Some girls played house or staged mini weddings. Some girls played with dolls or trucks. Jenny? She played school. As a first-grade student, she frequently requested the extra worksheets after an assignment was completed – not a recycling mission… a life mission. From the tender age of six, Jenny knew her calling – as did those around her who became pupils in the ‘class’ whether by their choice or not. In high school, Jenny discovered a knack for describing geometry concepts to fellow students. Explaining concepts to help the students understand the “whys” of a question – and not just the “how”- was fascinating. That fascination carried over into the classroom where she shares her love of theatre, communication, and mathematics.  

A poster hangs in Jenny’s classroom that reads, “People may forget what you say or do, but they won’t forget how you make them feel.” Attributed to Maya Angelou, this quote succinctly states her teaching philosophy, her life philosophy. Students must know they are our primary concern. Do teachers need to cover the full scope and sequence? Yes. Do teachers need to meet the standards? Yes. Is it crucial that students are knowledgeable? Yes. But how much classroom time is spent on discipline issues leaving the teacher with very little ‘time to teach?’  Creating relationships and empowering students to make positive classroom choices help teachers reclaim much needed educational time!

Jenny’s education equipped her with the necessary subject knowledge, but her drive to see students have those breakthrough moments informs her classroom decisions. As Madeline Hunter said, “Kids don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care!” Students are similar regardless of the outer trappings. Some do brilliant things, and some do ignorant things – frequently it is the same student in a five minute period demonstrating both. As teachers, the job is to reach those students where they are then incorporate hands-on learning, cooperative learning, projects, and individual work that engage and activate students’ learning. 

Jenny is passionate about education, passionate about her students, and passionate about equipping other teachers with research based, proven, practical strategies and applications that they can start implementing immediately – without throwing anything out that is working in their classroom. Jenny understands that students come into classrooms and schools with different backgrounds and cultures and their cognitive abilities, assets, and experiences are just as wide ranging. One of the biggest unchallenged assumptions by many today (especially politicians) about education is that kids are coming to school willing and ready to learn. As educators, we know this is not the case. We have a generation of kids coming to our schools basically un-socialized. Many students are learning behavior from TV shows, video games, social media and a myriad of other influences. Jenny is dedicated to helping educators be successful through motivation, inspiration, humor and a common-sense approach to stress management. Most importantly, she leaves educators with as many proven, practical strategies as she can.