From the Medical Field to Education: Jenn Klein Earns Her Master’s Degree
Mrs. Jenn Klein, 4th Grade Teacher, continues to show her commitment to education inside and outside the classroom by completing a Master of Science in Teaching Degree from The College of Saint Scholastica.
Klein has been a part of the St. Joseph School community since 2015, when her oldest child started Kindergarten. While she started her career as a medical laboratory scientist in 2002, Klein went back to school for her master’s in September 2018 to follow her passion – teaching.
“When I first started substitute teaching at St. Joseph, I had been praying to God to help me find a career that was more fulfilling. I was pointed in the direction to be a substitute,” stated Klein. “When I started substituting in 2017, I never would have guessed that I would have gone back to school and be sitting here today as the 4th grade teacher at St. Joseph three years later.”
Working with tenured teacher, Mrs. Nadine Metling, in 3rd Grade in Spring of 2020 for her student teaching credits, Klein was able to get to know her future 4th Graders. While the COVID-19 lockdown presented many challenges for a new student teacher, she was able to learn how to instruct students in a distance learning world and the experience taught her some things she still utilizes in class today.
Some of Klein’s favorite classes were the technology classes because she was able to learn the latest technology and how to integrate them into teaching. “Moving forward, I can see the benefits of having some classwork in an online platform to allow students to work at their own pace,” said Klein.
Now that she has earned her master’s degree, Klein will continue schooling to receive her STEM Certification. Throughout her own educational journey, she recalls a lesson from one of her professors: Teaching now is not lecturing for 8 hours at your students but learning to relate and teach with your students interacting with you and with others.
“The education profession is always changing, adapting, and moving forward. To be the best teacher I can be I need to be able to change, adapt and move forward. By pushing myself to learn more ways to educate and interact with my students, the better I can teach them. That is what is so great about STEM, it helps you teach the students that everything is interconnected in ways that you never knew,” said Klein. “We never know what God has in store for us, but we always need to be willing to listen. I feel truly blessed that God led me on this journey and gave my family the strength to help me through this journey.”
Congratulations to Mrs. Jenn Klein on her accomplishments!
