Photo by Deb Gau Jamie Brigger, a first-grade teacher at Park Side Elementary, said she often calls her classroom “a happy place.” Teaching kids is exciting, no matter the subject, she said. This spring, teachers at Marshall Public Schools nominated Brigger as the Marshall Education Association’s Teacher of the Year.

MARSHALL — It’s hard for Jamie Brigger to pick a favorite subject she teaches, whether it’s reading, math or science. Even her first grade students at Park Side Elementary have picked up on it — Brigger says kids have pointed it out to her that she calls a lot of things “My favorite part of the day.”

But Brigger said she hopes her students also develop an enthusiasm for learning, and an attitude of “‘What do I get to learn today in school?'” she said.

Having a “contagious” enthusiasm for learning was one of the reasons members of the Marshall Education Association nominated Brigger as Teacher of the Year. Educators in the Marshall Public School District said Brigger finds new and engaging ways to help students learn.

Brigger said being named Teacher of the Year came as a surprise.

“It’s a great honor. I’m still a little shocked,” she said.

Brigger had a lot of different teaching experiences before coming to Park Side.

“I grew up by Seaforth,” Brigger said. A graduate of Wabasso High School, she went on to attend MSU-Mankato and get a master’s degree from the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut. Brigger started teaching first grade in Connecticut, but when she had children later on she stopped teaching full time. When she moved back to Minnesota around 2009, she taught women’s education classes at Avera Marshall, and worked as a substitute teacher.

It was serving as a long-term substitute kindergarten teacher that brought Brigger back to teaching at the elementary-school level about eight years ago.

“It felt like coming back home,” she said. She started as an English Language teacher in Marshall, and then “I felt like something was nudging me to first grade.”

Brigger said she’s loved working with first-graders at Park Side.

“First-graders are such a unique little group. They’re very sweet, they’re very honest, they’re amazing learners,” she said. Kids also grow a lot in first grade, coming in as kindergartners and going on to become readers and more independent learners, she said. “To become a reader, that opens your door to lifelong learning.”

Engaging students can be lots of fun, too, she said. For some class activities, “I have been known to dress up in costume,” she said. Brigger has also done activities like using a “green screen” to project pictures from students’ favorite books as they give a report to classmates.

But Brigger said teaching is not a solo effort. Her first grade class is part of the Innovative Learning Center at Park Side, a multi-age space including a kindergarten, a first-grade and a second-grade class. It means Brigger works closely with kindergarten teacher Sue Strautz and second- grade teacher Karissa Jiskoot.

“It’s been an amazing environment, to be surrounded by great teachers (a grade) above and below me,” Brigger said. By working together, the three teachers are better able to figure out how to work with individual students and help them learn. The kids also have less anxiety about moving on to a new grade level. “They’re already a family.”

Like all Marshall teachers, Brigger had to adapt to new modes of teaching over the past year, as the COVID-19 pandemic brought new distance and hybrid learning models for part of the school year, and new safety measures in the classroom.

“We’ve had to change how we teach completely,” she said. During distance learning, “The hardest part about that is trying to give them that feedback on assignments,” she said. Both kids and families also had to learn how to use new technology. But Brigger said students and their families did an “amazing” job, and students showed a lot of resilience.

Although there was a lot of change, Brigger said it brought teachers at Marshall Public Schools closer together as they collaborated. The school district also cares about helping students learn, which is something that helps set MPS apart, she said.

When Park Side students returned to in-person learning, she said, “I was ecstatic. They become your family for a year. You really miss them.”