Welcome parents to what is going to be a fabulous 2023-2024 school year full of making friends and growing our hearts and minds. I’d like to tell you a little bit about the teacher that will be working with your child this year. My name is Jenny Weikal. This will be my 22nd year teaching. My teaching experience includes five years in first grade, five years in kindergarten/Reading Recovery (a very intense, one-one first grade intervention program for struggling readers), one year in fifth grade, four years in second, and now my 7th year back in kindergarten, which is the age I most love working with. I am so super excited to be working at a school that has the same passion and focus on children as the one I taught at for 10 years in Illinois. Even more, I am with my favorite age and grade, so your sweet babies are about to get a whole lot of loving from me! I wrote a thesis on maternal discipline styles during my undergraduate work in a Child Development Lab. Following my major in psychology, I took on a position as an Assistant Director in a pre-school, which changed my direction with children from an interest in therapy to school. I then earned a Masters in Teaching, trained in Reading Recovery, and later obtained a Masters in Reading and Literacy. This second degree helped me to achieve my Reading Specialist degree in Illinois. I am a Nationally Board Certified Teacher and my family is very patient with my continuing dedication to professional growth. So that is my background, and now we are onto what is really important.

 

I adore kids. I am passionate about teaching. I am one of the lucky ones who gets paid for doing what I love. I moved down here from a suburb of Chicago 12 years ago. I have a seven-year-old son in first grade this year, which means I am not only a kindergarten teacher this year, I am also a second grade mom! You will hear about "Mase" often I'm sure! I have two wildly sweet dogs named Myka and Zoey. Playing with my dogs is a big hobby, and I also love to run, read books and watch podcasts, play sports and board games with Mason, draw, garden, and explore a new interest of puzzling. I am the person who your child will be with for over 7 hours a day. Ask me anything.

 

Degrees and Certifications

Nationally Board Certified Teacher

Master of Arts in Reading and Literacy, Benedictine University

Reading Specialist Degree in IL 

Reading Recovery Trained

Master of Arts in Teaching, Benedictine University

Bachelor of Arts in Pyschology, University of Iowa