Jerilee Jones – Oakhills Elementary

As the school year continues, we reflect on the many positive educational achievements that have occurred in our daughter because of her excellent teacher Mrs. Jones.

Mrs. Jones makes sure each child in her fourth grade class reaches their personal best. Our daughter struggled daily going to school, enjoying school, and doing her work. Mrs. Jones immediately came to her rescue. She has movie Monday during lunch to help with early week blues and fun Fridays to end week on positive note for those that completed their homework. She will dress up to help students learn concepts, such as MR. FAB (mammals, reptiles, fish, amphibians, and birds), Clara the Clarifier, and Sammy the Summarizer. Mrs. Jones makes the class very fun with creative learning techniques such as the hatching of baby chicks, the mountain man rendezvous, and exciting field trips. She also keeps a treasure box to give to students as they exhibit good behavior. These things continue to draw our daughter back to school each week as she looks forward to the daily activities.

Mrs. Jones also keeps the parents up to date on weekly events with a weekly Monday morning email. She will also communicate if the student is missing any homework with a Thursday e-mail. Mrs. Jones will also find and develop the special gifts in each child and surrounds them with praise. Because of Mrs. Jones efforts, we recently found out our daughter has a great gift for poetry and creative writing. Without these efforts, we would have otherwise never known of her incredible talents.

Mrs. Jones tells all the kids that they individually are her hero. What Mrs. Jones may not realize is that she is the true hero by: helping each child achieve their personal best, making the class a fun and exciting place to learn, surrounding each child with praise, keeping the parents aware of the classroom events, and communicating the great accomplishments their child makes. We have seen an overwhelming change in our own student who started out with many struggles and hurdles and has been given the gift of ability and confidence by Mrs. Jones. Our daughter now looks forward to each school day. In a time of scrutiny upon the effectiveness of public education, we give our heartfelt gratitude to one educator who has become a true hero, Mrs. Jerilee Jones.

–Dan and Lisa Frei