Thompson Friday Forecast

January 28, 2022

From the Principal...Steve Morrill

Feedback loops are an important way to reflect and refine our practice. In the classrooms, teachers are regularly collecting feedback and data to help students improve. At the PLC (Professional Learning Communities) level, teachers regularly reflect on their instruction and pedagogy. Feedback loops are fundamentally important at the community level as well.

District 303 participates in the annual Illinois 5Essentials Survey that collects feedback from all of our stakeholders; our students, teachers, and parents. The Parent Survey is currently open and will remain so through March 11, 2022. Your participation in the parent portion of the survey will give you the opportunity to share your thoughts on important elements of school effectiveness. The responses will help us understand the conditions at your child’s school and guide our improvement efforts. All responses are confidential and will never be connected to you or your child.

To take the survey, please visit https://survey.5-essentials.org/Illinois/ and select the appropriate survey. As part of this communication, we have included a link with additional information about how to access the survey. Most notably, make sure you enter Kane County in the box for county even if your home or your child’s school is in DuPage County. This will allow you to correctly select your child’s school.

All District 303 teachers, as well as students in 4th through 12th grades, are being asked to complete this survey. 5Essentials Reports will be generated for schools if their teachers and/or students meet the response rate threshold of 50 percent. Teachers will work with students to assist them with logging in and taking the student survey.

As a parent/guardian, this opportunity will allow you to share your thoughts on the important elements of school effectiveness in a survey about Thompson Middle School. We value your feedback and appreciate you taking the time to provide us with your input. Please visit the D303 5Essentials website or call the main office if you have any questions.

Stay warm this weekend!

Steve

Explore Forms

This week 5th, 6th, and 7th grade students will have a chance to work with their parents on course requests for next year. We want middle school to be a time where our students have the opportunity to explore many different learning pathways and our explore courses offer that opportunity.

On Tuesday 6th and 7th graders brought home course elective forms and a letter explaining the process. The elective form is due back to Student Services on Tuesday, February 8th. We posted these documents at the bottom of our website along with a description of middle school electives and a video on how to fill out the form if needed.

February PTO Meeting

Please join us for a Thompson PTO meeting on Wednesday, February 2, 2022 from 9:00 - 10:00 am. Meetings are virtual and all are welcome! If you would like to attend, please email Shannon Puri or Kim Walters for a link to the virtual meeting.

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Compass Academy

Imagine a school where learning occurs both inside and outside the classroom through student-directed projects, where students work in flexible spaces and have a schedule that is built around their needs and interests. This is what students experience at Compass Academy, a D303 high school program that's located at the Haines Center and is open to all interested D303 high school students. At Compass Academy, students:

Engage in “hands on” project-based learning throughout all courses
Have a voice and choice in personalized learning activities
Attend school on a schedule that is flexible and built around their needs
Can work at their own pace- whether they want to delve deeper into content or take additional time to learn a concept
Are part of a small learning community because enrollment is limited to 200 students

Interested students have one more week to register before high school course selection ends! Even students who completed course selection for East or North with their future high school counselor can still decide to commit to Compass full-time, where they attend all classes at Compass, or part-time, where they attend some classes at East or North and some at Compass. Students who attend Compass Academy part-time or full-time can still participate in extracurricular activities at their home high school. This Compass Academy Information Video gives you more information about the Compass experience through the eyes of current students, parents, and staff.

Are you interested? If so, complete this interested student form now and someone from Compass Academy will follow up with you soon! If you have questions, please contact Director Sharon Stanley at sharon.stanley@d303.org.

TMS Homework Lab

Homework Lab is a great place for students needing a quiet location to get work done after school. The Homework Lab is open for 2nd semester and below are the remaining dates, and additional information, for the months of January and February.

Feb 1st
Feb 8th
Feb 17th
Feb 24th

Time: 3:45-4:30

Place: Room #235

Facilitators: Miss Romano and Mrs. Polillo

Upcoming Parent University Programs

iGen: Understanding the Smartphone Generation presented by Jean M. Twenge
February 9, 2022 at 6:30pm via Zoom
Click here to register - If you cannot attend, you will be able to view a recoding of this presentation which will be posted on the District website.

With generational divides wider than ever, parents, educators, and employers have an urgent need to understand today’s rising generation of teens and young adults. Born after 1995, iGen is the first generation to spend their entire adolescence in the age of the smartphone. With social media and texting replacing other activities, iGen spends less time with their friends in person. But technology is not the only thing that makes iGen distinct from every generation before them; they are also different in how they spend their time, how they behave, and in their attitudes toward religion, sexuality, and politics. As this new group of young people grows into adulthood, we all need to understand them. Members of iGen also need to understand themselves as they communicate with their elders and explain their views to their older peers. Because where iGen goes, so goes our nation—and the world.

Jean M. Twenge, is the author of more than 140 scientific publications and six books, the latest of which is iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy--and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood.