August 31, 2015

I wanted to share some pictures from the first week of school! You can see each student holding the book from their favorite subjects, and pictures from two different science classes. In one, we timed the period of pendulums, and in the other, the students are making observations and inferences about earthworms.

Our normal homework routine started on Friday night. Students will have homework every night, and this will usually consist of math, reading, and spelling. Please help your child get into the routine of doing their homework in the same spot each night, crossing out each assignment in their notebook as they complete it, and then putting all the papers back into their bookbag before they go to bed.

August 24, 2015

Welcome to a new school year! I'm very excited to be here, and I can't wait to meet everyone. Just so you know a little bit about me, this is my tenth year teaching here at St. Sylvester School. My favorite subjects to teach are probably reading and science, though I have a hard time choosing. I love to learn, and have taken classes in previous years from the Museum of Science and Industry, Art Institute, and Nature Museum. This past summer, I also attended conferences on math and writing. I coach Girls on the Run after school in the fall, and enjoy running myself. I've done one marathon and several halves! I am an avid reader, usually reading 50 books a year. I've been married for six years. My husband is from Oklahoma, which causes some difficulty on football Saturdays if his Sooners play my Fighting Irish.

This week will mostly be spent getting to know each other and making sure the students know my routines and expectations. Though they will have some things to bring in, such as an empty cereal box that we can use to store library books in and pictures to decorate a notebook, they will not receive academic homework until Friday.

Specials classes begin on Thursday. We normally have gym on Thursdays and Fridays; however, due to a prayer service Thursday morning, we will just have gym on Friday this week. Students are still welcome to wear their gym uniform to school on Thursday if that is more comfortable for them.

I'll be sending a letter home tomorrow with more information in it about our year and my homework and discipline policies. I'll also be going over all that information in a lot more detail during Back to School Night on September 3.