MANSFIELD — Superintendent Teresa Murphy and Principal John Nieratko are pleased to announce that a fourth grade teacher at Jordan/Jackson Elementary, Jennifer Keller, has been awarded the MassCUE Pathfinder Award.
The MassCUE Pathfinder Award is presented to Massachusetts educators or leaders whose efforts have enhanced the field of educational technology. This person has gone “above and beyond” in demonstrating leadership and providing inspiration to other educators. The recipients could be a teacher, a principal, a technology director, or a curriculum coordinator.
Keller was presented the award on Tuesday, Oct. 18 at the President’s Dinner held by MassCue at Gillette Stadium.
Keller, working with building administration, has created a dynamic learning space for students in grades 3-5. She has added major STEM components to the curriculum by creating a STEM lab using an empty classroom. The space is organized by grade level and includes tools for makerspace activities. It includes robots, cubelets, Legos and Makey Makey activities.
Keller is currently working on a space for a green screen studio. She shares lessons and ideas to support the work done in the lab. She provides after-school professional development and has gotten all 35 classes into both the lab and the space with cameras and animation software.
In addition, she designs STEM challenges and also ties lessons to literature. She was inspired to bring Hour of Code to the school by working with other like-minded leaders in the building. She also involved the parent community by seeking volunteers to support the efforts in the cafeteria, which she named “Coding in the Caf.”
Keller has also been a leader with her own fourth grade staff. As soon as school closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she created a Google Classroom which taught the staff who were not familiar with the tool. There was a clearing house for staff to share lessons and ideas with students. She created a school-wide activity involving QR codes, and had fifth grade students create a food web and then teach others about it with the webs also being shared with the third and fourth grade classrooms.
“While working at Jordan/Jackson Ms. Keller has gone above and beyond as a teacher, sharing her love for STEM with her students and the greater school community,” Principal Nieratko said. “Jenn is very deserving of this award. On behalf of the Mansfield Public School community, we congratulate her on all she has achieved.”
To learn more about the MassCue Pathfinder Award, click here.
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