Jeriel Turner started as student, aide, now teacher

Intermountain Catholic

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Jeriel Turner was a student at Saint Olaf Elementary and Middle School from kindergarten through eighth grade. She was then an aide and is now the fourth grade teacher.IC photo by Christine Young

BOUNTIFUL — It was only nine years ago that Jeriel Turner graduated from the eighth grade at Saint Olaf Elementary School in Bountiful. She grew up in Bountiful and went to school at Saint Olaf Elementary and Middle School from kindergarten through eighth grade from 1991 to 2000.

"It has only been a few weeks, but it’s a little weird to be back," said Jeriel. "I graduated from Judge Memorial Catholic High School in 2004. Then basically after high school my mother, Kim Turner, said I needed to find a job. I said okay whatever, and I didn’t really take her seriously until about August when she came home and said I found you a job. I said, Oh really, where? She said you are going to work as a kindergarten aide at Saint Olaf.

"I was a little disappointed, but it ended up being a really great experience," said Jeriel. "I enjoyed every minute of it and I enjoyed coming to work more than going to school. My original major was in film, but after I worked at Saint Olaf I decided, I think I would rather be a teacher.

Kim, her mother, is now the middle school religion teacher at Saint Olaf. Kim started teaching at Saint Olaf in 1998. She started teaching sixth grade.

"I had my mom in the sixth and the eighth grade," said Jeriel.

Kim then became the eighth grade home room teacher, and taught Spanish and health.

Jeriel started her first year at the University of Utah and decided not to work as an aide her first year because she needed to be on campus the first semester. I was getting my degree in early childhood education.

"Then I started working with Alexandra Prebula, the Saint Olaf kindergarten teacher in the kindergarten classroom while I was working on early childhood education," said Jeriel. "I have actually come full circle. I now teach fourth grade at Saint Olaf, and the students I have now were the kindergarten students I had then. It has been really cool to see how much they have grown.

"But before I got the job, my mom said you should call JoAnn Emery (the principal of Saint Olaf)," said Jeriel. "I don’t know if I want to work here. I might want to try some place different. But my mom said, just try giving her a call, it will be a good practice interview.

"Then the fourth grade teacher decided to teach in the public school, and the fourth grade job opened," said Jeriel. "I really love fourth grade. I love everything about it. I think this is where I am supposed to be. I started here I might as well be back teaching here. I love the fourth grade because the students learn about Utah science, social studies, long division, and I love to teach math. Fourth grade math is not too hard and it is not too easy. The students know how to read, so you can do book clubs with them and get them excited about a lot of things.

"I have learned so much in just a few weeks," said Jeriel. "I have learned a lot of things they don’t teach you in school.

"I am a little bit of a perfectionist, and I have learn not to be quite so much of a perfectionist," said Jeriel. "We pack a lot in a day, and I have to learn to get into the swing of things. Even if the day ends bad, there is always tomorrow."

For Jeriel, the day ending bad, was not quite getting everything done.

She said growing up her mother told her she was going to be a teacher, but she did not think so.

"I don’t think I am going to be a teacher because you are a teacher," she told her mother. "I want to be my own person.

"Now my mom is downstairs and if I have a problem with something I did not learn in school, all I have to do is go down and ask her," said Jeriel. "She always has a great answer. She will say why don’t you try this, or that. Everybody loves my mom, and so do I. She doesn’t hang around my room, she gives me my space. She waits until I get home to ask how my day was, and I really appreciate her for that."

The Turners are members of Saint Olaf Parish.