Fugett Middle School Teacher Creates Award Winning Lesson Plan

Fugett Middle School Teacher Creates Award-Winning Lesson Plan

Congratulations to Fugett Middle School Emotional Support Teacher Jessica Keogh on winning Sarepta Therapeutics’ Rare Lessons Contest. Ms. Keogh developed one of four winning lesson plans that are available to educators and schools nationwide. Her lesson, titled "Empathy," focuses on breaking down stereotypes and barriers for students with disabilities while reinforcing the message "don't judge a book by its cover."
 
Ms. Keogh was born with Muscular Dystrophy, a group of diseases that cause progressive weakness and loss of muscle mass. She began showing symptoms of the disease at 18 months old. Her own experiences as a middle school student sent Keogh on her path toward becoming a teacher.
 
"There was what we now call a Life Skills classroom in my school, and there was only one student in that class. My friend and I felt strange that there was only one student and he didn't get a lot of social interaction so we would go in there and do some, what I now know to be social skills, with him like reading books and playing games," said Ms. Keogh.
 
Ms. Keogh has been with West Chester Area School District for the past six years. She is currently pursuing a doctorate in education at West Chester University. She is focused on the importance of how disabilities are represented in K-12 curriculum and how that impacts the future success of students.
 
Sarepta Therapeutics' Rare Lessons Contest is intended to promote the development and implementation of educational materials to increase rare disease awareness in the K-12 classroom setting. The competition was open to educators in grades K-12, based in the United States, and actively teaching in an accredited educational institution. Ms. Keogh's lesson, along with the other winning entries, are available on sharemylesson.com.
 
Watch the video to learn more about Ms. Keogh and her winning Rare Lessons Plan.