativity, thoughtfulness, and work ethic of our Pennoyer staff who I'm so incredibly lucky to be working with. Here's just a small taste of what I get to see every day that makes me so proud of our staff...seeds being fertilized for an activity using sunlight through the window of a classroom in 2nd grade, along with students making their own helicopter leaves out of paper to learn more about nature's "zone of darkness", 4th graders showcasing their informative writing essays, debates in 8th grade to practice creating a coherent argument with claims and reasoning through the topic of should college be free or not, 3rd graders getting to take shots on their classroom basketball hoop based on social emotional growth and how well they've been living up to school expectations, 6th graders in music practicing piano on their iPads and creating their own music, Kindergartners working together on a game board to help them sound out words effectively, and 1st graders partner reading to each other and using their creativity and some hand paint to create something special for Mother's Day. The list goes on and on, so thank a million times for everything you do for students, families, and our entire community. #Pennoyerpride and #StaffAppreciationWeek