SMS Texting is available - OPT IN if interested

December, 2011

Dear Pennoyer Parents,

The district is excited to announce the launch of a new service that will enhance communication by allowing us to deliver important information to you via SMS text messaging. This optional service is not intended to replace our existing means of communication– rather it will enhance them. The service is provided by SchoolMessenger. Information can be found at www.SchoolMessenger.com/tm 

he district will only use the service to provide information that is timely and relevant. In order to participate in the new optional service you must indicate your willingness to receive text messages to your phone. The process is simple and only takes a few seconds to complete. Simply text any one of the following words to the number 68453: subscribe, optin, yes

You’ll know you were successful if you receive the following reply message: You are registered to receive aprox 3 msgs/mo. Txt STOP to quit, HELP for help. You’ll want to repeat the opt-in process for any wireless numbers that you wish to include. In addition to performing the opt-in process above you’ll want to insure that the district has your wireless number(s) in our student information database. If you haven’t already provided that information to us, please do so via Family Access (please also be sure to update your email addresses). The district will be officially launching the new service before the end of the month (or earlier if there is a need for urgent communications), so until then you won’t receive any further text messages.

Please note, although the district does not charge you for this service, it does not pay for text message charges that may be incurred by you for sending or receiving text messages. Check with your wireless carrier for possible charges.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact Ms. Wallach in the superintendent's office.
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from student council

Student Council will be holding their annual Hot Chocolate and Muffin sale next Wednesday, December 7th at 7:50 in the MPR. All orders are due by Monday, December 5th.

Please contact Ms. Stutzman with any questions.
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Parents - Please update email address

Dear Parents,
Please log on to Family Access and update your email address - this will be used for school communications in general and in case of an emergency.

Feel free to contact the office with any questions!

Sincerely,

Michael Lubelfeld Ed.D.
Superintendent
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Thoughtful Talk from TEDx London - Sir Ken Robinson

Link to 15 minute video talk from Sir Ken Robinson:
From http://tedxlondon.com/portfolio/sir-ken-robinson/gallery/videos/

Sir Ken Robinson, PhD is an internationally recognized leader in the development of education, creativity and innovation. He is also one of the world’s leading speakers with a profound impact on audiences everywhere. The videos of his famous 2006 and 2010 talks to the prestigious TED Conference have been seen by an estimated 200 million people in over 150 countries.

He works with governments in Europe, Asia and the USA, with international agencies, Fortune 500 companies and some of the world’s leading cultural organizations. In 1998, he led a national commission on creativity, education and the economy for the UK Government. All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education(The Robinson Report) was published to wide acclaim in 1999. He was the central figure in developing a strategy for creative and economic development as part of the Peace Process in Northern Ireland, working with the ministers for training, education enterprise and culture. The resulting blueprint for change, Unlocking Creativity, was adopted by politicians of all parties and by business, education and cultural leaders across the Province.


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Happy Thanksgiving!

From Wikipedia ... Thanksgiving In the United States

Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Day, currently celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November by federal legislation in 1941, has been an annual tradition in the United States by presidential proclamation since 1863 and by state legislation since the Founding Fathers of the United States. Historically, Thanksgiving began as a tradition of celebrating the harvest of the year.[29]
Main article: Thanksgiving (United States)
The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth By Jennie A. Brownscombe (1914)

In the United States, the modern Thanksgiving holiday tradition traces its origins to a 1621 celebration at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts. There is also evidence for an earlier celebration on the continent by Spanish explorers in Texas at San Elizario in 1598, as well as thanksgiving feasts in the Virginia Colony.[7] The initial thanksgiving observance at Virginia in 1619 was prompted by the colonists' leaders on the anniversary of the settlement.[8] The 1621 Plymouth feast and thanksgiving was prompted by a good harvest. In later years, the tradition was continued by civil leaders such as Governor Bradford who planned a thanksgiving celebration and fast in 1623.[9][10][11] While initially, the Plymouth colony did not have enough food to feed half of the 102 colonists, the Wampanoag Native Americans helped the Pilgrims by providing seeds and teaching them to fish. The practice of holding an annual harvest festival like this did not become a regular affair in New England until the late 1660s.[12]

According to historian Jeremy Bangs, director of the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum, the Pilgrims may have been influenced by watching the annual services of Thanksgiving for the relief of the siege of Leiden in 1574, while they were staying in Leiden.[13]

Contending origins

The claim of where the first Thanksgiving was held in the United States, and even the Americas, has often been a subject of debate. Author and teacher Robyn Gioia and Michael Gannon of the University of Florida have argued that the earliest attested "Thanksgiving" celebration in what is now the United States was celebrated by the Spanish on September 8, 1565, in what is now Saint Augustine, Florida.[14][15]

Similarly, many historians point out that the first thanksgiving celebration in the United States was held in Virginia, and not in Plymouth. Thanksgiving services were routine in what was to become the Commonwealth of Virginia as early as 1607.[16] A day of Thanksgiving was codified in the founding charter of Berkeley Hundred in Charles City County, Virginia in 1619.[17]

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From the Governor's Office - Letters to Troops

Gov. Pat Quinn will once again be returning to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany to deliver handmade cards to our soldiers. You and your students/children can participate by sending handmade cards to the Governor's Office in Springfield or Chicago.

Attached to this message is a letter from the governor with details about the program. Any questions about Governor Quinn's Holiday Card to Illinois Heroes Overseas program can be directed to Amy Amizich at             (312) 814-1083      .

Happy holidays,
ISBE Public Information Division





"What we need to do is learn to work in the system, by which I mean that everybody, every team, every platform, every division, every component is there not for individual competitive profit or recognition, but for contribution to the system as a whole on a win-win basis."

-W. Edward Deming
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