2008 State Assessments Results
ISAT Reading results show that D62 fifth and eighth grade student performance mirrored State results. Learn more...
1st grade and 4/5's Sing a song together about the Continents!
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New School Year Begins for Iroquois Community School
Iroquois teacher, Dr. Andrea Winkelman, assists students during a bus evacuation drill on the first day of school.
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CONTACT: Mindy Ward, Director of Community Relations, 847-824-8070
Seeing friends, meeting new teachers and classmates, and finding classrooms are a few of the activities that Iroquois Community School families encountered on Monday, July 12, as they attended a Community Fair and dropped off school supplies before the first day of the 2010-2011 school year. 468 kindergarten through eighth grade students began their school year on Tuesday, July 13 by participating in Positive Behavior Intervention Systems (PBIS) work stations and practicing bus evacuation drills. As a balanced calendar school, ICS students attend the same number of days (180) as students attending 10-month schools. The difference is that they have three intercession breaks lasting from four to 13 days throughout the school year. Intercession days may be combined with winter and spring breaks.
ICS parents and students were sad to say goodbye to summer, but they all agreed that it is nice to get back to school.
Our American Voice
On May 14, 2010 students of the Our American Voice (OAV) Civics Club attended the 2nd Annual OAV Summit. This year’s summit was held at the home of the Chicago White Sox, U.S. Cellular field. The Summit is where students get a chance to meet other students from around the State of Illinois who are also a part of this unique program. Each school shared a video presentation describing how they made a difference in their community through civic action and awareness. The Summit included guest speakers U.S. Senator Richard (Dick) Durban, and Garrard McClendon from CLTV.
Our American Voice is supported by the Barat Education Foundation and connects middle school students to the democratic process through active community problem-solving in an after-school program that is engaging, interactive and grounded in real life. The 22-week program emphasizes critical thinking skills as students learn the fundamentals of American democracy and work to create positive change in their communities. Students engage in team activities, discussions and research, and partner with community agencies and elected officials to find solutions to issues in their own backyards.
The students are members of the ICS OAV Club: Maria Amigon, Jessica Bartalone, Zenna Daker, Tom Didier, Monica Herrera, Ian Hilliard, Emma Moore, Ese Mora, Melissa Okrzesik, Neel Patel, Kaity Piskorowski, Josh Redd, Amanda Salazar, Dylan Schimka, Elizabeth Stenholt, and Jordan Styczen.
American Voice Civics Club attendance at the OAV Student Summit sponsored by the Barat Education Foundation.
Mr. Amadei, Principal of Iroquois Community School, gets a surprise when he is asked to see the beautiful eveningwear the 6th grade girls from Girl Scout Troop 5077 made during their “Project Runway meets ICS Girl Scouts” fashion event. The girls, through a creative process, designed a dress, picked out a pattern, and then hand sewed each garment. Way to go Warriors!
The girls from left to right are: Amanda Grzebien, Emily Romza, Nicole Byerly, Bianca Garcia, Desi Stricker, Allison Grzebien, and Megan Centella.
Iroquois students and staff wish to announce and congratulate Dr. Andrea Winkelmann for earning her Doctor of Philosophy degree, from Loyola University. Her area of emphasis is in the field of Educational Psychology. For her dissertation, Dr. Winkelmann did an achievement study of traditional and year round schools in the Chicago Public School system. We are very proud of her efforts and her continued modeling of life-long learning.
FACT: Did you know that 80% of Iroquois staff are currently pursuing higher education!
Our first Intersession Musical Disney's Cinderella Kids was a huge success! Thank you to all of the parents and teachers who helped us make this performance a hit. We hope to put together another musical in the future. The cast included the following students: Summer Neary, Adrianna Rahana, Amanda Grzebien, Destiny Onyeise, Jackie Jasinski, Jalen Moore, Max Malec, and Julian Hernandez.
April 9th 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Bake Sale 8:00 - 8:30 PM, Raffles, Flowers for sale
All students must be accompanied by an adult. Download flyer.
Student Spotlight, by Mr. Amadei
Iroquois School is Super Proud of Jackie Chiakas, fourth grade student extraordinaire! Jackie recently competed in Des Plaines Optimist Club's Oratorical Contest. At the girl's preliminary contest, Jackie got an award for Most Improved Girl!
Being Jackie's first time involvement in this contest, she was so excited to be chosen for this honorary award! We are so proud of Jackie's hard work, dedication, courage and enthusiasm throughout the contest. Jackie’s family would especially like to thank Ms. Llano for taking time out to mentor Jackie along the way.
There were 26 boys and girls who were in the competition ages 6 thru16 yrs old. They were required to give a speech 4 to 5 min. long on the subject: "Cyber-Communication: Progress or Problem"?
There was a preliminary competition for the boys and the girls. On Friday, March 19 the girls competed. 6 were chosen to go on to the Club level competition, and next there is an upcoming regional and a state level where they compete for scholarship prizes! Jackie really enjoyed this opportunity and is already looking forward to next year's topic!
The Intersession Program at Iroquois Community School directed by Miss Hockensmith and Mr. Malek is putting on a Musical! The Friday March 19 show will begin at 12 PM, and the Wednesday March 31 show will begin at 6:30 PM - $1 admission. The show will run approximately 1 hour long, and it will take place on the stage in the gym. If your child is in the cast or crew, there will be a rehearsal Tuesday March 30 from 2:45-4:15 in the gym. Please click on the Cinderella's shoe above to download the program flyer.
Congratulations to the District 62 “You Be the Chemist” team who competed at the state Chem Challenge. Ian Mann, Algonquin Middle School, finished third place. Haripriya Mehta, Iroquois Community School, earned a second place finish. If the first place winner is unable to participate at the national “You Be the Chemist” Challenge, Mehta will represent the State of Illinois. Other District 62 competitors included Adeel Afshar, Algonquin Middle School, and Aaron Cunanan, Chippewa Middle School.
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Twenty-four students from throughout the Des Plaines area proved that they are “chemists in the making” when they participated in the sixth annual competition that tests their knowledge in chemistry concepts, discoveries, and chemical safety awareness tips. The “You Be the Chemist Challenge” is an annual event sponsored by UOP of Des Plaines and organized nationally by the Chemical Education Foundation to challenge youngsters’ scientific knowledge in the spirit of competition. The academic competition created by the Chemical Educational Foundation (CEF) is a question and answer event that is open to fifth through eighth graders nationwide. Participants included students from Algonquin Middle School, Chippewa Middle School, Friendship Junior High, Gemini Junior High, Grove Junior High, Iroquois Community School, and Lincoln Junior High. When it was over, a “first” had occurred- all qualifiers, including the alternate, were District 62 students.
Ian Mann, an 8th grade student from Algonquin Middle School, was crowned the local You Be the Chemist Champion this year. Other winners were Aaron Cunanan, an 8th grade student from Chippewa Middle School, who placed second, and Haripriya Mehta, last year’s regional winner and second place state finisher, from Iroquois Community School. Mehta placed third. Reahman Atta Afshar, an eighth grade Algonquin student, will serve as the alternate. Each of the students qualified to compete in the State You Be The Chemist Challenge to be held on Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at Prairie Lakes in Des Plaines.
All contestants at the State Challenge will be competing for a free trip for themselves and a parent to compete in the You Be The Chemist National Challenge to be held in Philadelphia. At the National Challenge first, second, and third place winners receive educational savings bonds.
On Tuesday, March 2nd, our first grade class, led by their teachers Ms. Hockensmith and Mrs. Zahorak, marched through the entire school presenting the Olympic torch and banners. The also sang a song as they marched. This march was the culminating activity of a unit on the Olympics.
Way to go First Grade, you all win GOLD!
DOWNLAOD QUICKTIME
Student Spotlight, by Mr. Amadei
Today I had the pleasure of having several 2/3 students come in and share some of the Book review projects with me. Although I would like to share more, these five are featured here today. -- Enjoy
Sierra’s book project was based on the Title, Zorro and Quwi, written by Rebecca Hickox, and illustrated by Kim Howard. Sierra built a story tower, which sequenced the story from beginning to end, building from the bottom to the top. Sierra really enjoyed the fable and her favorite part of the story was the moral, which she described as, “Treat your friends how you want to be treated.” Nice work Sierra!
Trollerella, by Karen M. Stegman. Her story was a version of the Cinderella fairy tale. Except in this version Cinderella was a Troll. Jessica’s illustrations are outstanding and her favorite part of the book was at the end where the Prince decided that he wanted Trollerella to be his Princess! Great job Jessica!
Nickolas read the book, Possum’s Bare Tail, written by Jiang Qingling. Nicholas shared his story and said his favorite was when the Possum, who bragged about his awesome tail too much, got shampoo on his tail. That made his tail his tail look ugly. He decided not to be a braggart any more. In fact he pretended to be dead, which may be the story of how one plays possum. Thanks Nicholas!
Zain read The Three Little Pigs, written by James Marshall. Zain also built a Story Tower. He really liked that the third little pig got to keep his and did not die at the hands of the wolf.
Leo’s Story Tower was based off of the story, The Really Ugly Duckling, written by Jon Scieszka. The Duckling was born uglier than all his brothers and then grew up to be even uglier than ever. Leo thought the story was funny and had a twist on the original. Thanks Leo!
Urban Planners Dwell at ICS
ICS teachers, Jodi Hockensmith and Lynn Zahorak, knew their students would love "The Gingerbread Village", a social studies-related unit. What they didn’t realize, until the project began, was the amount of enthusiasm and learning that was generated by a unit involving juice and milk cartons.
Students planned and built a community out of brightly painted beverage cartons purchased from the grocery store, which they carefully set on plats of construction and butcher paper. Mathematically, the unit featured geometry, measuring, estimation, and spacial problem solving, as well as sorting, story problems, money, and computation. It also offered children experiences in community planning, mapping, decision making, and working together.
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