ICMEE is proud to have a genuinely wonderful team of researchers, teacher educators, and teachers working together every day to help teachers and students in numerous ways. Each month, we will highlight an amazing team member going above and beyond to further the work of ICMEE. This month, the spotlight is on Jessica Spencer.
Jessica Spencer is a preschool teacher for Lincoln Public Schools, and a member of ICMEE's Admin Team. Jessica is originally from Monte Vista, Colorado, and she later moved to Hastings, Nebraska, during high school.
Jessica helps the ICMEE team in many key ways, including work on editing the eWorkshops, creating transcripts for videos, and collecting research data. She is also always ready to jump in to help the team problem solve and achieve goals. Jessica’s expertise and professional development interest are focused around finding and implementing the best ways of teaching multilingual learners.
Jessica’s love for working with children is apparent in all that she does, and her passion for teaching young learners is her motivation for all that she does in her career. “I love working with kids! They are so much fun, and I truly think I have the best job,” says Spencer, “I also don’t think there are nearly enough classes, professional development, or trainings on teaching multilingual learners available for teachers, which is why I was so interested in working for ICMEE.”
Jessica talks about her own elementary teachers as her main inspiration for the work she does today. She says that her teachers in elementary were able to make their classrooms extremely fun and engaging places to learn in, especially her 4th grade teacher, Ms. Cherny. Jessica credits Ms. Cherny with having a tremendous positive impact on her life, and on first inspiring her to become a teacher.
Outside of work in her classroom and with ICMEE, Jessica, loves to read, enjoys road trips, and loves attending concerts and Husker games! Jessica’s well-rounded personality, selfless orientation toward teamwork, and in-service teaching perspective are an invaluable asset for the ICMEE team.
More details at: https://cehs.unl.edu/icmee