Hello! I am one of the Learning Specialists at Centennial Elementary School. I started teaching at Centennial in January 2014. I received my Bachelor of Science in Special Education from Northern Illinois University in 2002 and have been teaching special education ever since! I completed my Master's degree in Child and Adolescent Psychology with additional credits in Applied Behavioral Analysis from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology and Penn State in 2010. I have taken the first course in Add Vantage Math and received training this year in the Orton Gillingham reading approach. I have also received training from HillRAP on Reading Instruction. I have been passionate about continuing my learning in how to work with students with Dyslexia and guide them toward being and feeling successful when they read and write.
Originally from Chicago, I moved to Colorado Springs in 2004 and north to the Denver area in 2014. I have 3 dogs (Lilly, Scout and Viola) and a cat named Luna. I live with my boyfriend, Tyler, in Westminster. In my free time, I enjoy drinking lots of coffee, reading, ceramics, photography, watching Netflix and going to concerts.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions!
Distance Learning Updates:
Well, we are entering a new era of teaching! I'm excited to give distance learning a try and to collaborate with you to help your student succeed! This will be a learning experience for all of us, myself included! Understand that I will make mistakes as I learn and that we will have to be patient with ourselves during this time. I miss seeing the kids' smiling faces and hearing their stories!
Here is some information to access for the coming weeks:
IEP Meetings
We will also be holding IEP meetings online. If you have an upcoming IEP meeting this school year, I will be contacting you directly on how we will hold the meeting.
Attendance Expectations
I will provide supplemental lessons for reading, writing and mathematics, depending on what is on your child's IEP. These lessons will either be through my own Google Classroom OR assigned to your student in their general education Google Classroom (or Dojo for K-1st graders). I will monitor attendance by your student's submissions for assignments. The assignments will be able to be completed any time throughout the week. New assignments/lessons for the entire week will be provided on Mondays. These assignments will help me to monitor your student's IEP goals.
Ms. Jen's Online Office Hours
These are the times to contact me for a video chat. If your student has questions (or if you have questions!), I will be available to reteach, answer questions or model instruction. Also, I would love to visit live with each of the kids at least once a week to keep connected! To access video chat, we can use Zoom, Dojo or Google Hangouts. I have scheduled recurring Zoom meetings during my office hours, but if you need another platform, email me and let me know. If none of these hours work for you, I'm very flexible with times we can meet or if you just want to set up a weekly/daily time for us to meet, that works too. Just shoot me an email and we will set something up.
Monday
8-10 AM
Tuesday
10 AM -12 PM
Wednesday
12-2 PM
Thursday
2-4 PM
Friday 8-10 AM