LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Jennifer Younker was nominated anonymously.

Creating a positive classroom is very important to Ms. Younker. She focuses on three areas to help create a positive classroom environment. The first area she focuses on is relationships. She spends intentional time building relationships between classmates and with other teachers who work in her classroom. To begin the year, they focus on activities and learning that find commonalities between students. The activities she uses vary, but some examples are team-building activities, all-about-me activities, scavenger hunts, and cooperative learning partnerships.

Another way she builds a positive classroom environment is by encouraging mistakes. Yes, mistakes are celebrated in their classroom! Students learn that when they make mistakes, their brains grow. They celebrate the best mistake of the day. By doing this, students feel comfortable taking risks, learn not to laugh at others if they get something wrong, and take chances to share ideas, even if they may be incorrect. All of these traits open up students' brains for more learning.

Finally, she fosters a positive classroom environment by intentionally incorporating instructional material that students can relate to. She thinks students must see authors, scientists, mathematicians, and book characters that reflect their culture and appearance. Students get very excited about learning about others they can connect with.

Building a positive classroom environment is very important to student success. She works very hard to create a classroom community that is built on students' respect for each other and respect for their learning. 

She worked hard this summer making plans that incorporate literacy into the science and social studies curriculum. She believes that science and social studies are best learned, not in isolation, but integrated into the main content areas of math, reading, and writing.

Career Accomplishments:

• June 2023 - Master's of Science in Curriculum and Instruction
• 2023-present - Accomplished teacher rating
• 2018-present - District Literacy Leadership Team