Teaching students that they are capable of learning and doing great things is Mrs. Jill Kathleen Cockburn. She celebrates her birthday on August 14th. Her family consists of her husband, Clif and they have been married for 28 years, and three sons, Jimmy and his wife, Sara, Colton, who is a junior at Ozark Christian College in Joplin, MO and Sawyer, who is a freshman at Ozark Christian College. They also have pets of 3 dogs, 2 border collies, Duke and Sasha and a terrier named Trixie, a canary and outside critters such as goats and chickens.
She obtained her teaching degree at Wayne State College, her Special Education Endorsement at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake and her Masters of Education in Special Education from Morningside College. She is in her 13th year of teaching at River Valley and 4 years in Aurelia, Iowa. She is the middle school special education teacher who teaches 6th - 7th and 8th grade students. She believes her students would be surprised to find out that she has gone snorkeling in the Caribbean.
Her favorite thing to do for fun is anything outdoors like gardening, working in the flowers or taking walks with her dogs.
Some of her favorites are:
- The color purple because it's the color of royalty so why not?
- Food is Italian, fettuccini and eating at Olive Garden. Her husband and her used to eat at Olive Garden a lot when they were dating.
- Book is anything Christian fiction because they have a guaranteed good ending!
- Movie is "The Greatest Showman" because the music is amazing.
- Song is "Amazing Grace because it truly says how you treat others in life.
- Sport is football because that is what her three sons played.
- Sports team is the Vikings because she grew up in Minnesota so she is a diehard fan.
Her exceptional thing about teaching is inspiring kids to learn new things each day and finding a variety of ways to help them learn.
She shared, "I think we have a great community and school district in which everyone supports each other."
Mrs. Cockburn, thank you for all that you do!