Plotting polygons, math and coding with Sycamore 4th grade teacher brings high-tech to students

SYCAMORE – These days, fourth grade is a bit more high-tech than it used to be.

Especially if you’re in Jake Winters’ class at South Prairie Elementary School in Sycamore, where students plot polygons onto paper using small robot and introductory coding software. Winters, 26, uses modern technology to inspire his class to take interest in the subjects they’re taught, but it’s the rapport he’s built with his students that had some of them raving.

“He’s one of my favorite teachers I’ve ever had ... because he’s just a fun teacher,” student John Gehrig said.

Recently, Winters’ fourth grade class tackled a robotics lesson with the help of their Chromebooks, his phone and good old fashioned paper.

“The robot that they have down there, they’ve coded that on their computer, and then they send it to my phone,” Winters said. “ ... Then they can send me the code, and whatever they’ve coded on their Chromebook can go on that robot and go on the paper.”

Winters, the son of Sycamore Police Chief Jim Winters, said he knew he wanted to come home to Sycamore as soon he decided on becoming a teacher. He knew along with it came the expectation of being a role model for his students.

“He sometimes has funny jokes because sometimes when we’re at the carpet and reading a book, kids in the class are talking, so then he’s like, ‘I want to know about the drama,’ and it’s funny.”

—  Charlotte Wilkins, South Prairie Elementary School 4th grader in Jake Winters' class

As luck would have it, Winters said he doesn’t have to look any further than across the hall to find his own motivation.

“This is where I was born and raised, too, so a lot of these people I have pretty close connections with. Like the gentleman that teaches across the hall from me was my sophomore boys basketball coach, so I always knew this is where I wanted to come back to,” Winters said.

After graduating from Sycamore High School in 2014 and subsequently graduating from the University of Missouri with a degree in elementary education, Winters is back home in the community that raised him.

“It’s really cool, and now it’s a unique time in my career because a lot of these guys I had this year, I had older siblings,” Winters said. “So it’s kind of cool to see the family dynamic and see all of that stuff come full circle and work with the siblings. But it’s awesome. I knew coming back here that you were going to get a very family-oriented community and a place that was home, so I’m just really thankful to be back here.”

Laken Davis said that after spending seven months as a student in Winters’ class, she wants to thank him for teaching her “a lot about math,” her new favorite subject.

Laken said she now enjoys doing math – such as multiplication and division – in her free time, and expressed appreciation for Winters.

“He just helps kids more if they need it with math,” Laken said.

Fourth grader Charlotte Wilkins said she recently learned how to turn improper fractions into mixed numbers. She said she thinks Winters is a good teacher because he comes up with “different ways to make other students understand how a subject works.”

She also said Winters is a bit of a funny guy.

“He sometimes has funny jokes because sometimes when we’re at the carpet and reading a book, kids in the class are talking, so then he’s like, ‘I want to know about the drama,’ and it’s funny,” Charlotte said.

Sycamore School District 427 officials said all of the teachers in the district deserve to be thanked for their hard work educating the area’s youth. They said Winters is known for going above and beyond to make his class engaging and educational.

Charlotte said she especially wanted to thank him.

“I want to thank him for making learning a little more easier because it’s like really easy to talk to a teacher – Mr. Winters – about stuff that I need help with,” she said. “He went over geometry with me, or it was like long division, and I usually get some of the problems with long division wrong, so he helped me understand it more.”