Rolling Meadows fourth-grade teacher Jennifer Ellsworth is one of 10 educators statewide to receive the 2017 UEA Excellence in Teaching Award.

This award is given each year to Utah public school teachers whose efforts in the classroom have significantly impacted the life of an individual child or group of children. Here’s a summary of Jennifer’s award letter:

“Jennifer Ellsworth believes teachers should continually be students themselves. She is always on the lookout for new ways to meet students’ needs. Some innovations she has incorporated include sharing yoga balls among students when they need more focus, giving students a kinesthetic experience by providing actions to vocabulary instruction, having students create a slide for each science concept taught to be used in a slideshow, and teaching her students coding.”

“Mrs. Ellsworth works daily on creating a community within her classroom. She often uses a starter activity to focus students on acknowledging kind deeds performed by others both in and out of the classroom. She pushes students to understand the impact of those thoughtful deeds and challenges them to “pay it forward.”

A colleague wrote, ‘Knowing what [Mrs. Ellsworth] is doing with her class motivates me as well as other teachers around her. Jen makes me want to be a better instructor daily because of her excellence and dedication to this profession. Because of her passion for education Mrs. Ellsworth is a key ingredient to the success of our school.’ “