New FSHS English Teacher: Jeni Hartman

 Jeni Hartman is the new freshman English teacher at Fort Scott High School.
Her experience includes teaching kindergarten and substitute teaching for the last 10 years.
Hartman has a bachelors degree in elementary education;
licensed for K-9 with a certification for secondary English 6-12
She grew up in Olathe but spent most of her adult life in Ottawa.
She is  married to “my best friend, Chris Hartman, and we have been together for almost 22 years.”
“My oldest (son), Logan, is 18 and he and his girlfriend are having our first grandbaby in February,” she said.
“My youngest, Caleb, is 14 and he is in 8th grade. He is on the football team, wrestling team and the track team.”
In her spare time she “loves reading and taking a nap (and) I really enjoy spending time with my family.”
To become a teacher, she took a “long road,” she said.  “I started at Pitt State, missed my family, so I moved to Dallas and went to UNT, moved back here to get married and had my oldest, went back to Pitt State and drove from Overland Park three days a week! Now I am working on my Master’s Degree in Reading Specialist and will be licensed in that as well.”
A teacher inspired Hartman to teach.
“Mr. Barnes, my senior genetics teacher inspired me. He took us on a trip to St. Louis to see the students mapping the human genome.,” she said.
The best part of teaching for her is “Hanging out with young people, getting to do what I love most, reading and writing. They keep me young.”
What are the greatest challenges in teaching for you?
“When that tough student that you are starting to break through with makes a poor decision and you have to start all over with that student. But when you do get that breakthrough and they start trusting you, that is the best. For a student to know that ‘Yeah, Mrs. Hartman is cool. She gets me.’ And when the stuff they bring to school from home gets left at the door and they learn in my class, that is why I am a teacher.”

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