Welcome to the 7J Team for 2009-2010!

Allow me to introduce myself: this year will be my seventeenth teaching 7J English! I truly don't know where the time has gone. Along the way I've had the privilege of working with thousands of kids and their families, and I'm always glad to see what "my kids" are doing after they leave seventh grade. As far as my background: I earned a B.A. in English Education and a Master's in Curriculum and Instruction from Illinois State University. I am National Board Certified in Early Adolescence/ English Language Arts. My husband is also an English teacher; we have three children and a veritable zoo of pets at home. In my "spare" time, I coach athletes who are training for marathons while raising funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. To date, I have completed four half marathons and two full marathons. I'm training for two more events in September and January.

I'm looking forward to a terrific year. We'll concentrate on improving our written communication skills this year. We'll write essays, poems, and shorter works, too. We'll review sentences and paragraphs, the parts of speech, and punctuation rules. We'll work toward improving our support and elaboration when we write as well as our ability to stay focused on one purpose and thesis.

E-mail Mrs. Riley                                                                                                                               See the 7J planner