Hello Dolphins!  My name is Jennifer Thorn and this will be my 16th year of teaching!  I am originally from upstate New York where I lived for 23 years, moved to California for 1 year, and finally made my way to Texas where I have been for the last 20 years.  I will be teaching Comm this year and couldn’t be more excited.  I am a mother to 2 incredible girls, Madison and Emily.  Madison will be entering 8th grade at Lamar MS.  Emily will be entering 6th grade there also.  We love to read, dance, play, go on new adventures and love our animals!  We have 2 dogs and 6 cats (we had 2, but one of them had kittens this summer).

I started out as a paraprofessional in Plano.  Upon graduating from UTD with my Bachelor’s in Interdisciplinary Studies, I entered into teaching Special Education at a senior high school.  After 3 years I moved to an elementary school teaching inclusion, pull-out targeted instruction, and self contained students with special needs for the next 5 years.  I then got the opportunity to teach a Kindergarten class for the next 3 years before moving to Flower Mound.  I started in LISD at Rockbrook Elementary working in a Kindergarten class for 1 year before moving back to Special Education.  I taught Specifically Designed Instruction to students in all grade levels before being asked to pilot a new program for LISD called Applied Academics.  There I worked with students that were more than 2 grade levels behind in their reading and math to help fill the gaps in a self contained classroom.  The progress and growth from these students were incredible enough to have this program carried out in other schools across the district.  

I’m thrilled to enter back into a Comm class and work with these exceptional students.  I can’t wait to see what this year will bring and the lives that will touch me to help me grow as an educator.