December 16, 2011

My job is so cool.  Although stressful and challenging, I get to work with your children and see them progress as students and citizens.  Occasionally, there are moments when the student body makes me exceptionally proud.  One of those moments happened this week when we had Emmy winning composer Kevin Briody in our building.  Mr. Briody shared his experiences as a composer, while the singing group Encore and our own Woodlawn Chorus performed.  We all had the privilege of seeing The Laura Bauer Foundation presented with a check, providing a valuable lesson on how to turn tragedy into triumph. I received compliments from all of our visitors regarding our students and how amazing they were during the assembly.  This was a very proud moment for Woodlawn.

Attention 8^th grade parents: Freshmen Parent Orientation evenings at Stevenson High School have set.

Wednesday, January 18^th

Thursday, January 19^th

Tuesday, January 24^th

Parents and students can attend any of the three evenings from 7-9 p.m.  It is recommended that you pick up your packet in front of the Performing Arts Center around 6p.m. Student Ambassadors will give building tours from 6:15-7p.m. SHS Principal Dr. John Carter and academic division directors will discuss course offerings and academic summer school.  Administrators will also be available for questions from 8-9p.m.  This is a good introduction to the high school for parents and a way to introduce your student to the high school.  (You can go on the Woodlawn website to view the letter for Stevenson Parent Orientation)

Stevenson placement tests will be on Wednesday, January 11th & Thursday, January 12^th for the subject areas of Math & Reading L/A.  Spanish placement tests will be January 18^th & 19^th.  

Please visit the PTO link at the top of this page. 

I hope that everyone has a safe and happy Winter break. 

Greg 

Happy Holidays!

Before we all head off in different directions for a well-earned break, I wanted to share a couple of things going on around Woodlawn...

Here's a group of 8th graders channeling their inner hip-hop in Music class as they covered the (ahem...) classic tune, Ice Ice Baby, by Vanilla Ice.  They filmed their version of the video in the Green Room in the Tech Lab, then used Apple's iMovie software to superimpose themselves into the original.  In my opinion, our 8g version is a marked improvement!

On Friday, 12/16, BritBeat, a local Beatles tribute band will be performing for our students to celebrate our progress so far throughout the year and to bring life to many of the Beatles references that have been made throughout the music curriculum.  Mr. Tim is definitely getting into the spirit...

Have a terrific winter break, everyone!

6th grade parents/Options video

Dear parents of 6th graders,

It has been brought to my attention that there is an e-mail out there that has our Woodlawn parents concerned about a video shown in our 6th grade Options classes.  As part of our Options curriculum, Resource Officer Stacy Kupsak comes into our building and talks about appropriate computer usage.  She shows the students how easy it is for ANYONE to access their Facebook accounts and the dangers to which our students  are exposed.  One of the parts to the internet awareness program, is a video where a man poses as a teenage girl on-line and meets a young man in the parking lot of the school after hours.  The students tries to get away and they wrestle, before the student calls 911.  It is designed to show the students the dangers of having contact with people on the internet that they do not know.  We have shown this video for a number of years and have never had this type of community reaction.

Personally, I talk to my children about the dangers of the computer all of the time.  We have a saying in the Grana family that goes, "Digital is FOREVER!".  Having been in a middle school for most of my career, I have seen numerous situations where students say things, post things (including pictures) and use a computer in inappropriate ways.  I encourage everyone to ask their student about the video and have the conversation surrounding the dangers that exist.

Thank you to everyone who brought this to my attention and those who have called.   Please feel free to contact me if you have any other questions.

Greg Grana

December 9, 2011

One week until winter break!  It always amazes me how fast the school year goes.  Leading into the break, we have an assembly this Tuesday celebrating our chorus, the musical group Encore and Emmy winning composer Kevin Briody.  Woodlawn will host this ceremony where The Laurie Bauer Foundation For Sudden Loss will receive a $20,000 check because the Encore singing group won a nation wide competition.  I cannot think of a better way to celebrate the many different cultures that Woodlawn represents as we head into the holiday seasons.  As I mentioned last week, it also shows our students that a positive impact can be made from a tragic loss.  I hope that all parents, grandparents and family members can come and celebrate with us on Tuesday morning at 8:30a.m. for our concert.  Please bring your drivers license to enter building. Unfortunately, we cannot allow you to enter the building without running it through our security system.   

Congratulations to Linda Rosen for being this years recipient of the District 96 Foundations President's Award.  On Friday, January 20, 2012 the awards ceremony will take place at the Arboretum in Buffalo Grove.  Stay tuned for further details and congratulations to Mrs. Rosen.  

Fantastic job by the orchestra this week!  Our students did an outstanding job and sounded great!  

Stevenson placement tests are going to be given to our 8th grade students when we come back from break.  I will give parents those details in my first blog of the new year.

Visit the PTO Newsletter link at the top of this page.  Go ahead...Try it out!  

December 5, 2011 Food drive results!

The food drive was a huge success again this year.  We collected more food this year and the most in Woodlawn history!

On Friday, we collected 879 pounds of food!  6th grade collected 109 pounds, 7th grade collected 212 pounds and 8th grade collected a whopping 558 pounds!

The top homerooms were: Mrs. Shannon, Mrs. Maggiore and Mr. Polidoro.

This year our collection totaled 2,451 pounds of food which beat last years total by 97 pounds!  Thank you to EVERYONE who donated and helped with this very worthy cause.

December 2, 2011

Welcome back to the blog.  I hope that everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving and was able to connect with family and friends.

Last night, our middle school chorus had an outstanding performance at their winter concert.  Students from all three grade levels did a great job and were joined by their parents for a rousing finale.  Congratulations to Mrs. Rosen and all of our chorus members!

I would like to personally invite all parents, grandparents and family to visit Woodlawn on Tuesday, December 13th at 8:30a.m. to see our chorus, local singing ensemble The Encore Singers and award winning composer Kevin Briody, as the Lori Bauer Foundation For Sudden Loss gets presented with a check for $20,000.  The Encore Singers won a national singing competition and I am proud to host this event, showing our students how something remarkable can come from a terrible loss.  (Anyone entering Woodlawn must show us a valid drivers license)

Heading into next week, we will be at mid term for second quarter.  I am hopeful that everyone is able to access their grades on PowerSchool, using their passcode to check the progress of their student.  If you do not know your PowerSchool code, please call the main office here at Woodlawn and ask Pam Kupsco to assist you.

Don't forget to click the link for the PTO newsletter at the top of this page!!!

Have a great week!