Columbia Middle School’s Kathryn Jeck, a special education teacher, has been named 2022 Southwest Regional Teacher of the Year, placing her in the running for Illinois Teacher of the Year. 

“It’s amazing to be recognized and nominated in the first place, but to win the Southwest Region adds another layer on top of that,” Jeck said. 

Columbia Superintendent of Schools Chris Grode said he is grateful a Columbia teacher was recognized in such an important manner. 

“Our district has great people, and often in education your work is only rewarded in the eyes of the students you get to see learning and growing on a day-to-day basis,” Grode said. “Being publicly recognized is important and I am happy that Mrs. Jeck got that honor.” 

The Illinois State Board of Education names these awardees each year, and is preparing to announce the Teacher of the Year on March 19. Jeck will be up against nine other regional teachers of the year plus the Bilingual, Early Childhood and Special Education Teachers of the Year for the grand title. 

It was a long process to get to this point, with Jeck stating it all began roughly a year ago when the former assistant superintendent nominated her. 

Jeck said she was humbled to learn of her nomination, with the ups and downs of last academic year giving it even more meaning. 

“Every teacher – no matter what content area or grade level – had to adapt to this new situation and (change) how we  communicated with our students, how we educated our students, and how we connected with our students and their families,” she said. “So, to go through that and still be recognized for my efforts and the way that I adapted personally and professionally to teaching my students just feels incredible.” 

Hoping to bring some fun to online learning, Jeck created daily videos for her students outlining the day’s plans. She said this likely played a role in her being nominated, along with her teaching philosophy.

“I try to make education accessible to all of my students,” she said. “I try to make it a comfortable and safe space for them to be themselves, to make mistakes and not be afraid to ask questions or to respectfully speak their minds without retribution or condemnation. I try to build meaningful relationships with my students and let them see how much I care about them … It’s my job to foster, support and guide their learning, and help them to become independent.”

After learning of her nomination, Jeck went through a process she compared to applying for a job. This included submitting documents, such as letters of recommendation, and answering targeted questions. 

Jeck learned she had been named this region’s teacher of the year during a staff meeting a few weeks ago, and now is awaiting the March 19 banquet where she will learn which of the honorees will be named Teacher of the Year. 

Here, she will meet other regional teachers of the year. 

“I’m excited to be able to meet them and I’m excited to be able to network and meet the previous winner. There might be multiple previous winners there, so it’s just exciting to be able to meet those educators and speak to people in the field who have gone through similar experiences and can maybe give me some guidance on what the next steps might be or what I can do with this recognition,” she said. 

Jeck said she always knew she wanted to be a teacher, but it wasn’t until she met a very special individual that she decided the exact path she wanted to take. 

“I babysat for a family with a child who had cerebral palsy and he was incredibly limited with his mobility and what he could do for himself independently. Even with his physical limitations and (being) someone who an outsider might think had so little, he has so much more than many adults I interact with his happiness, joy, not judging others, what he knew and what he found, what he was interested in and everything like that,” she said. 

Upon seeing this, she came to a realization: 

“If this one child is like this, imagine working with kids like this every day, imagine all of those other children who have ‘limitations’ but I want to see their abilities and capabilities rather than their disabilities,” she said. “So working with him and his family really solidified the fact that I wanted to go into special education.” 

She said seeing her students gain the same confidence she has in them makes her job infinitely fruitful. 

“Every day when I go into work, it’s rewarding,” Jeck said. “My struggling students already are so hard on themselves and already think that they can’t do so much, so when I’m able to help them see what they’re capable of, what they can do, and how smart they truly are, for themselves, when they have those little lightbulb moments for themselves, that’s really what makes it all worth it.”