Lincoln High teacher Renee Jones, the 2023 Nebraska Teacher of the Year, teaches in her oral communications class on Thursday.
JUSTIN WAN, Journal Star
Lincoln High teacher Renee Jones, the 2023 Nebraska Teacher of the Year, stands next to State Education Commissioner Matthew Blomstedt during the surprise announcement in her classroom.
JUSTIN WAN, Journal Star
Lincoln High teacher Renee Jones, the 2023 Nebraska Teacher of the Year, smiles as she receives the surprise announcement Oct. 20 in Lincoln.
JUSTIN WAN Journal Star
Lincoln High teacher Renee Jones, the 2023 Nebraska Teacher of the Year, speaks after the surprise announcement in her classroom on Thursday. Watching are previous award winner and State Education Board President Patsy Koch-Johns and Lincoln High Principal Mark Larson.
Renee Jones’ journey serving youth and building connections didn’t start in a classroom.
Before she was a high school English teacher, Jones worked for Cedars’ residential treatment program in Lincoln. When she later moved to San Francisco, she pursued similar work.
But she soon faced a sad reality: The facilities she worked at often didn’t have sufficient funding and were forced to close. Jones would be on the hunt for another job.
“So I was joking one night with my husband: I was like, ‘They’re really never going to shut down schools,’” said Jones, who decided to get her teaching certificate.
Jones’ unorthodox path to education eventually led her to Lincoln High School, where on Thursday she was named the 2023 Nebraska Teacher of the Year.
Nebraska Commissioner of Education Matthew Blomstedt presented the award to Jones, who teaches oral communications, creative writing and Holocaust literature.
“I feel like I’m still kind of experiencing a little bit of shock,” Jones told reporters after state and local officials filed into her first-period freshman oral communications class during a surprise ceremony.
As the state teacher of the year, Jones will be Nebraska’s representative in the National Teacher of the Year competition and participate in professional development with other states’ winners.
She will also get to travel the state and country to take part in various educational conferences and workshops.
“I know I’m going to have to do things that are really awesome but also challenge me as a person, which is exciting,” she said.
A panel of state educators tabbed Jones for the award, which is bestowed annually to teachers “who are exceptionally dedicated, knowledgeable, skilled and who have the ability to inspire students of all backgrounds and abilities to learn.”
“The reality is this is both an honor for you but really an honor for teachers,” Blomstedt said. “We want to recognize the great work that teachers have done in the middle of the pandemic, but also just annually this is such a great thing you’re going to be a part of.”
Jones, a Lincoln North Star graduate, started her teaching career in California in 2014 before moving home.
After six years at the Bryan Community Focus Program, she decided she wanted to keep growing as a professional — and Lincoln High had an opening.
“It’s a school that I’ve kind of always wanted to be at,” she said. “I love the diverse background. I love the range of students that we have here, from the (International Baccalaureate) program to at-risk youth.”
Jones has a tagline that summarizes her teaching philosophy: Connection before curriculum.
While students need to reach certain academic benchmarks, they also need to grow as people, Jones said, and be comfortable in their setting.
That’s especially important in her oral comms class, where delivering speeches in front of others can generate anxiety for students.
“I want the kids to know each others’ names. I want them … to interact with people that maybe wouldn’t be their first choice because of comfort levels. So that eventually it’s just, ‘Yeah, I can stand up here and talk to these people that I have a relationship with.’”
Freshman DeAdrian Walker, who is in Jones’ first-period oral comms class, was one of those students who was afraid of public speaking at first.
“I was barely even able to come up to the classroom and talk about myself,” he told a group of reporters. “I feel like I wouldn’t be here talking if it wasn’t for her helping me.”
Walker said Jones makes sure her students are comfortable speaking in a classroom setting and instills confidence in them.
“She always makes sure they’re in a good mood,” he said.
“She always comes in with a positive attitude,” she said. “Even when the whole class is just dead or like super tired, she always comes in and makes it more interesting and keeps us entertained.”
Jones understands her students’ anxieties, Beecham added, often working with students one-on-one to address concerns.
“She connects (with) everybody individually, or as a whole,” Beecham said. “Even if you’re a student that doesn’t really talk that much, she’ll still try to have conversations with you.”
In addition to her duties teaching, Jones is also a published author and has presented on education at South by Southwest. In 2019, she received the Foundation for Lincoln Public Schools’ Inspire Award.
She hopes to use the state teacher award to be an advocate and voice for other teachers, who have faced numerous challenges during the pandemic.
For her, the biggest challenge of COVID-19 was to figure out how to do what she does best: build connections.
“How do I still make a kid feel like they’re part of my classroom community when they have to be gone for quarantine?” she said. “You can’t just lean on the tried and true (ways) that have worked for however long we’ve been teaching. We have to figure out new ways.”
Jones joins a “long line of tradition of really strong teaching” at Lincoln High, said Principal Mark Larson.
In 2019, Sydney Jensen, who also taught English at Lincoln High, won the award. And current State Education Board President Patsy Koch-Johns, who was in attendance Thursday, won in 2006 when she taught theater, speech and English at the school.
“These kids are so lucky to be Links and to have this wonderful teacher,” Koch-Johns said.
Lincoln High teacher Renee Jones, the 2023 Nebraska Teacher of the Year, stands next to State Education Commissioner Matthew Blomstedt during the surprise announcement in her classroom.
Lincoln High teacher Renee Jones, the 2023 Nebraska Teacher of the Year, speaks after the surprise announcement in her classroom on Thursday. Watching are previous award winner and State Education Board President Patsy Koch-Johns and Lincoln High Principal Mark Larson.