DeWitt Clinton Elementary School
November 2018 Newsletter
Principal's Message
The month of November was a short, but busy time at Clinton. Students had multiple days off of school with the holidays and report card pick up. We are looking forward to a solid four weeks of instruction before we leave for winter break.
During this season of being thankful, I would like to thank all the staff members who support our school from our teachers to our engineer and custodians. Many of our staff members were students at Clinton themselves or are Clinton parents. Staff members such as Sophia Logothetis, Mary Icho, Rami Faraj, Mariam Toma, Jennifer Estrada, Toula Kolovos, and many others were Clinton students and are now working with our current students.This is a testament to the outstanding level of education our school has provided in the past and is still providing.
I have been grateful to be a part of the Clinton School community for the past 20 years, first as a teacher and now as the principal. Throughout my time at Clinton, I have seen students grow from young children into teenagers. I have also seen alumni return who are successful in their chosen career paths. Over the summer attending a Cubs game, I was proud to see a former Clinton student, Deep Shah, honored for his military duty.
This month our current 8th grade students were visited by another alum, Saad Syed. Saad was able to share his story from being at Clinton to attending high school at Northside and now studying pre-med at Stanford. Many of our students were able to see themselves in Saad's story and he gave our current students an opportunity to learn about his journey and how they too can achieve their education and career goals.
At Clinton we graduate about 120 students a year and during the next few months we are looking to connect with some of those alums. We are hoping to give our students more opportunities to hear about the paths former students took after leaving Clinton whether it be college or career. Our students would love to hear about different careers and connect with former Clinton students. If you or someone you know is a Clinton alum encourage them to reach out to us!
Maureen Delgado
Principal
Donors Choose Projects
Below is our current Donors Choose project. Please consider donating.
Bringing STEM Stories to Life Schoolwide! - Project by Elaine Mernick
As part of our Social Emotional learning efforts, One Book, One School aims to bring our community together around one text. With this book specifically, students from pre-k through eighth grade will engage in various activities relating to engineering, finding inspiration in everyday materials, the history of Rosie the Riveter, original stories of famous inventions, etc., before going on a gallery walk to discover how other classes interpreted the book and built skills across the curriculum. We hope they, like Rosie, learn that "the only true failure can come if you quit!"
Consider donating to Elaine's project: https://www.donorschoose.org/project/bringing-stem-stories-to-life-schoolwide/3777938/
Clinton's Physical Education Department
At Clinton we are fortunate to have four dedicated physical education teachers! Our PE team is a part of the Illinois Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. A professional organization that advocates for Health and PE throughout the state and at the national level.
Every November our PE team attends the annual state convention at the Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, Illinois where they learn of new strategies, activities and physical education content that they bring back to their daily instruction to help increase physical literacy in our students.
Katrina Haynes has played an active role in the organization and has been recognized as the Middle School Physical Education Teacher of the Year for Illinois in 2017. As a past teacher of the year, she is invited to share her expertise with the other PE teachers in Illinois each year at the convention. This year Katrina Haynes and Zachary Yaeger represented CPS and Clinton School by presenting at the state convention which brings together over 3,000 PE teachers from all over the state of Illinois. They presented a session titled "10 Strategies to Revitalize Your Physical Education Program." In this session, they shared some amazing strategies they use to give students feedback, assess student learning and create community partnerships, all of which can be seen within the PE program they have developed at our school.
Their hard work and dedication was noticed by this organization as both were nominated to take part in the Chicago District Board of Representatives. Katrina Haynes will serve as the Chicago District President and Zachary Yaeger will serve as the secretary and help represent CPS in the state organization and help advocate for PE and bring professional development to all Chicago Physical Education teachers.
Coat Angels
ACCO Brands Donation
DeWitt Clinton Elementary School
Website: Clinton.cps.edu
Location: 6110 North Fairfield Avenue, Chicago, IL, USA
Phone: (773)534-2025
Facebook: facebook.com/cps/clinton