Campus Connection

Married alums bring Boscobel classrooms together

Jennifer Ekiss’ third grade class had a rare opportunity in May — they were going on a trip to Mexico. At least, that’s what Ekiss, ’13, told her students. In reality, the Boscobel Elementary school students were taking a much shorter trip. They would walk to the high school to learn about Mexican culture from students in an upper level Spanish course taught by Mark Ekiss, Jennifer’s husband. “It was exactly the final project I was looking for my students to do,” says Mark, ’14, who’s wrapping up his first year of teaching. “I learned in college the best way to learn is to teach someone, so I’ve wanted to see my students teaching younger students.” The high school students had already completed a Spanish oral presentation on topics, such as fashion, festivals, sports and the environment. The challenge for this presentation was to keep it interesting and understandable for the younger kids. “This really reinforced what we’ve been talking about in the classroom and will hopefully get the students looking forward to learning Spanish,” says Jennifer. Jennifer is a recipient of this year’s UWL School of Education Early Career Educator Awards. Five teachers in their first five years of teaching were honored during the School of Education’s scholarship night in April. “I don’t think I could have had an experience like this [UWL] anywhere else,” she says.