Music to my eyes

After a long morning off-campus visiting another program, I had finally made it to my desk when I received a text message from one of my teachers: "Look in the backyard."

Uh-oh.

A million things ran through my mind as I flew down the stairs from my third-floor perch. When I hit the first-floor landing, the first spot on my route down that had a decent view, I saw this:

One of our brand-spankin-new paraprofessionals + guitar = happily listening, calm, entertained students.

It certainly wasn't what I expected on this unseasonably warm May afternoon. But you can be sure that I'll be adding it to the list of smiles, day after day, that remind me why I'm still here after all these years. :)

Behind the curtains at Lifeline Theatre

This week, I had the pleasure of joining our Transition Program for an interactive workshop at Lifeline Theatre. Organized by PACTT Arts & Recreation Coordinator Robert Mann, these workshops allowed participants to get an inside look at characters and costumes and explore the theatre space. Next week, they'll go back to see the play in action.

Our school, transition, and vocational participants each had a unique visit with the Lifeline team in the last couple of weeks. Here are some action shots from their visits:

 

Finished!

Thanks to a dedicated group of parents and friends who came out to help us move a few Saturdays ago, a committed teaching team who has spent innumerable off-the-clock hours unpacking and organizing, (and some VERY flexible students!), we are grateful to have our classrooms up and running in their beautiful new space.

The top two photos are our North classroom; the bottom two are our South classroom.

    

  

Making progress

The construction teams finished work on our second floor last week, and the cleaning crew came through to spruce things up a bit. I've never seen those floors so shiny!

  
  


From top-to-bottom: The top two photos are our north side classroom (previously carpeted). The bottom two are our south-side classroom. Both have new floors, newly painted walls and ceilings, and an added chair rail / vinyl wainscotting along the bottom of the walls

Under Construction: A holiday surprise

Students and staff returned from Winter Break this year to a welcome surprise - Santa's elves had begun renovations on the school's second-floor classrooms. Those two classrooms had been in great need of a little TLC! With new floors, patched and painted walls & ceilings, and the addition of some durable wainscoting, the rooms will look good as new! They're not -quite- finished, but here's a sneak peek of the work-in-progress ...

     
 


Busy sidewalks, dressed in holiday style ...

Participants in our School, Transition and Adult Vocational programs hopped on the El last week for our annual holiday adventure. They checked out the windows at Marshall Field's (err ... Macy's), a trip through the Kris Kindlemart to see the City Tree, and a stop at McDonald's for a treat before heading home. This year, some of our folks even made a quick trip to tell Santa what they REALLY wanted under the tree this year! Lucky for us, the weather cooperated, and the trip was a grand success.

Take a look at scenes from some of our adventures:

December Parent Update

December 2011

Here we come a calendar-ing!

Before I forget - or you forget! - I wanted to remind everyone that our Winter Break for School and Transition programs begins on WEDNESDAY, Dec. 20th at NOON. Students will eat an early lunch that day, and buses, cabs, and pack mules will all leave from the school at 12 p.m. Please ensure that someone will be at your home to meet this bus at its earlier arrival time. Group homes will be staffed accordingly. 

Spreading holiday cheer

Our students got in the spirit of things this week, as they packaged donated items for our friends at the Howard Area Community Center. Last month, an anonymous donor gave us tons of lunch bags, mini-radios, and other assorted doo-dads. So, we decided to turn it into a vocational opportunity for our students (who loved putting together all the packages), and a way to spread the cheer with another local organization. The folks at HACC will share the packages with the students in their after school programs. Find photos, and more details, later this week, right here on thePrincipal's Blog.

Our annual tradition

All our School, Transition, and Adult Voc folks bundled up and headed downtown this morning to catch the windows on State Street, visit the tree in Daley Plaza, and enjoy a (highlight-of-the-trip) stop at the Golden Arches for a snack before heading back north on the El. Everyone has been looking forward to this long-standing PACTT tradition (and we were THRILLED that the weather cooperated this year!). Snapshots from the trip will (hopefully) be online by this weekend.

Stay up to date with all things PACTT on our facebook page (www.facebook.com/pactt), our website, and especially here on my Principal's Blog. More info on our HACC donations, photos from the Christmas trip, and more will arrive in both places in the next few days.

 Wishing you ...

And finally, no matter what holiday you celebrate this time of year, may it be filled with the gifts of joy, love and peace.

See you next year!

- Paula

p.s. School and Transition Programs resume Wednesday, Jan. 4th.

November Parent Update

November 2011

First Quarter Ends

Hard to believe it, but we've reached the end of our first quarter. Progress reports will be mailed or sent home in the next week or so. We're proud of all our students' accomplishments! We've been working hard and playing harder -- scroll down in this blog for pictures of our Halloween fun!

Save the date!

PACTT's annual Thanksgiving Feast will take place Wednesday, November 23rd from 1:45 to 2:45 p.m. School families will gather at the main school building (7101 N. Greenview), and Transition / Voc families will celebrate at the Transition Center (1544 W. Morse).

As always, we'll provide the turkey and all the fixin's. If you'd like to bring something for the festivities, a dessert or drink (juice, pop, water), would be appreciated.

The little things DO add up ...

Thanks to your support, we've had a successful semester of school fundraising!

- We earned nearly $300 from Target RedCard users (we get 1% of all purchases made using the card). 

- We've collected more than $300 worth of Boxtops for Education (we earn 10 cents for each boxtop sent in -- Do THAT math, and you'll see that the little things really DO add up - keep sending them in!).

- And we sold more than 40 Entertainment Books!

Thank you for all your support! For more information on the Target card, visit:www.target.com/tcoe. For more info on the Boxtops for Education, see: boxtops4education.com. 

Agency Fundraising Fun

PACTT's first-ever Gold Rush takes place this Sunday, Nov. 13th. Visit www.pactt.org/gold to see how you can turn your old jewlery into cash for you - or donations for PACTT!

Stay in Touch

Want to stay updated on all things PACTT? "Like" us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/pactt), and visit here at the Principal's Blog. Also, be sure to update your information in our new online database (www.pactt.org/gogreen) - available by 11/14/11 -  to keep up with all the agency-wide news.

As always ... Thank you for your continued support of our programs, our team, and our extended PACTT family!

 - Paula

Halloween Fun

Students and staff from School, Transition and the Adult Vocational program all got in the Halloween spirit this week -- from pumpkin carving to popcorn balls, and costumes galore! (Click the arrows to scroll through the pictures.)