Home Scoop

Dear Skokie Families,

This week’s Home Scoop is ready! We invite you to take a look at some of the wonderful learning happening across the different spaces in our school.

As we prepare for parent-teacher conferences at the end of this week, we’re excited to welcome you into the building. These conversations give us time to celebrate your child’s growth, learn from your perspective, and think together about next steps. Our shared understanding helps us build a school where every student feels known, supported, and challenged.

We’re also happy to welcome Emily back to Skokie after she spent the last few months supporting the Hubbard Woods community. We’re grateful for the care and leadership she shared there and look forward to having her back with our students, staff, and families.

Thank you for your partnership and for the many ways you support our school community. We look forward to seeing you this week!

Michelle Cooney, Principal

Emily Castillo-Oh, Assistant Principal

At Skokie, 5th and 6th grade science is rooted in progressive, experiential education aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Rather than passively memorizing facts, students act as active scientists and engineers through phenomenon-driven inquiry. The focus shifts from a traditional approach of memorizing information to actively figuring out how the natural world works. The curriculum integrates life, physical, and earth science concepts with beginning engineering practices and crosscutting ideas like cause and effect and systems modeling. Through project based learning experiences, hands-on challenges and collaborative small-group lab work, students regularly formulate hypotheses, prototype solutions, and analyze data to draw evidence-based conclusions, developing strong critical thinking skills and a deep conceptual foundation.

Beginning in Trimester 2, students will be able to check out up to 3 books at a time from the Skokie School Library. We hope this encourages students to explore new titles, discover new favorites, and fosters a lifelong love of reading!

We are looking forward to seeing everyone this week for conferences. We know that many of you juggle conferences across schools, and we will hold very tight to our time to ensure that everyone has time to meet with teachers at scheduled times. If you are joining for a conference with an Exploratory (World Language, Band, Orchestra, Arts, Tech, Library) teacher, please know that these are quick, 5 minute conferences. We encourage teachers to use a timer as they may need to wrap up quickly and hop onto a zoom link for a virtual conference. Thank you for your partnership as we come together to celebrate the growth and learning of your children!

Helping students use technology safely and responsibly is a partnership between school and home. We recognize that students need their district-issued iPads at home to complete assignments and meet other school responsibilities. At the same time, we encourage families to establish clear expectations for when, where, and how devices are used; including designated homework times, device-free meals, and a consistent time to put devices away for the night.

Our district uses Securly to help monitor and filter online activity on district-issued devices at school and at home. This provides an important layer of protection, but it does not replace family supervision, conversations about online behavior, or clear boundaries around device use.

Families also have access to Securly Home, a free app that supports parents and caregivers in staying informed about their child’s use of their district-issued device. You should have received an email from “Securly noreply” with instructions for getting started. We encourage you to explore the app and use it alongside your family’s expectations for technology use. Through the app you are able to:

• View their child’s activity and set alerts.

• Filter controls by blocking specific sites when the device leaves school.

• Increase screen time management and parents can freeze internet access on the device to disable use like during bed time.

Here are two resources for setting this up at home:

• Securly Home Letter

• App Walkthrough

Thank you for partnering with us to ensure students have the access they need for learning while maintaining healthy boundaries around technology.

• Thursday, October 22nd: Parent Teacher Conferences

• Friday, October 23rd: Parent Teacher Conferences

• Friday, October 30th: Halloween Celebrations; 2:30-3:30pm

• Monday, November 2nd: Institute Day/No School for Students

• Tuesday, November 3rd: Election Day/No School for Students

Parents may access scores through the PowerSchool Parent Portal Document Library and/or Otus.

View additional information here regarding benchmark assessments and how to access these scores.

Fall Parent-Teacher Conference scheduling opened, Thursday, October 1, at 12:00 p.m. through Parents Meeting.

Fall Conferences will be held on:

• October 22: 8:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

• October 23: 8:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
  

Skokie School-Specific Link: https://theskokieschool.schoolcloud.co.uk/

A Helpful Scheduling Reminder

• When you enter Parents Meeting, all available staff members will be selected by default. You may unselect any staff members you do not feel the need to meet with before selecting your conference times.
• Families can make or adjust conference selections while the scheduling window is open.
• Sign-up closes on October 21 at 12:00 p.m.
• After the scheduling window closes on October 21 at noon, any conference changes will need to be coordinated directly through your school’s main office.

Scheduling Tips

• When logging in, please enter your information exactly as it appears in PowerSchool, including the email address registered to your account. PowerSchool Parent Portal

• To ensure you don't miss any communication regarding your conferences, please add the email address noreply@schoolcloud.co.uk to your email contacts.

• If you experience difficulty accessing Parents Meeting, please submit a Help ticket.