Walsh University Teacher of the Month: Jennifer Ammond, Plain Local
The Repository
RESIDENCE North Lawrence.
COLLEGE Kent State University and Grand Canyon University.
FAMILY Husband, TJ; and daughters Eva, Arbella and Quinn.
WHAT SUBJECTS DO YOU TEACH? Fifth-grade math.
WHAT IS THE BEST PART OF YOUR JOB? Helping kids build confidence to believe in themselves and watching them grow to love math.
WHAT IS THE MOST CHALLENGING PART OF YOUR JOB? Helping students to recognize that productive struggle is the way in which we learn the most. As teachers, we want to help the students, but teaching them how to teach others is very rewarding.
Of the 16 messages the board received, roughly half of them concerned the Arts or AIM academies.
“I understand you are trying to make the most of what we have here but if there is any way the Arts Academy can remain the way it is and a K-8 school, I feel like I would not be the only one relieved,” wrote Angela Bilbrey, whose children are in kindergarten, second, sixth and eighth grades at Arts Academy. “We chose to have our children there because, to me, it just feels like a better option for a school.”
Jennifer Anderson questioned moving seventh- and eighth-graders from the Arts Academy to middle schools that won’t be renovated for at least another year. The restructuring plan calls for expanding Crenshaw Middle School to add a gymnasium and dedicated space for industrial arts and extensive renovations to the STEAMM Academy at Hartford to create an exhibition area, theater, greenhouse, maker space and woodshop.