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Teacher Profile: Jennifer Maras - Morris, MN [1]

['March', 'January', '- Jenny Maras']

Date: 2023-04

Teachers prepare students for the future in more ways than one; they provide support, act as mentors, and in many cases become like a family member. Jennifer (Jenny) Maras has taught for over 20 years, with the past 14 being in Morris Area School District, and she connects deeply to teaching her students skills they will be able to use outside of the classroom. For her outstanding work with students, the Minnesota Rural Education Association recognized Jenny as a 2022 Educator of Excellence.

Jenny teaches business classes to junior and senior high school students, and the content of these classes covers a wide berth of topics and an interesting range of activities. One thing she emphasizes is how students can apply what they have learned:

“Every time they walk into my classroom, they can apply it to life, in school or out of school, immediately. I'm always working at finding those opportunities for kids to use the stuff right now. If I'm not keeping up with trends and industry standards and reflecting what the workforce needs, I feel like I'm not doing my job. I think kids are really drawn to the practical nature of what I teach.”

With an ever-changing world comes ever-changing curricula. With so much variety, Jenny has a tough time picking a favorite topic:

“I arguably think everything is amazing, because when I don't think it's amazing, I certainly won't have buy-in from the students. I go from next hour, we're doing our own version of Shark Tank where students have businesses that they get to invest fake money in, and then the following hour, where my seventh graders come in. I actually have desserts rising right now that they got from writing to a company, and the company sent all these desserts that they get to make and share with their class. It's just like popping between curriculum."



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[1] Url: https://ruralschoolscollaborative.org/stories/teacher-profile-jennifer-maras-morris-mn

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