Regional Office of Education 47

CONGRATULATIONS to Amber Schott, who was nominated for the Marigold Award! Amber is a 1st grade teacher at Jefferson Elementary School and was nominated by Olivia Cain. Besides the fact that Amber is caring, positive, and patient, Amber is always going above and beyond in every aspect of teaching. Whether it is for her students, her coworkers, or her own professional development she is constantly improving. Amber always takes the initiative to further her knowledge on a variety of new topics like nonverbal communication, SEL support, BIP improvement, and play-based learning. Amber is already planning on how she can be successful in her new position next year in the kindergarten, self-contained classroom. Any student or teacher is lucky to know her! Thank you for being a marigold in our schools!

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. This special month of recognition raises awareness about mental illness, its prevalence in today's society, and its impacts on people of all ages and backgrounds. @RegionalOffice47 #RegionalOffice47

CONGRATULATIONS to Christie Houck, who was nominated for the Marigold Award! Crystal is a 2nd grade teacher at Jefferson Elementary and was nominated by Stacey Harrington. Ms. Houck is one of the kindest teachers I have ever seen. The students in Ms. Houck's class are bilingual and I've seen the encouragement they are given to try their best in a calm, caring atmosphere. Her positive attitude and sense of humor are a few of the reasons her students adore her. Thank you for being a marigold in our schools!

CONGRATULATIONS to Ann Heyvaert, who was nominated for the Marigold Award! Ann is a teacher at Jefferson School and was nominated by Jody DeSchepper. Ann is a Special Ed Teacher. She helps each individual child in her class room talking with them helping them through problems. Ann also provides a treasure chest for when they do great work and sometimes as an extra gift. And she buys candy to treat the kids who get green on math they get really excited about that. It takes a lot to be a special education teacher an Ann is it!

May 1-May 10th is our Marigold week! The Marigold Award is an annual award in honor of our friend, Jen Banks, a beloved teacher and ROE 47 school improvement coach who passed away as the result of a tragic automobile accident in December 2015. Her love for learning and the students that she worked with was an inspiration to many. Jen’s positive, supportive, and energetic attitude nurtured those around her and helped them to grow. In celebration of Jen’s life and dedication to learning, ROE 47 has created an award in her honor. As Jen worked with many elementary and middle schools in the Sauk Valley area, this award is open to PK-8 Whiteside County teachers, para-educators & administrators. Marigolds exist in our schools - encouraging, supporting and nurturing teachers. They are leaders in their community, classrooms, and families. They have a love of learning and sharing that learning with others. This year, we recognize 39 nominees in our Whiteside county schools. Each nominee will receive a certificate, a copy of their nomination letter and a marigold. The overall winner will receive a basket of marigolds, a book, a certificate and copy of their nomination letter, and a $100 Amazon gift card to build their classroom library. Please join us as we celebrate marigolds in our local schools over the next two weeks thru our social media posts.

CONGRATULATIONS to Tracie Power, who was nominated for the Marigold Award! Tracie is a teacher at Jefferson School and was nominated by Marchet Harts and Dawn GrellI. I'm nominating Traci because she works so hard to help the students in our school become better readers, and she also cares about her students. She is at the school on some weekends and after school to prepare to make her students successful. She loves her job and students !! I am nominating Tracie Power who is our Reading Intervention Teacher at Jefferson Elementary School. I have worked with Tracie for 9 years and I have watched how truly passionate she is about teaching our little ones at the K-2 level the skills they need to have to be successful readers. But for me, this nomination comes from what she has done for me and the students I work with while I have been out of the building on medical leave for the last 6 weeks. Since I had no guarantee that I would have any sub coverage on my leave and then the chance that my kids wouldn’t have any interventions while I’m gone, Tracie came up with the idea to split my kids up within all of the reading aides and herself to service my kids in my absence. She also found aides who had down time to step in and help out in the classrooms that I work with and she herself took over my task of doing my lunch duty and lunch recess duty with the kids, instead of taking her lunch and plan time. I’m not quite sure how many teachers would ever give up their lunch and plan to do recess/lunch duty for an aide, but she did. So, thanks Tracie for all that you did for me and especially my kiddos while I was gone! Thank you for being a marigold in our schools!

Check out all these brains! 🧠 This past week, we hosted Building Our Children's Brains events where parents and caregivers discovered how life experiences shape the growth of our children. Thank you to the Sterling Township, Byron Public Library, and Dixon High School for hosting our events this week. @RegionalOffice47 #RegionalOffice47

Early Childhood Networking Sessions (Make N Take) - May 6th, 3:30 - 4:30 Click here to register : https://forms.fillout.com/t/vUvAVnsZmnus?id=recpF4i6c8JdMQaWC The ROE will be hosting a virtual "make n take" once a month. The purpose of these is to provide educators ideas they can bring into the classroom! From different crafts to activities, our EC Coach will cover many different options! Each month will be a different theme. Please reach out to Ashley Teel with any questions, ateel@roe47.org.

Calling all parents and caregivers! Join us for our Virtual Parent Café Series, where you can participate from the comfort of your own home. It's designed with your busy schedule in mind, offering a supportive and engaging space just for you. Connect with other parents, share experiences, and gain valuable insights—all without leaving your house! Register now at https://forms.fillout.com/t/4fVKR4jJxdus and receive the Zoom link via email. Don't miss out on this convenient opportunity to connect and learn!

Guest speaker Kenneth Godbolt visited Center for Change today sharing a message of perseverance, attendance, and believing with the students. @RegionalOffice47 #RegionalOffice47

Teaching Fraction Toolkits? Check this out!

ROE 47 SUMMER LEARNING 2024 has dropped! REGISTER NOW! @RegionalOffice47 #RegionalOffice47 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1liv6hRWYLOhZRWqLSyLN85mdhAWcAb9xro3FHOHAK60/edit

COIL ACADEMY @ SVCC - Check it out! @RegionalOffice47

Interested in early childhood community systems development? Consider attending the Illinois Action for Children’s 2024 Partner Plan Act Virtual Summit. This year’s event theme is Equity from the Start: Strengthening Relationships for Systems Change. The ROE's own, Lois Meisenheimer, will be speaking on community collaborations. The event will take place on May 7-8, 2024, via Zoom. The featured keynote speakers this year are Maria Hinojosa, the most prominent Latina journalist in the country, and Stacey Abrams, voting rights activist and entrepreneur. Both speakers will be addressing strengthening relationships. The conference is virtual and free. To register, visit: bit.ly/PPAConference2024.

WACC CEO Program - Mark your calendars! @RegionalOffice47 #RegionalOffice47

Social Science Quarterly Networking Meeting Thursday, April 25th (8:30- 2:30 p.m) Click Here to Register- https://www.roe47.org/page/pl-opportunities-workshops Are you interested in guiding social studies conversations in the ROE 47 service area? Join us for this new learning opportunity creating a professional learning network for Pk-12 social science teachers in Lee, Ogle & Whiteside counties. During these quarterly sessions, teacher and administrator participants will: understand the critical role of personal identity in understanding students and shaping social science teaching and learning; identify Illinois mandated units of study; understand the complexity of the newly revised Illinois Social Science standards; process the role of inquiry and inquiry arcs in teaching the new Illinois Social Science standards.

New Teacher Cadre Wednesday, April 24th (3:30 - 4:30 p.m) Click Here to Register - https://www.roe47.org/page/pl-opportunities-workshops If you are a new teacher, certified or non-certified in a teaching role, or a teacher in a new teaching area, certified or non-certified in a teaching role, we have several options of support designed to help you grow professionally and network with other teachers to share and ideas, support and build a network both in your district and outside with other schools to share strategies--instructional, classroom management, remote learning, special education and SEL.

Preschool Family Support Specialist Networking - Click and Go! Wednesday, April 24th (9:00 - 10:00 a.m.) This networking session is designated for collaboration amongst those in a family support role in preschool and early childhood programs. @RegionalOffice47 #RegionalOffice47

School Counselors & Social Workers Networking Session Wednesday, April 17th, 8:30 - 10:30 a.m. @ ROE 47, 2214 E. 4th St., Suite B, Sterling Join us IN PERSON as we share local and state updates and network with one another.

Students and staff at C4C enjoyed watching the Eclipse! @RegionalOffice47 #RegionalOffice47