The Tiger Times Newsletter

Dear Middle School Community,

Three weeks of school and we're doing great! The kids are following the routines and practices that we've put in place and are continuing to smile under their masks while they're at school. It is so great to see the kids each and every day! Keep reminding them at home to Wear their mask, Wash their hands, and Watch their distance (stay at least 6 feet apart).

Please also encourage the kids to attend every class, do their best, and reach out to their teachers with any questions. It is very developmentally appropriate for middle school students to first ask their teachers for support either via email or through Schoology messenger. All of the kids know how to do this, but so often, we as parents step in to help our struggling child. It is a better learning experience for the student to first connect with their teacher and if they still don't understand, then you as a parent supporting your child is the logical next step. One of my goals for every student in our school by the time they graduate is that they can be independent. A huge step in this independence is self-advocacy.

We are working on plans to open up more and more including our clubs and activities. Safety will continue to be our number one factor in deciding whether or not to have an event/activity and many will move to virtual. Keep an eye out in future Tiger Times Newsletters, especially at the bottom in the daily events portion.

We've posted our orchestra teaching position so if you know of any amazing and qualified people, please encourage them to apply. We are also seeking instructional aide positions (need a minimum of 30 hours of college credit) so if you know of someone who would be wonderful working with and assisting our students, please encourage them to go to our website and apply.

Wellness Update: 41 students/families/staff members have worked with Nurse Rende and have continued to follow the guidance of the Cook County COVID hotline in staying home, seeing their doctor, and getting tested. We fully recognize that in most cases these symptoms are going to be the typical symptoms of different sicknesses that we all face on a daily basis. However, we must follow the guidance and see our doctors and get tested when we do have any of these symptoms in order to prevent the spread. We are happy to report that we have not had any positive cases of students or staff, thus far. Should we have a positive case, we will notify our school community like we would in other health-related situations.

For families that yearly receive their flu shot, we highly encourage you to continue this practice and get the flu shot from your health care provider.

We are building a habit so please continue to complete the Pick Up Patrol Health Screener each morning by 7:30 a.m. for each of your children who attend school. This is vitally important to keeping everyone safe.

We'll keep saying it, but Pleasantdale IS Better Together so let's stand together, do what's right, stay home if you're sick, support one another, take care of one another, and successfully keep our schools open.

Griffin L. Sonntag

Proud Principal of Pleasantdale Middle School

As described last week, our Curriculum/Meet the Teacher Night will be unique this year. Here are the details:

1. Our teachers will create videos touching briefly upon who they are and mostly about what content and curriculum they will be covering this year in their classes.

2. We will share these videos with you by next Monday, September 21 and you will be able to watch them when it is convenient for you.

3. On Thursday, September 24, each grade level of teachers, including specials, world language, and PE, will be available for a time in which parents can come and ask questions that they still of the teachers. This is an optional event for you to attend. There will be a large group session so questions should pertain to educational programming, classroom procedures, etc. If you have specific questions about your child, please contact the individual teacher directly.

The grade level session times are as follows:

5th Grade: 6:00-6:20

6th Grade: 6:30-6:50

7th Grade: 7:00-7:20

8th Grade: 7:30-7:50

The Zoom Link for these events will come out in next week's Tiger Times and through your email.

We apologize for the date change yet again but noticed that LT high school has their night on the 17th and wanted to accommodate our parents who have both middle and high school students. Our date is Thursday, September 24th.

On September 15 and 16, 2020, we will once again be administering the Measures of Academic Progress® (MAP®) Assessments in Reading and Math. We give MAP tests to determine your child’s instructional level and to measure academic growth throughout the school year. With the school closures in the spring, we were not able to complete our typical testing cycle. Therefore, these assessments will give us important information on how to best support students in their learning this academic year.

Students who are attending school in person will take their MAP assessments at school on the mornings of September 15th and 16th. Students who are attending school synchronously this trimester will have an option to come and take the tests in person in the afternoon on the 15th and 16th or take the tests from home.

On MAP testing days, afternoon classes of world language, PE, and specials will not be “live.” Assignments for these classes will be posted each day on Schoology. To be clear, on Tuesday and Wednesday your children do not need to log into Zoom in the afternoon.

Please encourage your children simply to "do their best" on these adaptive tests. These tests will provide us important information for our continued planning moving forward. Once the students complete their tests, they will have assignments to complete independently. Please encourage your child to bring a book to read in class on Tuesday and Wednesday in case they finish everything early.

Are you creative, reliable, hardworking, and fun? Do you like to help others? Do you enjoy making our school a better place for you and your peers? If so, the Pleasantdale Middle School Student Council will be thrilled to have you join. On Wednesday, September 16, 2020, Student Council will be hosting our first virtual meeting of the school year. We will meet on Wednesday mornings from 7:30-8:10 or if you have a conflict (or are traveling to school) you can join our meeting on Thursdays at 3:30.

Student Council Wednesday ZOOM Meeting

7:30-8:10am

Meeting ID: 920 2156 0899

Passcode: 876434

Student Council Thursday ZOOM Meeting

3:30pm

Meeting ID: 960 0216 1283

Passcode: 437971

If you've got kleenex boxes, disinfecting wipes (if you could find them), or any other shared school supplies that you'd like to get out of your house, your child may bring them on the following days (beginning one week from tomorrow)--we will have tables set up by the door the students enter for them to drop off the items. They do not need to be labeled with their names.

Monday, September 21-5th Grade

Tuesday, September 22-6th Grade

Wednesday, September 23-7th Grade

Thursday, September 24-8th Grade

For those of you who donated to the PTO P3E Drive, THANK YOU! Your child is all set and does not need to bring in these community supplies!

We are finalizing our date(s) and plans and will let you know soon. We will provide opportunities for our synchronous learners to come to school and be photographed.

Thank you for your continued patience and we have to make plans to do so many of our yearly things differently this year.

Look in your email from Friday for information about Fortnightly from Erika Sawosko from Friday!

Questions? Please contact the Fortnightly Committee Chair Melanie Carli at 630-220-5247.

5th grade had a STEAM day in which the students were given limited materials (tape and 1 piece of paper) and a mission to create a bridge. After learning about Hurricane Laura, they learned about how many bridges and streets were flooded. That was the inspiration for this month's bridge challenge.

There were several rules they had to follow such as the bridge must go from one side of the desk to the other and the bridge must only touch the desk in 2 places. After reflecting on their designs, they had a follow-up day where they could choose one more material (scissors, thicker paper, or popsicle sticks). Overall, most 5th graders agreed the second day was more successful with more supplies and a better plan in mind.

This is a great example of the "Growth Mindset" idea that you've heard so much about over the years. The first time we do ANYTHING we are not as good at it as we are after trying, reflecting, practicing, improving, and trying again. See some pictures from the day below.

Morning Schedule with Zoom Links

Afternoon Schedule with Zoom Links

If your child is having any technology issues, please have them send a message through Schoology to any of us listed below. Or feel free to email Mrs. Bubulka (mbubulka@d107.org), Mrs. Steinmetz (rsteinmetz@d107.org), or Mr. Sonntag (gsonntag@d107.org) and we will help him/her as soon as we can. If it is impacting zooming into a class, please call the main office at 708-246-3210 and we will help him/her right away.

Monday, September 14-A

Tuesday, September 15-B

Wednesday, September 16-A

Thursday, September 17-B

Friday, September 18-A

Monday, September 21-B

Tuesday, September 22-A

Wednesday, September 23-B

Thursday, September 24-A

Friday, September 25-B

If your child presents with a symptom of Covid-19 (fever, chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, sore throat, a new loss of smell or taste, or congestion) either at school or at home, it will most likely require a doctor's visit and probably a negative COVID test result to return to school prior to the 10-14 days in the IDPH guidance (see below). A symptom of one child may impact the other siblings' ability to come to school as well.

Please know that we are contacting the COVID hotline through the Cook County Health Department and following their recommendations for the exclusion of students from attending school. This is certainly not anything that we want to do, but we need to follow their guidance in order to keep everyone as safe as possible.

It is vital that we teach our kids to continue to share with you and us how they are feeling. My worry is that students will not share how they are really feeling for concern of having to miss school for many days and for worry about how they will be treated by their classmates while they are out and when they return. As a community, we need to normalize getting sick and in our new normal, having to miss some school and get tested for COVID. Kids and staff are going to get a cold, strep throat, and other ailments. Many of which have symptoms on the list of potential symptoms for COVID. In most cases, it will not be COVID. However, we will continue to follow these protocols as an effort to keep COVID out of our schools for as long as we can.

Please also know that our staff are following these same exclusion protocols for themselves and their families.

All of this has impacted some of our families and some of our staff during this first week. My hat goes off in appreciation and admiration to our nurse, Denise Rende, for her work this week learning, communicating, and doing everything she can to keep everyone safe while attending school in-person.

Thank you for utilizing PUP this week! We ARE working together to keep everyone safe here at school.

Please, please, please continue to read each email you receive from either Dr. Palzet or Mr. Sonntag. Important information about the questions you have will be coming through these communication channels. Thank you!

To make it as easy as possible for you, the communications from our Superintendent Dr. Palzet are all in one place. Our Back to School Blueprint and the weekly communications from Dr. Palzet can be found here.

We collect the following at the middle school:

1. Pop Tabs-Please continue collecting pop tabs. We donate them to the Ronald McDonald House to support keeping families of hospitalized children together.

2. Box Tops for Education-These are all given to the PTO to support our schools!

Throughout the year, there are other collections and drives that occur. Keep an eye out for how you can support the causes that are important to the students and staff here!

While it is always best to talk directly to a staff member, we understand that sometimes this can be uncomfortable or difficult for students or parents. At Pleasantdale Middle School, we offer the Tiger Tipline as an anonymous tool for reporting unsafe, uncomfortable, or unkind behaviors and situations. We explicitly teach the students that if they ever see something or hear something that makes them feel unsafe, uncomfortable, or is unkind, either online or in person, they should tell a “trusted adult” which could be parents, school personnel, or other adults in their lives. The Tiger Tipline can be accessed here and we will post the link in Schoology and create a shortcut to the link on the student devices for easy access.

As we continue to build school pride with our new logo and school colors (navy, Carolina, white), we are encouraging students and staff to participate in School Spirit Fridays by wearing anything Pleasantdale or our school colors to school!

Submit Health Screener in Pick Up Patrol Each Morning by 7:30 a.m.

Monday, September 14-A-Day

Tuesday, September 15-B-Day

MAP Testing

No PM Zoom Classes

Wednesday, September 16-A-Day,

MAP testing

No PM Zoom Classes

7:30-8:10 a.m. Student Council-see above

Thursday, September 17-B-Day

3:30-4:00 Student Council-see above

4:00-5:00 New Student Ice Cream Social

Friday, September 18-A-Day

Monday, September 21-B-Day

5th Grade Bring Community School Supplies

Tuesday, September 22-A-Day

6th Grade Bring Community School Supplies

Wednesday, September 23-B-Day

7th Grade Bring Community School Supplies

7:30-8:10 a.m. Student Council-see above

Thursday, September 24-A-Day

8th Grade Bring Community School Supplies

3:30-4:00 Student Council-see above

6:00-8:00 p.m. Optional Virtual Curriculum/Meet the Teacher Night-see above

Friday, September 25-B-Day

6-7:15 or 7:30-8:45 p.m. Fortnightly for 8th Grade Students (North Gym)

Athletics: 708-246-7382

Mr. Mark Dreher, Athletic Director, mdreher@d107.org

Attendance notification: 708-246-3210, extension 5 or email middleattendance@d107.org before 8:20 a.m., please.

Health Office: 708-246-7619

Mrs. Denise Rende, Nurse, drende@d107.org

Main Office: 708-246-3210, extension 0

Mrs. Stacey Tantillo, Secretary, stantillo@d107.org

Ms. Maria Cuevas, Clerical Aide, mcuevas@d107.org

Mrs. Brianne Malatt, Assistant Principal, bmalatt@d107.org, 708-246-7373

Mr. Griffin Sonntag, Principal, gsonntag@d107.org, 708-246-7609

Social Worker: 708-246-7505

Ms. Carrie Castaldo, Social Worker, ccastaldo@d107.org

All Staff Email Addresses

Email: gsonntag@d107.org
Website: https://ms.d107.org/
Location: 7450 South Wolf Road, Burr Ridge, IL, USA
Phone: (708)246-3210
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Public-School/Pleasantdale-School-District-107-1157799227582842/
Twitter: @pdaleprincipal