Brittney Tiller named Fairfield Friend of Education

FAIRFIELD — Brittney Tiller received the Friend of Education Award Monday morning during an awards ceremony at the Fairfield High School Auditorium.

Tiller is Jefferson County Naturalist, and her boss, Jefferson County Conservation Director Shawn Morrissey, told her that she needed to attend a Developing Community Partners meeting at the high school. When Tiller walked into the auditorium, she noticed it was full of people, all of them teachers.

“I said, ‘What’s going on?’” Tiller said. “Shawn totally snowballed me.”

Kristen McCready introduced the Friend of Education Award, and it didn’t take long for Tiller to figure out that she was led to the high school to receive that award. After her name was announced, Tiller saw that her husband Matt and parents Greg and Lori Fry were waiting to congratulate her in the back of the auditorium.

Tiller was recognized for her collaborative efforts with the school district, which has included hosting field trips at the Jefferson County Nature Center and putting on programs in the district’s classrooms. Tiller said she gets to see many of the same students two to four times per year, and that allows her to build a rapport with them and their teachers.

Jefferson County Conservation hosts field trips with students in the district in grades preschool through eight, usually at Jefferson County Park but also in the county’s other parks such as Zillman’s Hickory Hills and Cedar Creek Wetlands. Fourth-graders even travel to Lacey-Keosauqua State Park in Keosauqua where they do programs on geology.

“In the fall, we go to Zillman’s for monarch butterfly tagging with the third-graders,” Tiller said. “We do maple syruping later in the winter.”

In January and February, Tiller visits the schools for programs that are better suited for a classroom setting. These include hands-on labs such as fossils or talking about hibernation or migration.”

“We try to align everything with the Next Generation Science Standards so that our field trips are an extension of what the students are learning in class,” Tiller said.

In addition to hosting field trips and putting on classroom programs, Tiller works especially closely with a group of fifth-graders who she eats lunch with every Monday.

“There’s a new program this year where we’re trying to highlight some students who may not have an opportunity to spend time outside,” she said. “It’s part of our fifth-grade incentive program. Each student is trying to hit their goal, and if they do, they’re able to come on a special field trip to Jefferson County Park.”

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com