The Milan News-Leader
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Jasper brings energy to job
Milan Community Education serves 150 students in 2 counties
By Sue G. Collins, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: March 13, 2008
For Milan night school English teacher Kim Jasper, introducing adjectives, discussing descriptive essays and perfecting punctuation is important.
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Just as crucial for Jasper is setting a pace for her 25 students that allows them to get comfortable with the material and build confidence with the skills to tackle reading and writing assignments.
"One thing I learned after my first semester teaching here is to just take it slowly to be sure students are grasping everything before we move on," said Jasper, who jumped in mid-semester last fall when longtime English teacher Chris Packard retired to coach basketball.
Milan's Community Education program serves 150 students from across Monroe and Washtenaw counties who are working to earn their high school diploma after leaving school early. Most are about 20 years old and employed, while some are learning about parenthood and raising a young family. Others are recovering from poor choices made at school or outside its four walls.
Like any classroom full of students of any age and circumstance, Jasper's can get loud and the idle chatter can quickly replace the tasks at hand.
She lets her students spend 10 minutes at the beginning of each class "unwinding" and includes less structured time during the period so students can work at their own speed through the assignments.
"Still, the toughest challenge is to help students stay focused on what they are supposed to be learning," she said. "They all want to talk about what's going on in their lives, so I have to work hard to keep everyone on task."
To do this, she recently took students outside one dark night, sporadically through the class. Jasper had them observe February's lunar eclipse and write a descriptive essay about the changes they witnessed.
"I took the opportunity to urge them to use adjectives and really have fun with it," she said.
Jasper and her husband, Ryan, a graduate of Milan High School, have two young daughters and have lived in Milan for four years. Jasper earned her teaching degree from Eastern Michigan University and completed her student teaching in Milan schools.
"She is our newest teacher, and is young and very energetic. We are really excited to have her on our staff," said Connie Cox, Milan Community Education coordinator.
"I do love teaching and I have a really good group of students," Jasper said. "Most are there because they really do want to learn and accomplish something."
Jasper says she appreciates the opportunity to teach at night, allowing her time to be a full-time mom to her young children, another challenge she happily tackles.
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