September Updates

Whew it has been a great start to the school year. The weather has been a little hot and we hope that's in the past. Although, it looks to be hot again over the holiday weekend.

It has been so great seeing students back in the building.

We conducted a successful lockdown drill and fire drill since the first day. All student did exactly what they were supposed to so that everyone was safe. WAY TO GO

We are adjusting well to our arrival and dismissal changes. More information is below.

Please make sure that your student is charging their laptop at home. We have been doing testing with them at school and many students' have come with dead laptops. We do utilize these daily within our classrooms.
THANK YOU

Thank you so much for your patience as we have navigated these changes. We met this summer with an officer regarding some suggestions to changing our arrival and dismissal.

Arrival:

It was agreed upon that our buses would enter the front of our building and car rider cars would enter the back of our building. We will continue filling in lines for arrival until 8:50am. Once 8:50am hits, any car in the "lane" will be stopped so that students can start exiting cars. Students should not be getting out of cars earlier than 8:50am. That is when staff is on duty.

Parents, please stay in the car as this helps things go faster. Once unloaded, there has been the thumbs up signal and you are good to exit the parking lot. If you pull around after 9:05am, please park and bring your student to the front.

Dismissal:

We tried a number system for car riders, it didn't work. We tried 3 lines, it worked okay. We are now up to 6-8 lines depending on how many car riders there are for the day and feel things are going well. We will continue to do the line system. We ask families to not pull in until 3:30pm and within 10 minutes we will have everyone in a line.

If PE is not outside, you are welcome to start pulling forward to the cones indicating each line we will make. We ask that you park in the center of the cone. Once a line fills up, please start making a new line. Please keep in mind, as you finish making a line, don't block the "lane" that cars are using to enter our parking lot causing a backup. Once parked, we ask that you turn your vehicle off. This is to help with the safety of our students. Students will exit the building starting at 3:40pm. Staff will come around and get thumbs up that you are loaded and once all are, everyone is set to leave the parking lot.

Allowing us to form multiple lines has been a benefit to the school in many ways. Teachers used to take 10-20 minutes dismissing kids into their vehicles. We are down to 5-8 minutes. This allows our teachers to be off duty and able to head back into the building and wrap up the day, and prepare for the following day.

I have heard in the past our PE teachers have done a great job. This year, we have adopted a new schedule to allow teachers more time to plan and collaborate and as of next week, our specials teachers will not be available for arrival. Again, we appreciate everyone's patience and grace as there have been a lot of moving parts on the back end of this change that are not always visible to everyone.

Please take time to peak through our Elementary Student Handbook. Smartwatches and cell phones are to be shut off and put in students backpacks. If there is an emergency, the school will reach out to parents. These cause a distraction to the learning environment.

English Version

Spanish Version

We will be having our class parties this year. Please save the dates

Tuesday, October 31st 2:00pm Parade around the outside of the building

Thursday, December 21st 2:15pm Winter Party

Wednesday, February 14th 2:15pm Friendship Party

Teachers will reach out regarding volunteers and more information.

What Is Bullying ?

The state of Illinois defines bullying as:

Any severe or pervasive physical or verbal act or conduct, including communications made in writing or electronically, directed toward a student(s) that has or can reasonably be predicted to have an effect of one or more of the following:

• Placing the student(s) in reasonable fear of harm to their person or property
• Causing a substantially detrimental effect on the student(s) physical or mental health
• Substantially interfering with the student(s) academic performance
• Substantially interfering with the student(s) ability to participate in or benefit from the services, activities or privileges provided by a school.
• *It is important to remember that the offenses are repeated acts*

Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose.

Types of Bullying

There are three types of bullying:

• Verbal bullying is saying or writing mean things. Verbal bullying includes:
  • Teasing
  • Name-calling
  • Inappropriate sexual comments
  • Taunting
  • Threatening to cause harm
• Social bullying, sometimes referred to as relational bullying, involves hurting someone’s reputation or relationships. Social bullying includes:
  • Leaving someone out on purpose
  • Telling other children not to be friends with someone
  • Spreading rumors about someone
  • Embarrassing someone in public
• Physical bullying involves hurting a person’s body or possessions. Physical bullying includes:
  • Hitting/kicking/pinching
  • Spitting
  • Tripping/pushing
  • Taking or breaking someone’s things
  • Making mean or rude hand gestures

Where and When Bullying Happens

Bullying can occur during or after school hours. While most reported bullying happens in the school building, a significant percentage also happens in places like on the playground or the bus. It can also happen travelling to or from school, in the youth’s neighborhood, or on the Internet.

If your feel your student is being bullied at Grand Prairie, please reach out to the classroom teacher, Mrs. Moss or Mr. Bialon. Often, students don't tell an adult at school. We encourage all students to reach out to an adult at school when the incident is happening so we can put a stop to it.

Please visit with your student about being kind to all and even if they witness something unkind, to let an adult in our building know. We want Grand Prairie to be a safe learning environment for all students.

Source: https://www.stopbullying.gov/bullying/what-is-bullying

Grand Prairie is in need of teacher and teacher assistant substitutes.

Teacher Substitute

Step 1: Obtain a Teacher Substitute License

• Anyone interested in obtaining a Substitute License must have a bachelor’s degree or higher from a regionally accredited institution of higher education. A Substitute License is valid for 5 fiscal years and is renewable upon payment of registration fees.

• All substitute license (SUB) applications must be completed online through the Educator Licensure Information System (ELIS).
  

• Individuals seeking a substitute position in Will County schools are required to register their ISBE license with the Will County Regional Office of Education and have the option to qualify for a Will County “Substitute Teacher Authorization (STA)”. Be aware that the STA is accepted by most Will County school districts. Please contact the district(s) for which you desire to work for prior to completing this process.

Fees for Substitute Teacher Authorization:

$45.00 Fingerprinting fee (criminal background check)

$5.00 Duplicate "Substitute Teacher Authorization" Fee (replacement of original authorization)

The steps listed above are the same for teaching assistant substitute license. To be a teacher assistant in Will County you have to have a high school diploma. You do not need to have a college degree.

Please reach out to Mrs. Moss if you think you might be interested!!

Source: https://www.willroe.org/teachers/substitute-teacher-registration#:~:text=Anyone%20interested%20in%20obtaining%20a,upon%20payment%20of%20registration%20fees.