Biography

Andrew Brennan

6th-8th Math

Decatur Classical

I am a Chicagoan born and raised in West Rogers Park, and am excited to be teaching not only in my hometown, but less than a mile from where I grew up! As a child, I played and practiced for sports teams at Lerner Park and on Decatur's basketball hoops in the back (the turf is a major upgrade from those hoops). I currently live in the Edgebrook area with my wife and toddler twin daughters.

I earned my Bachelor’s Degree from Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH, and taught for a number of years at the 6th-8th grade level in a small Catholic school in Detroit, MI (Math, Science, ELA, Religion). After teaching for 3 years there, I went on to earn my Master’s Degree at the University of Chicago; during which I student-taught at Decatur for a semester!

Upon earning my degree, I spent one year teaching at Jamieson Elementary in CPS, and then came back to the Decatur community. I have been a proud member of Decatur's teaching community for over 9 years now, and am looking forward to many more to come.

Posts

7th Grade Data Analysis

7th Graders did a Scavenger Hunt activity where they go around the room and answer questions to review our unit on Data Analysis and ScatterPlots.

6th Grade Expressions and Equations

6th Grade students worked on Terms of an Expression and Equation, as well as solving Linear Equations through a PaperBall activity where they got to shoot paperballs, and then had to find one and un-crumple it in order to match up with their partner.

8th Grade students worked on a "100th day of school" activity with their buddies, putting together a puzzle picture.

7th Grade students worked on an Formative Assessment Lesson (FAL) during their math class, for their unit on Functions, and relating the shape of a graph to a situation/context.

Jr High took a Service Learning field trip to Feed My Starving Children, where they packed meal packages for children in need of nutrition around the globe.

6th graders finished displaying their work on Proportional Relationships. Students were given a list of items and were able to choose 2 to put in a proportional relationship, then create a consistent model to demonstrate understanding of proportionality. Then we chose to model Baths vs. Showers to decide under what conditions a bath or shower uses more water.

Jr High Oktoberfest!

Students in Jr High participated in our annual friendly homeroom competition, Oktoberfest. Students in each homeroom dress up in their homeroom "colors" and compete in relays, games, puzzles, pumpkin decorating and an engineering challenge for a trophy that will reside in their homeroom for the remainder of the year.

Jr High took part in the annual Bowling Trip to collaborate and get to know one another better!

8th grade students visited the "Wild Mile" on the Chicago River. The Wild Mile is a floating boardwalk/garden/ecosystem on the Chicago River that students studied during their time. Above, students are working on "seed bombs" which will disperse native seeds and plants down and throughout the Chicago River. This was one part of several activities the students participated in.

7th grade students worked on Indirect Measurement using shadows and proportions. Students measured their own height and shadow, as well as the shadow of a tall object/building, using that ratio to measure the height of a tall object indirectly. This is part of our unit on similarity and triangles, which will eventually be related to slope.

7th Grade Camp Duncan Trip! What a blast! 7th graders did some Outdoor Ed at Camp Duncan and had an overnight in cabins.

7th Graders worked on their Data Project, building a "Picket Fence," that consists of how they spent their week in various categories we co-created.

6th Grade Gallery Walk

6th Graders reflected on their Partner Poster Project in a Gallery Walk as a class. They reflected on two aspects of their classmates' posters (mathematical accuracy, and communication thereof). They then reflected on what they would change about their own posters afterwards.

Math Circles at Decatur!

Students in the after-school Math program at Decatur, Math Circles, were involved in problem-solving with the "Last Man Standing" problem, where students stand in a row and have to work around constraints in order to accomplish the goal of getting the last person to stand.

6th Graders began a big project today in class. Solarize Your School is an initiative where students will design solar panels for their school using CAD software, calculate the energy offset created, and then refine their model over time. Once their model is refined and finalized, students will propose their plan to decision-makers in the community, and hopefully have solar panels in/on the building by 8th grade!

Name: Andrew Brennan
Position: 6th-8th | Math
Email: abrennan5@cps.edu