Spartan Weekly
Shepard Middle School 2/4/22
New Tools to Make Learning an Experience...
Happy Weekend Spartan Families!
To borrow a line from my favorite Batman movie, "Where does he get those wonderful toys?"
While the Joker may have been talking about Batman, at Shepard we reserve that line for Mr. Ball and his STEM classroom. This semester, thanks to the generous support of the Shepard PTSO, Mr. Ball has been introducing his students to the Snapmaker 2.0. With the capabilities of 3D printing, laser carving/cutting and CNC carving, the future of creativity in STEM class has no limits.
We are grateful for the support our family community provides through PTSO membership and we are excited to share more of the amazing projects soon to come from our STEM classroom!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Mr.C, Mrs. Zlotnikov and Mrs. Logemann
Panorama SEL Survey
Building students’ social-emotional learning (SEL) skills is an important focus at Shepard. As a part of the learning process, we will be asking our students to reflect on their own SEL mindsets via an online survey. The survey will be administered between February 7th and 18th, and it should take no more than 20 minutes to complete. It asks students to self-reflect on their own grit, growth mindset, self-efficacy, self-management, social awareness, and emotional regulation.
Individual student responses can provide the school and family with insight into what skills the child self-identifies as strengths and others they would like to develop. The overall data helps us (the educators) identify priorities and provide targeted learning opportunities to address the SEL needs in our classrooms.
Per policy, if you would like your child to opt out of taking the survey, please contact me no later than February 7th.
SHIELD Testing (Weekly Opt Out Form)
- If your student has consent to test, we will assume they will come down during their scheduled time (a reminder announcement will be made for each time slot.
- SHIELD Testing remains optional. If for any reason you do not want your child to submit a test sample on Tuesday, February 8, please click here.
If you have questions, please call our office at 847-948-0620
Important D109 Information
GET YOUR CONSENT ON FILE FOR EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
A reminder, to participate in any before/after school clubs, sports, and activities, all students must have a signed consent form and be signed up for SHIELD testing in order to take part. Please click below to find the consent form.
REVISED QUARANTINE GUIDANCE
The CDC has put out clarifying guidance specifically for K-12 schools reducing the recommended time for isolation and quarantine periods to five days. IDPH & ISBE have since endorsed this new guidance.We are working to adjust our quarantine and isolation periods based on these new regulations and will contact affected individuals directly. The question of who is supposed to quarantine comes up often. Please check out this helpful explainer from the CDC.
OPTIONAL VACCINE DISCLOSURE FOR STUDENTS AGES 5+
Remember, you can complete an optional form in Family Access to let DPS 109 know that your child is vaccinated. This is the same form that was made available to students ages 12 and older earlier this year.
A major benefit of completing the form is that if your child is deemed to be a close contact to a positive case, either in school or outside of it, our contact tracing team will quickly be able to potentially rule out quarantine for those that have voluntarily disclosed their child’s vaccination status or minimize the number of additional tests required to participate in the test to stay program.
2022-2023 D109 Calendar
The official 2022 - 2023 School Year Calendar was approved by the Board of Education on November 19th, 2021. Please see the calendar on the DPS109 website.