Happy National Speech Language Pathologist Day! Thank you for all you do to help our students to communicate – your work provides confidence and effective communication strategies, and we appreciate you! Thank you for the ways you assess, diagnose and treat with love and joy. From all of us at Distinctive Schools – Thank you!
We are so excited to celebrate School Nurse Day! Our nurses always go above and beyond to care for our students and we could not be more grateful! Nurses- thank you for all the knowledge, skill and compassion you bring to our schools, today we celebrate YOU!
Wishing a wonderful Mother’s Day this weekend to all of our Distinctive moms, moms-to-be, mother figures, grandmothers and those who are simply grateful for their own moms – we thank you for the integral role you play in raising and educating the next generation of leaders, scholars and creatives.
This is a FAVORITE week for Distinctive Schools, as this week we are celebrating the incredible teachers who help our scholars to GROW! Wishing you all a very happy Teacher Appreciation Week! #TeacherAppreciationWeek #BeDistinctive
Our 4th graders did presentations on the Oregon Trail and California Trail or designed a cross-country vehicle!
Hey, WB! Our 4th graders did great work with reading comprehension skills, we love to see student learning collaboratively!
Our 2nd graders practiced their reading fluency last week!
Today is Administrative Professionals Day! We are so happy to celebrate all of our amazing Distinctive Schools Administrative Professionals, thank you for all the hard work and care you put into making sure our campuses run smoothly. We appreciate you!
Happy Earth Day from Distinctive Schools! We are committed to helping our students learn about sustainability and protecting our planet. What are some ways you and your family show love to our environment? 🌳❤️
Our partners at Move This World visited our CICS Prairie and CICS West Belden campuses to talk to staff and students about how Social Emotional Learning really works in our classrooms! Take a look at what #SEL looks like in our classrooms – and let us know which of the emogers your family uses. Check it out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvXWBH_Jwpc&t=16s
Get Vaccinated this Spring Break, and you could win! The first 50 students to show proof of a vaccine or booster shot during Spring Break (April 9-17, 2022) will receive a $25 gift card! Submit proof of vaccination or booster here bit.ly/DS_Gets_Our_Shot.
Today is National Paraprofessional Day! The work our paraprofessionals do is so important – to ensure that students of all abilities have what they need to succeed. We thank you for all you contribute to our learning environments! We celebrate incredible, supportive, thoughtful educators every day – and especially today! We appreciate you, Distinctive Schools Paraprofessionals!
Happy National Assistant Principals Week! Assistant Principals, this week is all about YOU! Thank you for your dedication and leadership, as work to keep our schools running smoothly, every single day. We cannot say it enough – you are all #ALLin, and you mean so much to all of us. From the bottom of our hearts – thank you!
We are hosting another vaccine clinic at CICS West Belden this Wednesday March 30, 2022! Getting vaccinated is imperative to keeping us learning together safely. Walk ins are welcome, but advance registration is strongly recommended, please use this link: https://events.juvare.com/IL-IDPH/oooyn/1297974/
We are excited to present the academic calendar for the 2022-23 school year! Thanks to everyone who shared their feedback. Votes were close, with 54% of voters selecting the first option, featuring a August 23, 2022 start date. In consideration of your feedback, as well as much discussion around the highlights of each calendar, we have decided to select the first calendar option, with a student start date of August 23, 2022. Take a look here:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KtrR7h7bIuK83_Q7L1umoSvrVLeB3xM6/view
Happy #SELday everyone! SEL or Social Emotional Learning is extremely important to our mission at Distinctive Schools. When students understand their emotional health, they grow as individuals both in their academics and daily life. Shout out to our partners @Move_ThisWorld for their amazing SEL curriculum and thank you to caresolace24_7 for making the first steps in getting support even easier!
This week is National School Social Work Week and we are celebrating our amazing Social Workers! Thank you for partnering with students, families, and staff to ensure our communities are safe, warm, welcoming environments for all! We appreciate you!
We’re excited to launch the Test to Stay program this March! In partnership with the Chicago Department of Public Health, Test to Stay will provide an alternative to quarantine to keep more students learning safely in-person. Read more here: https://bit.ly/DS_COVID19
Celebrate – Honor – REFLECT
Today is the final day of Black History Month. We close with a quote from the always inspiring author, novelist, playwright, poet, activist, and brilliant mind of James Baldwin, “History, as nearly no one seems to know, is not merely something to be read. And it does not refer merely, or even principally, to the past. On the contrary…” Let his words serve as a reminder that history is being written now, as we carry it in our hearts, we celebrate, honor, reflect. Black history is everyday.
The CDC lifted the mask requirement for schools – we are excited about the progress this means we have made in fighting COVID-19! At this time, Distinctive Schools Chicago will continue to require masks for the week of February 28 as we update mitigation measures and quarantine protocols. We will provide an update on masks beyond this week by Thursday, March 3.
