My name is Jon DiLorenzo and this is my 20th year in education.  I am very pleased to be teaching 3rd/4th graders at Saint Mary's Visitation School.  I have over 13 years of experience in working with these two particular grades and I am excited to be working with my new students.

I graduated from Grand Valley State University in 2000 with a Bachelor of Arts in English/Language Arts with Elementary Distributed Minor.  Before SMV, I taught 3 years of 4th/5th grade at Black River School in Holland.  I have taught at various schools throughout Grand Rapids.  I am a few classes shy from my master’s degree which is Educational Differentiation.  I am very excited and eager to work with not only my students, but fellow teachers and parents as well.  There is so much to be learned from one another!

In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my wife, Jessica, and my son, Carson.  Jessica is a Radiology Systems Administrator at Metro Health Hospital.  Carson is a freshman at Calvin College.  I love playing and watching all kinds of sports.  I really enjoy watching my son, Carson, play baseball.  I also enjoy hiking.  I am a huge fan of food, not only eating it, but cooking it as well.  I am also a huge fan of reading.  I really love a good book that I can get lost in.
     I am very excited to start my third year here at Saint Mary's Visitation School and can’t wait to see what the future has in store!

Please have questions answered and pictures (no more than 10 please) sent in by the Friday before your child’s scheduled star student date.  Please send in pictures that you don’t mind me putting a pin through to attach to the bulletin board. Thank you! 

Thaddeus - September 21 - October 2
Abigail - October 6 - 23
Noah - October 26 - November 6
Luke - November 9 - 23
Virgil - November 30 - December 18
Joe - January 4 - 15
Max - January 18 - 29
Alayna - February 1 - 12
Emery - February 15 - 26
Adena - March 1 - 19
Taylor - March 22 - April 16

• I am asking that students read for 20 minutes nightly, Monday through Friday, unless they have school work to complete.  I would also like them to get their planner signed nightly please.  I would also like the students to get into the habit of asking you to sign the planner, not you asking to sign their planner.  I know this may take some getting use to, so if you need to ask for the planner until they get into the habit of remembering, then that is perfectly fine.  Thank you!

• Work that is not completed in the classroom will be sent home as homework.  Students should not have more than 30 minutes of homework on any given night.  If a student has homework, then they are not required to read for the 20 minutes.

• Students will have monthly homework in the forms of Practical/Spiritual Life Bingo and Book Reports.

• If you are looking for additional work, I would suggest giving your child a practice spelling test each Thursday night that we have spelling.  Studying basic math facts, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, using flash cards or computer games/programs is another idea.  Knowing these basic math facts will greatly improve your child's math skills!  Another idea is studying states and capitals.