Personalized Learning Steering Committee- Joint Statement

The Personalized Learning Steering Committee met this past Thursday, September 16th. The committee was established last school year and charged with furthering personalized practices across all Kaneland schools, as well as with the creation of a personalized learning academy to serve students in grades 4-8, in its first year. During the meeting, each of the five identified subgroups reported out on the progress they have made thus far, and their goals for the current school year. A summary of each group's work can be heard in the video below.

Kaneland Connects Trivia

Our collective knowledge on Kaneland Connects continues to grow! Congratulations to Mary Doranski from KBK!! She is our most recent winner, correctly identifying the 2023-2024 school year as the year students are expected to be able to articulate and plan their learning, based on proficiency expectations. 
Mary, your prize is on the way!

This week's trivia question is: Which strand of Kaneland Connects does the Satchel screener support? Feel free to use the QR code to the right to look up the answer. 

Email Laura Garland at 10166@kaneland.org with the correct answer!

Academic Research

A frequent question teachers have when participating in professional development sessions is, "What does the research say about this technique, approach, strategy, etc.?" As practitioners, teachers are not typically on the front lines of conducting academic research and/or developing academic theories, yet they are on the front lines of putting research and theory into practice. This disconnect is articulated well in the recent Cult of Pedagogy blog post. Here is an excerpt from the post: 

"It’s like the university folks who study best teaching practices are standing at the edge of a canyon and all the way on the other side are the actual practicing teachers. There should be steady, clear communication between these two groups—lots of good bridges that are easy to access—but so far we only have a few, and far too many of us on the teaching side don’t even know about them." 

If you're interested in learning more about how practicing teachers can find, read and use academic research, the full post can be found HERE. 

All About Our Knights

 Let's take some time to share fun facts about our Knight Family.  Did you figure out the answers from last week's submissions?  Here they are for you.

 1.  Who loves to try new foods from around the world? Molly Duda

2.  Who self admits they have the worst teacher handwriting but is a great baker?  Megan Giehm

3.  Who's family has an island in Canada?  Tricia Nugarastar

4.  Who's back up career plan was fire fighting?  Nicole Pryor

Try your hand at these fun facts about your peers, can you guess who? 

1. Who cannot keep plants alive...not even succulents? 

2. Who is a mom to twins and has a twin niece and nephew also? 

3. Who is teaching their dog to talk with buttons?

4. Who worked in Alaska for a summer season?

Hints to help you match this week:

Jill Hardekopf- KBK

Amanda Mojica- KSS

Sue Sensor- KBK

Courtney Yager- KBK

IgKnight Proposal Reminder

Reminder...Our annual IgKnight Conference is coming up on November 22nd.  The best part about this conference is learning from our peers during breakout sessions.  We need our great staff to share ideas, hold sessions, host open chats around learning or SEL, and do self-care sessions for each other.  Sessions do not need to be a formal, direct instruction session that you lead but can also be open chats. If you have an idea of a session you would want to host with your peers, please fill out the Call for Proposal google form.  The form will close on September 30th, so please complete it very soon!  We look forward to learning from each other and outside experts.  

Kaneland Star Search

SEPTEMBER STAR SEARCH IS OPEN! Please take a moment to nominate yourself, or a colleague, for always shooting for the stars! This month, we're continuing to focus on building relationships. If you know someone who shines in this area, be sure to nominate them HERE for a chance to win a customized Box o' Fun

All nominees will have their name displayed as a  "Shining Star" on the Ed Services Homecoming float!  

EAC EC-5 Update

 The team took time to reflect and discuss both challenges and successes of last year through a get to know you activity. We noted we had great teamwork with our teams last year and that is what really contributed to our successes in hybrid and remote. We noted the challenges that come with larger class sizes in comparison to the smaller ones offered in hybrid, especially at the beginning of the year. Next, the team reviewed the membership of EAC. We are in need of reps at the K-1 and exploratory levels. Please reach out if you are interested in participating in our super fun committee. After that, the team discussed the new national sexual education standards. The standards will create significant shifts from our current practice and the team will take time to sort through and identify implementation. We generated a timeline and possible agenda ideas for the first subcommittee meeting. The committee discussed the LEARN platform. Specifically, when and how often to enter apps and websites and how to share this information with parents. Last, we discussed possible topics and ideas of interest for the rest of the year. We noticed trends in teacher burnout and how it is trickling down into the classroom.