OKEECHOBEE — On April 10, Kiwanis Club had the pleasure of hearing from Jennifer Fulwider.

Jennifer has 17 years of experience teaching elementary school students. She was awarded Teacher of the Year and also District Teacher of the Year at Everglades Elementary School.

On April 10, Kiwanis Club awarded her with the Community Service Award for her outstanding gift she demonstrates every day with her students.

Jennifer is very humble and feels like she is just doing her job taking care of her family of students. She normally teaches first grade but loved her students so much she wanted to follow them and is now teaching them in second grade.

When students come to class in the morning she always asks them “are they ready for a good day?” If they’re not, she figures out a way to get them ready. She helps them make every day a good day!
She was excited to talk about the ECRI (Enhanced Core Reading Instruction) initiative she piloted.

She told a story of a student who refused to pick up a pencil due to their lack of confidence. After going through the program that student was eager to write, even while other students were doing different tasks.

The program helps reluctant readers to read. The students go through a lesson learning the sounds, how to put the sounds together, the meaning and spelling.

She was also excited to mention that her students wrote a book last year. Each student wrote a story about their favorite character they read about throughout the year.