Teacher Feature - Paula Jovien
January 31, 2020
We are blessed to have on our staff Ms. Paula Jovien as Reading Specialist since February 2018. She offers additional reading support to our Kindergarten through 5th grade students by providing individualized instruction to the needs of each specific student in the small group setting. She is at SJS Tuesdays through Fridays and can be reached at pjovien@sjsdg.org .
Ms. Jovien loves teaching and working with her students. She strives to make learning fun and wants her students to become more confident readers while still addressing their individual reading needs. Ms. Jovien has extensive experience and knowledge working with research- based reading programs that have been proven successful with different age groups and utilizes these programs with her students.
Ms. Jovien she loves the strong sense of faith, community and family that she’s experienced at St. Joe’s each day and appreciates the supportive, kind, friendly teachers, staff, and parents here who are always very welcoming and work above and beyond to promote the goals of our school and the Catholic faith.
Ms. Jovien has several years of teaching experience in elementary and high school settings. A large portion of her teaching experience was as a resource level Special Education Teacher in a public elementary school in Wheaton, Illinois. She taught Reading, Math, and Written Language to general education students in Kindergarten through 5th Grade who were diagnosed with a Learning Disability, Health Impairment, Behavior Disorder, and Autism. She became trained and certified as a Wilson Dyslexia Practitioner and began utilizing this research- based reading program with her assigned students.
In 2016, when Ms. Jovien retired from her position in Wheaton, she wanted to continue working part-time as a teacher and was fortunate to obtain a position in the Chicago Archdiocese as an Itinerant Special Education Teacher. She traveled to three schools in Little Village and Bridgeport and worked with improving the Reading, Writing and Math skills of elementary students in Kindergarten through 8th grade. She also worked part-time as a Special Education Resource Teacher in a public elementary school in Calumet City.
Ms. Jovien has held teaching and administrative positions in High School District 201 (Cicero/Berwyn, Illinois), Elementary School District 99 (Cicero, Illinois), and the Chicago Public Schools. She has a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and Special Education (Cognitive Impairment/Behavior Disorders), a master’s degrees in Learning Disabilities and Educational Administration. She is a Certified Wilson Dyslexia Practitioner and enjoys tutoring students privately in Reading, Language Arts, and Math after school and on weekends. She loves to read and spend time with her two children and lives in Darien, Illinois.