A Grand Traverse County educator known for making her students feel safe, welcomed, and loved has been honored with an Excellence In Education award from the Michigan Lottery.

The award winner, Jennifer Cole, is a special education teacher for students with mild cognitive impairments at Central Grade Elementary. The school is part of Traverse City Area Public Schools.

The Michigan Lottery established the Excellence In Education awards in 2014 to recognize outstanding public-school educators across the state during the school year.

Winners of the weekly award receive a $2,000 cash prize. At the end of the school year, one of the weekly award winners will be selected to receive the Lottery’s Educator of the Year award and will receive a $10,000 cash prize.

Each winner also is featured in a news segment on the Lottery’s media partner stations: WXYZ-TV in Detroit, FOX 17 in Grand Rapids, FOX 47 in Lansing, WNEM-TV in Saginaw, and WWTV-TV in Traverse City. The news segment featuring Cole will air this evening.

“Special Education teachers, like Jennifer Cole, are critical to ensuring that our most vulnerable students receive the education that they deserve,” said Lottery Commissioner, Suzanna Shkreli. “Her work to empower her students and provide lifelong skills through her lessons are examples of her commitment to her students. I am honored to recognize her as an Excellence in Education award winner.”

Cole says her mother motivated her to pursue a career in education.

“My mother was an amazing teacher. I grew up helping in her classroom and loved it. From a very young age I knew that being a teacher was my purpose in life.”

Cole says the energy and love in her classroom motivates her to do her best for her students.

“The energy and love from my students drive me to continue to teach and become a better teacher every day. Despite the disabilities my students may have, they still have a drive to learn, and they come to class everyday ready to try their best.”

Cole was nominated for the award by a colleague.

“Jenn Cole is an amazing individual in the classroom and out! She goes above and beyond to make her kids feel safe, welcomed, and loved every single day. I have witnessed firsthand the amount of time and money she puts into her units and lessons to make sure her students learn and experience new skills using real world application. An example of Jenn’s excellent work with her students is a school-wide popcorn business run by her class. Students last year created this business as a class. They were required to learn many new skills; money counting, making change, taking orders, teamwork, and making popcorn. Students had a business name, uniforms, name tags, and “paychecks” that were used in hypothetical situations in the classroom to practice life skills. Prior to making popcorn, the class completed in depth research on their popcorn kernels (for the healthiest choice), cost of supply, and job training. Jenn built and implemented this business on her own with her students, including putting her own money toward start up and product costs. Jenn’s goal was to make sure that each student received popcorn each Friday, which meant buying the additional bags with money from her paycheck. Jenn’s goal aside from student training was to make sure that every student in the school had something to look forward to on Friday. She knew that one small thing could be enough to leave school on a positive note and come back on Monday with the same attitude. Jenn’s students felt pride in their work, looked forward to popcorn Fridays, and built many relationships with other students and staff along the way.”

Cole earned a bachelor’s degree from Grand Valley State University. She has worked in education for 13 years, the last 10 in her current position.

Excellence in Education award nominees are evaluated on the following criteria:

• Excellence – Their work consistently helps students and/or their schools or school districts advance to higher levels of academic achievement.
• Dedication – They consistently go above and beyond expectations to help students succeed.
• Inspiration – Their work inspires others around them to exceed expectations either academically or professionally.
• Leadership – They demonstrate clear leadership skills in their positions with their school or school districts.
• Effectiveness – The nominee’s work has clear and positive results on the educational advancement of students within the school or school district.