"Homeless to Hopeful: No Matter the Obstacles.”

Submitted by Jen Way

“I want people to see, from my point of view, that yes, being homeless is hard. Life is hard, but if you keep your head up high, you can achieve anything,” Ann Marie Bottorff, 21, told Northeast Kingdom Learning Services (NEKLS) St. Johnsbury Center Manager Jennifer Adams.

Ann graduated in December 2012 after moving to Vermont eight months ago from Rhode Island. She first walked into the St. Johnsbury Learning Center in July 2012, seeking her dream of a high school diploma. Read more..

St. Johnsbury, VT: What do chocolate, Chuck Norris, and interactive television have in common? It’s an algebra class, of course! Jen Way, Center Instructor for the St. Johnsbury branch of Northeast Kingdom Learning Services (NEKLS) has taken an unusual approach to teaching a basic skills algebra class. Rather than lecturing from a textbook and assigning worksheet after worksheet, Jen has infused her weekly class with energy, board games, cartoons, and even YouTube videos to help make these often-difficult concepts both easier to understand and more engaging. A Khan Academy video used pictures of Chuck Norris to demonstrate how one could combine multiple “Chuck Norri” but could not combine Chuck Norris with plums.
NEKLS has branches across northern Vermont, and using interactive video conferencing technology, Jen has been able to reach students in Hardwick, Newport, and Canaan.
Jen has structured her class to include ten of the most common algebra concepts covered in an Algebra 1 class. The class is fast-paced. “This

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Jen Way is a Community Education Center Teacher for Northeast Kingdom Learning Services (NEKLS), located on Main Street in St. Johnsbury, VT. Artwork designed by Elizabeth Hammerle, for Northeast Kingdom Learning Services.

[pace] keeps students from becoming bored; their attention is constantly directed toward the math, along with many built-in ways to practice, especially with each other,” Jen said. She makes all of her lessons and materials available to students before the day of the class so they can start looking over what will be discussed in class.
“Math really has helped my creativity,” Elizabeth Hammerle, a student in the Algebra class, said to Jen. “I wasn’t expecting to be creative, but in making my arty brain think logically, it feels like I’m using all of my brain. It makes me think, and not just in a logical scientist manner. It feels like my left brain and right brain shake hands and all the sudden—BAM!—it makes sense!”
After this class ends, Jen intends to do the same thing for Geometry. “I think math is fun, which is why I design lessons where we play with math, and never “work” with it,” Jen said after an enjoyable game of simplifying algebraic expressions, where one student proudly displayed her Captain America Pez she won.

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