I hope you are as excited for a new school year as I am. I am taking on a new class this year: I will be co-teaching English with Mrs. Cunningham. As in the past, I will be co-teaching Social Studies with Mr. Katz and I will have several resource classes. I am really excited [...]

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Do you like games? Adventure? Pets? Monsters? You’ll love this new online game called Lure of the Labyrinth. If you are in Foundations in Algebra 2, use the user name an password we created in class to access your game. That way you will get credit for your playing time. If you are in another [...]

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It’s Saturday morning at 8:42 a.m., and I am sitting in a room watching my eighth graders staring at a test booklet, pencils poised above an answer document. They are taking the high school placement test, the test that above all other factors determines their level placement for their high school courses freshman year. [...]

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I love Mad Libs for teaching parts of speech. They take the pain out of the process and make learning fun.
Here is a link to some Mad Libs you can complete online provided by National Geographic Kids.
The links below are from Classroom Jr Teaching Resources. List your words first, then click on the links and [...]

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Every Veteran’s Day, I embarrass my husband, a Vietnam veteran, by saying, “Thank you for your service.” He was drafted, and served reluctantly, but he served and he served well. He chose to be a medic, although he was offered other M.O.s, because he hoped to do good rather than harm. And so I thank [...]

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This school year is off to a fast start. Already we a juggling multiple assignments from English, science, social studies and math. We have been feverishly reviewing strategies for reading expository text and discussing ways to improve our writing. We’ve already had several assessments in math. As we review our daily assignments, we are working [...]

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Yesterday was one of the first really nice, spring-like days here in Wilmette. Signs of spring are everywhere. The last few piles of snow in the parking lot have melted away. I look at the daffodils in my garden every morning when I leave for school, and as I arrive home, I notice how much [...]

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Watch these two videos and tell me which you think explains Pythagorean theorem better and why in a comment. This should include evaluation of EACH video.
Video # 1: Darth Vader Explains Pythagorean Theorem

Video # 2: Eggman Uses Pythagorean Theorem

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I am finding myself immersed in planning for our 8th grade students to attend New Trier High School. I returned their completed placement tests to New Trier and I am scheduling and attending multiple meetings in preparation for articulations (the Marie Murphy-New Trier transition meetings). It’s surprising how early this preparation starts. Students experience this, [...]

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Wednesday through Friday of last week, the eighth graders were treated to a number of field trips. One group of students was in Washington, D.C. touring the monuments, capitol buildings, and museums. Another group of students in Chicago visited the Holocaust Memorial Foundation in Skokie and went on an architectural tour of downtown Chicago. The [...]

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