A.F. Palmer Elementary School third-grade teacher Jessica Whiting has been making her classroom a home for elementary students for 23 years, a valuable skill she learned first-hand as a young student herself.

"Starting in kindergarten, I actually had a teacher who really, as a kindergarten teacher, embraced me and took me on not only as a student, but she made me feel like family," Whiting said. "I really realized the impact that teachers can have on kids every day in school and outside of school."

After being that young student sitting at her desk, Whiting worked at a daycare center during college where she found her love for teaching kids.

The third-grade teacher soon graduated from SUNY Cortland with a bachelor's and master's in teaching. Spending her entire career in the Windsor district, Whiting says seeing those generations of students continue to blossom is the greatest gift. 

"When you see these kids grow and you see them in high school and when they graduate and you find out all the careers that they go into, you get so invested in their personal lives and it's just exciting to see where they end up," Whiting said. 

This teacher of the week calls her classroom a responsive classroom, where she gets the chance to form personal bonds with her students and learn about their favorite interests. She loves turning unexpected activities into everyday activities for her students to enjoy. 

"We have invented holidays that we do to really celebrate them, such as the third day of the third week of the third month of the third year, just really trying for them to see the fun part of education," Whiting said. 

When it comes to obstacles, this week's Teacher of the Week makes sure her students are unfazed.

"Challenges are not stop signs. They might be a roadblock, but they don't mean that we stop. It means we just take a different path. We try a different strategy," Whiting said.