Mobley’s Monday Message 1-21-19

“Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely.” ~Albert Einstein

Happy Monday! Happy MLK Jr. Day! Hopefully everyone is finding some ‘me time’ today. I had the opportunity to have lunch with a great mentor and advisor to me, IEA President, Kathi Griffin. She gave some of our early career teachers some great advice at SPARKS this past weekend, “On Monday, do something that’s good for you! Take care of yourself!” Something we all need reminding of every once in a while.

Feed My Starving Children Recap

Thank you to the members or SEA and SEEO who volunteered at Feed My Starving Children last week. Our totals for the evening were 157 boxes packed with 33,912 meals which fed 92 children for an entire year. It was nice having Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison, as well as School Board President Mary Kay Prusnick, Dr. Knoll, and Superintendent DuRoss join our group that evening.

SPARKS Recap

What an amazing time I had this past weekend at our SPARKS event! I wanted to take a moment to thank the SPARKS planning committee (Kara Zielinski, Vicki Mikos, Michelle Mason, Kelly O’Reilly, Crystal Bush and myself) for all the behind the scenes work and for being willing to present various sessions on special education, classroom management, and all about our association. And to the SPARKIEs in attendance, thank you for not only attending, but for helping both groups escape from the escape rooms on Friday night! It was a pleasure to meet you! A special shout-out to our IEA President, Kathi Griffin, for attending on Saturday and being a part of our Discussion Panel. Also, thanks to our NEA Member Benefits representative Justine Sallee and financial planner Danielle Rovner for braving the snow on Saturday morning to attend.

Instructional Materials and Supplies Credit for Educators

When you begin to file your taxes for the 2018 year, an ‘Instructional Materials and Supplies Credit’ is allowed equal to the amount paid during the year for instructional materials and supplies, of $250, whichever is less. This is provided to any educator who was employed at least 900 hours during a school year.

Community Closet Volunteers

This Saturday, January 26^th, from 10 AM – 12 PM, is our first of three SEA volunteer days at Addams’ Community Closet. We still have two openings available to join us. If you are free and able to help out, please email me or sign-up on our Volunteer Doc by clicking here. We still have openings for our April 27^th & May 14^th Community Closet dates as well.

Here are some fun ways to celebrate this week:

January 21^st: Squirrel Appreciation Day….squirrel!

January 22^nd: National Blonde Brownie Day

January 23^rd: Library Shelfie Day (post a picture of your library #LibraryShelfieDay)

January 24^th: National Compliment Day

January 25^th: National Opposite Day (so we can actually use the phrase, “It’s opposite day!”)

Important Dates in January:

January 22^nd: Member Benefits visit to Frost (at lunch) & Hoover (afterschool)

January 23^rd: Member Benefits visit to Hanover (at lunch)

January 24^th: Member Benefits visit to Hale (at lunch)

January 25^th: Member Benefits visit to Fox (at lunch)

January 26^th: Community Closet (Addams) 10 AM – 12 PM