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Renie Petropoulos » Ms. Petropoulos' Biography

Ms. Petropoulos' Biography

Ms. Petropoulos grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and holds her BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago. She earned her MEd in Elementary and Middle-School Education from DePaul University in Chicago. Ms. Petropoulos is endorsed to teach middle-school English Language Arts, French, Social Science, and Science.

 

This is Ms. Petropoulos' ninth year of teaching with Chicago Public Schools and her second year at Decatur. Prior to Decatur, Ms. Petropoulos taught Exploratory Science (STEM Lab) for four years to Pre-K through 8th-grade students at Saucedo Elementary in Little Village. Before that, way back in the ‘90s, she taught Library Media to Pre-K through 8th-grade students and then First Grade. After that, she worked full-time for eighteen years creating K–12 curricula for the Great Books Foundation’s Junior Great Books program, Encyclopædia Britannica, and National Geographic Learning.

 

Being an editor allowed Ms. Petropoulos to work flexibly at home so she could cook healthy, delicious meals for her family and spend time with her two sons as they grew. When her sons reached middle-school and were more independent, Ms. Petropoulos realized she missed exploring this fascinating world with children and missed providing opportunities to help children find their passion in life! So, she returned to teaching.

 

In her spare time, Ms. Petropoulos loves reading, writing poetry, gardening, birdwatching, and thrift shopping. She also enjoys playing the violin, bass guitar, and electric keyboard—while her pet birds sing along.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posts

Week 8: 10/15–10/18

Grade 4 Math
We will be having our Unit 2 Test on Wednesday. To practice with your student at home, please click to download the practice packet "Grade 4, Unit 2: Fractions as Quotients and Fraction Multiplication" below.
 
Grade 4 Science
Students discussed what engineers do and why what they do is important to solving world problems that affect everyone.
 
Grade 5 Math
We will be having our Unit 2 Test on Thursday. To practice with your student at home, please click to download the practice packet "Grade 5, Unit 2: Introducing Ratios" below.
 
Grade 5 Science
After tracking several constellation examples, students discussed how constellations are not necessarily visible throughout the year. 

Week 7: 10/7–10/11

Grade 4 Math
Students continue to work with multiplying and dividing fractions through word problems, using visuals, manipulating digital visualizations, and creating their own word problems.
 
Grade 4 Science
Students discussed how a backup electrical system would work for a hospital in a city during a blackout. Students continue to consider how energy changes form and can be converted to provide optimal results in an electrical system.
 
Grade 5 Math
Students continue to explore the importance of ratios in various recipes, paint mixture scenarios, and weight comparisons.
 
Grade 5 Science
Students made constellation posters and considered how best to track the night sky throughout one year using their sky tracking simulation. They also recreated Earth's orbit in Scratch, using Scratch coding.
 

Week 6, 9/30–10/4

Grade 4, Math
We started Unit 2: Fractions as Quotients and Fraction Multiplication. Our Unit Story is about how unexpected guests at a party make it necessary to divvy up the resources. We have been exploring fractions as quotients and creating our own word problems involving it.
 
Grade 4, Science:
We considered how to lower the energy usage in a city called Ergstown. As engineers assigned to this city's energy problem, we have been experimenting with different energy inputs and outputs. Together as a class, we have hypothesized what we think is the best energy source in put and the most efficient energy output for Ergstown.
 
Grade 5, Math:
We started Unit 2: Introducing Ratios. Students have been comparing amounts of ingredients to complete a recipe and amounts of different types of fruits that measure equally. 
 
Grade 5, Science:
Students considered how gravity behaves on Earth and how the concept of "up" is relative. Whole class discussions evolved to realize that the concept of "relative" relates to more than just gravity.

Week 5: 9/23 - 9/26

Math:
This week was a short but important one! Both Grades 4 & 5 reviewed for their math unit 1 tests before taking them at the end of the week! We will be starting unit 2 for math in both grades on Monday of next week.
 
Science:
Both Grades 4 & 5 are about halfway through Unit 1! Grade 4 students are continuing to research energy forms and transformations. We had a great discussion about how the total amount of energy is always the same in the universe, and how energy is always changing forms. We considered why the potential and kinetic energy changes in a pendulum as it moves, when it has the most and least of each, and how the pendulum stops because of air resistance, which is a force of friction. We also considered how fossil fuels are made from material that was once living and that our cars may just be running on the energy from a T-Rex for a moment!
 
Grade 5 students watched and discussed several captivating satellite videos showing patterns in how Earth appears over time as it rotates throughout the day, and patterns in how the force of gravity behaves the same on any object (comparing a feather and a hammer falling at the same rates on the moon!). We also discussed how, again!, air resistance changes how the feather falls on Earth, compared to a hammer, and why air resistance, or friction, doesn't affect the falling feather's rate on the moon.

Week 4: 9/16–9/20

Grade 4
Math: Students continued to calculate the area of irregular shaped prisms by either
* dividing the irregular shape into two regular shaped prisms, finding both their volumes and adding them together
--OR--
* finding the volume of a larger, regular shaped prism and subtracting the missing piece's volume
 
We have almost completed our first UNIT!!!!
OUR GRADE 4 UNIT 1 ASSESSMENT WILL BE ON WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25! Students should make sure to check that they have completed all Past Due Desmos assignments in their Google Classroom/Desmos. Parents who would like to practice with your student at home: Please click here to download "Grade 4 Unit 1 Volume: Unit Support for Caregivers." This resource has practice problems for home.
 
Science: Students continue to discuss the inputs and outputs involved in electrical systems, exploring possibilities in the simulation, and writing explanations of how different inputs and outputs exist in different electrical systems.
 
 
Grade 5
Math: Students continue to calculate the surface area and volume of differently shaped polyhedra.
 
UNIT 1 IS ALMOST DONE!!!!!
WE WILL HAVE OUR GRADE 5 UNIT 1 ASSESSMENT ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26! Students should make sure to check that they have completed all Past Due Desmos assignments in their Google Classroom/Desmos. Parents who would like to practice with your student at home: Please click here to download "Grade 5 Unit 1 Area: Unit Support for Caregivers." This resource has practice problems for home.
 
Science: Students continue to discuss the reasons why some stars are not visible during parts of the year in the night sky. Students continue to collect data from the constellation simulation about a particular constellation's visibility during the year and day, and where it appears differently in the sky.

Week 3: 9/9–9/13

4th Grade
SEL - Students have been practicing more caring conversations in our classroom with regard to how they interact with each other while discussing and explaining concepts. Our classroom culture promotes helping each other better understand math and science concepts through showing and explaining our work and teaching others about the concepts that we already know (skills that are emphasized in our Amplify curricula). Students have been exhibiting more caring communication so that they can better collaborate on projects and understand each other's points.
Math - Students worked with figuring out whether a certain volume amount could fit into a certain container using multiple steps to figure out the volume of each container. They practiced reading word problems that provided data differently in order to distinguish between length, area, and volume units of measurement. 
Science - Students read an Amplify reference book about different forms of energy, created electrical systems in a simulation, and recorded their own encounters with different systems and forms of energy in their science notebooks..
 
5th Grade
SEL - Students have been practicing more caring conversations in our classroom with regard to how they interact with each other while discussing and explaining concepts. Our classroom culture promotes helping each other better understand math and science concepts through showing and explaining our work and teaching others about the concepts that we already know (skills that are emphasized in our Amplify curricula). Students are becoming more aware of how they can work together to accomplish a goal.
Math - Students practiced how to add or subtract the area of rectangles, parallelograms, and triangles in order to find the total area of polygons. 
Science - Students discussed the meanings they saw in another artifact's depiction of the sky and wrote sentences using key vocabulary words from our unit in their science notebooks.
 
4th/5th Grades
Students completed the beginning of the year Star 360 in Math.

First letter home to sign.week 3

Dear G4 & G5 Decatur families:
 
Attached please find your student's first Social & Emotional letter home to complete with guardians. Students were asked to take it home and complete it during week 3. If you were not able to complete it or did not find it in our green take home folder, please download and complete. Students may turn it in this coming week! 
 
Thank you so much!

Week 2: 9/3–9/6

4th Grade
SEL - Students' self assessment on how they adhered to our classroom behavior contract. Discussions about the importance of keeping to our contract for ourselves and others.
Math - Students completed more manipulative work and calculations of the volume of different  "quadrilateral prisms" --three-dimensional shapes where the bases (top and bottom faces) are both quadrilaterals. 
Science - Students discussed the definition of a system and various examples. As a group, they assembled a solar powered electrical system together to make a fan work, they also identified scientific text features in their "Systems" partner read book, and completed various pages in their science notebook to record data, sketch systems, and cite evidence.
 
5th Grade
SEL - Students' self assessment on how they adhered to our classroom behavior contract. Discussions about the importance of keeping to our contract for ourselves and others.
Math - Students practiced how to calculated the area of rectangles, parallelograms, and triangles.
Science - Students discussed some of the different factors involved in why stars vary in brightness (temperature, mass, color, luminosity, and size); the whole class worked together to decipher an artifact providing several different depictions of the sky at once; partners worked together to find places in a nonfiction text where they could visualize size comparisons using tables of data and scientific models.
 
4th/5th Grades
Students practiced logging into their computers, troubleshooting difficulties with tech in preparation for next week's Star 360 digital tests. Both classes were also able to complete practice problems using their new digital interface, which includes tools that are used in digital standardized testing
 

Week 1: 8/26–8/30

4th Mathematics & Science
This week we focused on routines and classroom behaviors. Students outlined the benefits and difficulties of learning in a classroom environment. We composed a classroom contract, listing rules for behaviors that will help everyone in our room learn and signed it. We also started our new math and science curriculum. For math, we explored the concept of “volume,” its three dimensions, and how to calculate it. For science, we held a discussion of all the reasons why a lamp might not work when switched on. For both math and science, our curriculum emphasizes the importance of explaining one’s answer in detail with reliable evidence. 
 
5th Mathematics & Science
* Whole Class Creation of our Classroom Behavior Contract, which students signed
* Calculating the area of quadrilaterals
* Class discussions of why stars appear differently in the sky, examinations of artifacts about stars, constellations, and the differences in how the sky appears throughout a day, year, and millennium