For Jennifer Keach, the best part of teaching is seeing students’ curiosity take over and drive their learning. There’s nothing like it, the Woolwich woman said.

Keach teaches special education in kindergarten through grade three at Wiscasset Elementary School. She started there this school year.

The Hillsborough, New Jersey native moved to Maine at about the age of 10. She graduated Gardiner Area High School in 1995 and joined the Army in 1996 with a chosen career path of field medic. She received a medical discharge about a year in, due to stress fractures in her hips, legs and feet. About a year after returning home to Maine, she got married. Randy Keach is a corrections sergeant at Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset.

Daughter Brooke, 17, goes to Morse High School in Bath; son Eban, 12, to Woolwich Central School. Jennifer Keach fell in love with teaching when she home-schooled Brooke. “I was very energized by being able to use my creativity for different lessons and hands-on experiences.” And her daughter had some learning difficulties that spurred Keach to be even more creative, to customize the lessons.

Keach got a bachelor’s degree in regular education, kindergarten through grade eight, at the University of Maine at Augusta three years ago, then took a job at Achieve, a private school serving students with behavioral needs. “And that’s how I fell in love with the special education realm,” she said. Students who receive special education are as capable as anyone else and, like anyone else, have strengths and weaknesses, Keach said. “My job, as with any educator, is to just ensure that their needs are being met ... They just need a special hand. And it takes creativity to fulfill their individualized needs.”

Special education has moved toward having students in their regular education classrooms as much as possible, and adapting the work to meet their needs, Keach said. “And I think that’s really awesome to be able to do.”

Keach, 39, is creative in her off-time, as well. She’s into crafting, from sewing, to finding gently used wooden items and making them look older. She likes working in the primitive style and has sold some pieces online. She also hikes, bargain-hunts and likes spending time with her family.

Keach did her student-teaching in the kindergarten at Wiscasset Primary School and has been keeping the school system in the back of her mind ever since as a place she’d like to work. “And so when this (job) opened, I was pretty excited, and moved on it.”

She is enjoying the work, other staff members’ support and the relationships she’s establishing with her students. Keach is continuing her special education studies, but is open to teaching in regular education also. Either is good, she said: “I just want to work with kids. That’s my passion.”