Features

Mrs. DiLonardo and the wonders of her EGP’s

Alisha Patel, Jia Patel, and Anhitha Marthala

January 29, 2026

Mrs. DiLonardo and the wonders of her EGP’s

Mrs. DiLonardo is a 8th grade teacher at Iselin Middle School (IMS) who has her own secret language with her students. She uses this engaging game with her honors students to help them learn.

Mrs. DiLonardo said that an EGP is a connection between different texts and stories she and her classes read together. They find the similarities between the texts they read and call them EGP’s. An EGP is her Evil Genius Plan.

What inspired her to start making EPG’s was to make it a game that was engaging and made students participate more in class. She wanted it to be an interactive game. Mrs. Dilonardo told us how EGP’s are like her secret language between her and her students.

She said that the game takes time to come up with and find the EGPs in the text, but she said it’s worth it to help the students learn in a fun way, and the students love to find them in the text as their reading.

“I wanted to make it almost like a game where I could say a phrase of ‘look out for the EGP’s,’ blank, connections, and I decided to call it EGP as an abbreviation of my Evil Genius Plan,” said Mrs. DiLonardo.

Her EGP’s are how she structures her lessons in the order of the books she teaches. She used to joke about how the EGP’s connections were part of her Evil Genius plan. It has been stuck with her and she’s grown it ever since she first made one.

She has a sign that she shows to let her students know that they are going to have to find an EGP that day in the story they are reading. There is an example of an EGP is in the story, “The Outsiders.” In “The Outsiders,” there is a reference to a Jack London book, which the honors kids read called “The Call of The Wild.” When she saw that a specific scene in the book was related to another scene in “The Outsiders,” that marked the beginning of EGPs.

EGP’s at first started as a coincidence but she kept seeing more and more. She saw these connections in the books that she and her students read throughout the school year. So she decided to create EGP’s to show her honors students the connections between the books.

She calls it her “Evil Genius Plan” because she said it was like her own secret language with her classes. She wanted them to connect together and understand the meaning behind each one, almost as if she wanted us to solve some sort of mystery.

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About the Contributors

Alisha Patel, Reporter

Alisha Patel is a student at IMS. She grew up in Edison and moved to Iselin when she was four years old. She currently lives with her mom, dad, younger brother, grandma, and two pet birds named Coco and Bluey. One of her favorite things to do is play badminton with her neighbor. She loves to go swimming in the summer with her friend. She also loves to go out and ride her bike with her friends and go hiking with her family. Instead of watching movies, she makes them with her friend.

Jia Patel, Reporter

Jia Patel is a student at IMS. She lives in Iselin and has lived here her whole life. She lives with her parents and her younger sister. She has a few pet fish and her pet turtle. She goes to karate, but she just started, so she is only a white belt. She likes to do art and drawing in her free time, but she also likes to play sports and make memories with her uncles. Her uncles have taught her everything she knows about sports and how to play multiple types of sports. She prefers playing volleyball over any other sport. She is in Arts High, where she gets to hang out with friends and do what she loves, art. She also loves to bake. She likes to bake cookies, cake, and brownies, mostly sweets, because she has a sweet tooth.

Anhitha Marthala, Reporter

Anhitha Marthala is a student at Iselin Middle School. She grew up in North Carolina before moving to Woodbridge at age five, where she now lives with her mom, dad, and younger brother. She also has a pet goldfish named Orange, whom she jokes she takes on walks every day. Marthala is known for being creative and athletic. She did karate for years and earned multiple belts, which helped her become more confident and disciplined. She’s also really artsy and enjoys drawing, painting, and anything that lets her be creative. Even though she’s artistic, volleyball is her favorite thing to do. Her friends know her for her athleticism and how hard she works on the court. She plays for the CJ Heat and always tries to improve her serves, passes, and hits. When she’s not practicing, she likes hanging out with her friends, going to games, listening to music, or doing archery.