Jenny

This is my fifteenth year teaching, although I don't know where the time has gone! I've taught in both 4th and 5th grade self-contained classrooms and middle school in private, Catholic schools, but I moved to a public middle school last year. In addition, I've worked as a tutor for students ages 5-17 in both language arts and math. I also have taught fifth grade Catholic Faith Formation. I love teaching and can't imagine myself in any other profession!

While I create my lessons around state standards, I always think to myself when forming a lesson, "will the kids enjoy this?" While I'm not naive and realize that learning can't be fun ALL the time, I do aim to create a learning atmosphere that is engaging and interesting for the students to learn by using multiple teaching strategies to reach and teach each learner. I do this with a lot of games to reinforce concepts, humor in the SMART board lessons I create and post-it notes next to my bed when I have a brainstorm at 3am. My students are middle schoolers, so they are more than happy to provide constant and immediate feedback for both lessons they've enjoyed and those that need to go in the archives of lessons which bombed. I love what I do and try to transfer that energy to my teaching because if I don't enjoy doing what I do, they kids won't enjoy learning what I teach!

Distinguished Graduate 2012

After volunteering as a teacher at my church for Sunday School when I was a teenager, I fell in love with teaching and went on to earn a BA in Elementary Education from University of Portland. A few years ago, I earned my Masters in Education Curriculum and Instruction from Seattle University. Concurrently I received my Professional Certification for the state of Washington. A few years ago, I went back to school to acquire an endorsement for middle level humanities. This is what I now teach and I LOVE it. I think I'll hang up my student hat for awhile, but I'd love to go back and get another degree sooner than later!