Hometown Heroes - Elissa Kinstler and Jennifer Wheeler
This week’s Hometown Heroes are Elissa Kinstler and Jennifer Wheeler, both recently named Herb Kohl Educational Foundation Fellows for 2013. Elissa is the Director of Bands at Bangor middle and high schools while Jennifer is a first grade teacher at West Salem Elementary.
Established in 1990, the Herb Kohl Educational Foundation Fellowship Award program awards $1,000 to one hundred Wisconsin teachers and their schools. Teachers are nominated and must pass through a series of district-wide, regional and state-wide screenings. The 100 winners are selected based on their “superior ability to inspire a love of learning in their students and ability to motivate others, and for their leadership and service within and outside the classroom,” according to the Foundation’s website. Jennifer was nominated by the parent of one of her former students while Elissa was nominated by a history teacher at Bangor.
Jennifer says her favorite parts of being a teacher are the children and amazing staff she gets to work with every day. She loves to watch her children master different tasks like learning to read as well as helping them to learn important life lessons like being kind to one another.
She began teaching to fulfill a growing desire to leave a lasting footprint on the world. After going back to school to earn her Masters, she embarked on what she now describes as her calling: “helping young children develop a love of learning and be empathetic young people who will go on to do great things and make a difference in this world.”
Jennifer and her school have big plans for the $1,000 grant she received as part of her Kohl Fellowship. The money will go towards new science material to help align the first graders with the new Common Core Standards. With this financial help, the kids will get to conduct hands on experiments and develop their skills of reasoning and inquiry.
In addition to winning this money for all of West Salem Elementary, Jennifer inspired her class to paint a rain barrel for the community garden show and silent auction. The kids won third place in the novice category and then the grand prize of $100. But not only has Jennifer trained a class of go-getters, she also has a class of compassionate and considerate community citizens. When she asked them what they wanted to do with their prize money, all the kids requested to donate it to charity. In the end, half of the money will go to charity with the other half going towards a picnic for the kids and their families.
Elissa says she always wanted to be a teacher because she loves learning and loves helping people learn. So it’s no surprise that her favorite thing about teaching is getting to be a positive influence on a young person’s life. She loves getting to know her students so that she can better understand how they learn and develop plans to help them succeed. During college, she tutored students in various subjects and it reinforced her love of the process of learning.
As the only band director for Bangor, Elissa currently teaches 6th -12th grade instrumental music and 6th grade general music, in addition to directing the pep band, marching band and jazz band. Outside of the classroom, she also coaches the 7th grade quiz bowl team, serves as a math interventionist, and coaches the high school Odyssey of the Mind team. Within the community, she performs in numerous jazz and steel bands as well as serving as secretary for the La Crosse youth Symphony board.
Elissa says that she plans to use the $1,000 to update her school’s marching percussion equipment. Their quad marching drums “have been falling apart for years and our carriers for the drums are extremely outdated.” Her high school percussion students are very excited about the new purchases, not only for the chance to work with new equipment but also to get to use much lighter equipment when they are parade marching.
Congratulations to you, Jennifer and Elissa! Keep up the good work and continue to be Hometown Heroes.
Hometown Hero is a weekly feature put together by Rep. Steve Doyle (D-Onalaska). If you have any suggestions of a Hometown Hero, send a short description of why you think this person should be a Hometown Hero and contact information of both you and the nominee to rep.doyle@legis.wisconsin.gov.