Jillian Jo Overby, Easterseals Charter School Teacher

Jillian Overby is ending her second year as a lead teacher at Easterseals Charter School, where her role is to provide structured daily lessons in a supportive and caring environment to ESE charter students.

Teaching is a love for Jillian, and she says she "really enjoys working with children in the pre-k age group (3-5 years old), we are fortunate to see large amounts of growth and change happen in a relatively short amount of time. A variety of services are provided in the charter classroom: pre-academic skills, social-emotional skills, speech therapy, and occupational therapy are just a few of the many services we offer.By having a team of experts in these fields providing complementary services, our students grow leaps and bounds very quickly!"

Jillian says that our team-focused approach allows us to provide clear and meaningful supports to our families, noting, "Our charter classrooms are extremely team focused, and we meet regularly as a team to ensure our goals are cohesive for each individual student.Working so closely together gives me the unique opportunity to learn new things – nearly every day!Whether it is the speech therapist teaching me a new technique, or the IEP specialist helping me develop a new goal, there is the potential to grow as a professional every day."

"I began collecting a printed certificate of every professional development opportunity I have completed since starting with Easterseals nearly two years ago.In this short time I have filled a one-inch binder with certificates and credentials. Without a doubt, Easterseals has provided me with more professional and personal growth than any other organization I have worked for," says Jillian proudly.

Jillian really wants people to understand how deeply our childcare teachers care and the intentionality and planning that goes with helping children of all abilities achieve goals for lifetime success, "Some assume I only provide childcare services, and my job goes way beyond that. Each student arrives in my classroom with 3-6 individualized goals to work on. My biggest responsibility is ensuring my students are consistently working on these goals.I monitor and track progress, and I develop strategies for growth if needed. I provide our families with progress reports and data every four and a half weeks, at a minimum.Working in the charter classroom is paperwork and data heavy. I put forth 100% effort during EVERY minute I spent on the job."

So glad you are on our front line, Jillian!

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