Congratulations District 58 retirees!
District 58 congratulates its 21 employees who will retire this school year. Together, this group has provided District 58 with 475 years of dedicated service. District 58 thanks its retirees for their numerous contributions and hard work, and wishes them the best in all their future endeavors!
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Katelyn Morgan, Elynn Cunningham win Distinguished Service Awards
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2018 Distinguished Service Award winners: Katelyn Morgan and Elynn Cunningham
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The Education Foundation recently hosted its annual Distinguished Service Awards (DSA) ceremony.
During the event, the community celebrated 24 staff members who received DSA nominations, as well as this year's DSA winners: O'Neill BEST Program Teacher Katelyn Morgan and Kingsley Acting Principal Elynn Cunningham.
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District encourages students to continue learning all summer long
 This summer,
District 58 encourages all students to set aside time to read and practice math a little each day. At least 20 minutes of reading and 10 minutes of math practice will help keep young minds active and learning all through the summer!
A great way to practice math is by signing up for the District 58 PTA Summer Math Club!
The club is an incentive-driven program designed to keep math brains strong all summer long. Students can earn fun prizes throughout the summer. Check your District email from May 30 for more information on this club.
District 58 is also proud to partner with the Downers Grove Public Library for this year's Summer Reading Program. Students who track their reading this summer can win fun prizes from the library! Students received Summer Reading Program information from the library earlier this month.
Finally, the District is excited to welcome students to its Summer School and Extended School Year programs on June 11. We look forward to another fantastic summer!
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Downers Grove Junior Woman's Club awards four teacher grants
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| Jessica Atkins, right, accepts her DGJWC grant certificate. |
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The Downers Grove Junior Woman's Club recently awarded four $500 grants to eight District 58 staff. The grants will fund innovative programs and continuing education opportunities benefitting both students in their classroom and throughout the District.
Congratulations to the grant recipients:
Grant 1:
Tracy
Capraro and Caitlin Choinski,
Highland; Jennifer Gorman
and Carli Hochstetter, Kingsley
Grant 2: Christina Gamboa, Kingsley
Grant 3: Jessica Atkins, Herrick
Grant 4: Bernice Homel, O'Neill; and Genevieve Hahn, Herrick
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District appoints two administrators
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The District 58 Board of Education appointed Todd Drafall to the assistant superintendent for business position and Lauri Cole to the Hillcrest/Pierce Downer assistant principal position during the May Board meeting.
Drafall brings 18 years of school business experience to his new role. He currently serves as the chief financial and operational officer for Proviso High School District 209.
Learn more about Drafall.
Cole currently serves as the assistant principal of Liberty School in Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202. Previously, she worked as the assistant director of student services for Naperville School District 203 and as a special education/resource teacher for multiple school districts.
Learn more about Cole. |
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ELA CURRICULUM NEWS
District will fully implement new
ELA resources in fall 2018
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Some of the District's Benchmark Advance resources
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District 58 enhanced student learning this school year by introducing new English-Language Arts (ELA) curriculum resources -- Benchmark Advance for grades K-5 and StudySync for grades 6-8.
To provide teachers sufficient support and professional development, the District is rolling out the resources in two phases.
During the 2017-18 school year, at least two elementary grade levels per school used the new resources, as well as all middle school ELA classrooms (phase one). In 2018-19, all teachers will use the new materials as their primary ELA curricular resource (phase two). Throughout this school year, phase two teachers participated in Benchmark Advance/StudySync resource trainings during Institute Days and grade-level collaboration meetings to support full implementation in the upcoming school year.
"These new ELA resources provide students more rigorous, Common Core-aligned material and assessments, as well as offer teachers more differentiation opportunities to meet the needs of all learners," said Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction Justin Sisul. "District 58 is excited to implement these new resources district-wide in all classrooms in the 2018-19 school year!"
(Video and presentation first shared at the winter Curriculum Workshop)
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Indian Trail team writes book series on educational technology
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The Indian Trail NOW Classrooms team: Janice Conboy, Whitney Cavanagh, Kristy Hopkins, Nicole Ring, Beth Hatlen and Robin Bruebach
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Six Indian Trail teachers and staff co-wrote NOW Classrooms, an innovative book series on educational technology. The team collaborated with 19 other Chicagoland educators to create the five-part series, which aims to help educators incorporate technology into their instruction.
"The books help educators to differentiate lessons for ability and/or grade levels where teaching and learning come first and technology fits naturally into the lessons," said Beth Hatlen, a NOW Classrooms co-author and Indian Trail reading specialist. "Technology should never stand alone. It should be authentically integrated in a meaningful way throughout all lessons."
The series received positive feedback and has sold 1,785 copies to school districts worldwide, including some copies here in District 58.
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Pierce Downer second graders host Downers Grove history gallery walk
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| A student shares his learning with Custodian Craig Kubinski. |
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Have a question about Downers Grove history? Just ask a second grader. That's because all District 58 second graders study local history as part of their social studies curriculum.
This year, Pierce Downer second graders took their local learning one step further. Each student could choose a Downers Grove building, person or place of interest to research. The kids visited the library, reviewed primary documents and even interviewed people intimately involved with their topic. They culminated their hard work by designing a visual aid and hosting a gallery walk to show off their learning. They invited Pierce Downer kindergarteners, first graders and staff to stroll through their gallery walk and learn a little about Downers Grove.
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El Sierra Fun Run raises record amount
 This school year, the El Sierra PTA hosted their Third Annual Fun Run. The theme, "Amazing Race," took students through the course as they toured different countries and completed challenges as a class. 150 students from kindergarten to sixth grade tackled four countries. Principal Lynde led Mrs. Claver's third grade class through the course, as a reward for the entire class raising donations prior to race day! All told, the Fun Run raised a school record $11,273. Way to go Bobcats!!
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Fairmount wins $500 in shopping mall contest
 The Promenade Bolingbrook recently announced that Fairmount School placed eighth in its
Shopping 4 Students program, earning the school $500! Fairmount School, in conjunction with the Fairmount PTA, plans to use the award to purchase resources for the school. Congratulations!
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Henry Puffer recycles 600+ pounds of plastic
The Henry Puffer Earth Club rallied the school to recycle plastic as part of the Trex Challenge this year.
Together, they collected and recycled more than 600 pounds of plastic, coming in 8th place in their category in this national contest!
Great work, Puffer!
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Pierce Downer collaborates and learns with IXL
 Pierce Downer second graders in Ms. Jamie Lindberg's room persevered to solve as many IXL problems as possible last month. Their hard work paid off! They placed 20th out of 13,000 schools during a
nationwide IXL Challenge. IXL is an
educational app that challenges students with adaptive and personalized math and reading questions.
"You could walk in our classroom during April, and hear words of encouragement, praise and teamwork from the students' conversations! They did this!" Ms. Lindberg said.
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Hillcrest Girl Scouts create chemo care kits
 Fourth Grade
Hillcrest Girl Scout
Troop 50972 recently completed their aMuse Journey. As part of this journey, the girls joined a Take Action Project and collected items for chemo care kits. The girls asked for donations of lotion, head scarves, warm socks and lemon ginger tea. The girls learned about how each item could be helpful to a person battling cancer and included an inspirational note with them. The chemo care kits were donated to Wellness House in Hinsdale. Thanks, girls!
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District 58 emailed new community e-flyers to all parents on
May 15. The final e-flyer email of the 17-18 school year will be sent on May 31. E-flyers are also posted on the District 58 e-flyer page at
dg58.org/e-flyers/ and listed below.
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District 58 on social media
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News from the Board of Education
The Board of Education held a business meeting on Monday, May 14. The meeting featured a spotlight on the District's technology refresh plan, the approval of the Strategic Plan Report and more.
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Board vacancy application
The Board of Education seeks applicants to fill an anticipated seat on the Board. Applications are due Thursday, June 7 by 4 p.m.
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Upcoming Board meetings
Monday, June 11
7 p.m.
Regular Board Meeting at DG Village Hall
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Get to know the District 58
Math Blueprint
Did you know that parents can access the District 58 Math Blueprint via
SQUIRREL?
The Math Blueprint is the District's comprehensive math curriculum resource. It contains topics for each grade level. For each topic, the blueprint offers related skills, textbook correlations, essential vocabulary, high cognitive demand tasks, assessments, intervention resources, MAP learning continuum skills and more!
Access this information by logging onto SQUIRREL and selecting Blueprint and Math Blueprint in the upper left corner.
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1:1 device return
District 58 will collect student iPads and Chrome Books for the summer.
Middle school parents -- your school principal sent an email on May 22 regarding Chromebook collection.
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Use KOHA to support your school, community
Shop local while giving back to your local District 58 school. That's what the new
KOHA
app does! Download
KOHA for free
on any iPhone or Android device.
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Register for the 2018-19 year
About 85 percent of returning students have submitted their 2018-19 school year registration. Have you?
To help plan staffing for the upcoming school year, the District requested that parents register their children by Friday, May 18. If you missed this deadline, we ask that you please submit your registration as soon as possible!
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District Calendar
Monday, June 4
Eighth Grade Promotion Ceremony at Downers Grove South
5-6 p.m.: O'Neill
7-8 p.m.: Herrick
Tuesday, June 5
Last day of school - Half day for students
(11:05 a.m. dismissal for half-day kindergarten students; 11:40 a.m. dismissal for OKEEP and 1st-6th grade students; 11:53 a.m. for seventh graders; no school for eighth graders!)
Monday, June 11
District 58 Summer School starts
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Mission
The mission of District 58, in partnership with parents and community, is to challenge and engage each child by providing quality educational programs and support services in a safe, nurturing, and child-centered environment in order to prepare all students to be lifelong learners and contributing members of a global society.
Communicate 58 shares timely, relevant information about District 58 with parents, community members and others who are interested in how we are living out our mission. If you have any questions/comments regarding Communicate 58, or have an article/photo idea for the publication, please contact Community Relations Coordinator Megan Hewitt at mhewitt@dg58.org or 630-719-5805.
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