Jenkins and Hess
A Franklin English teacher and a Center Grove elementary school teacher are among the honorees for Indiana Teacher of the Year.
Eric Jenkins of Franklin Community High School reached the top 10, while Courtney Hess of Sugar Grove Elementary School made the top 25 for Indiana Department of Education’s Teacher of the Year award. Jenkins is still in the running for the top prize.
Eric Jenkins
As an undergraduate student at Indiana University, Jenkins didn’t know what direction he was going to take in life. One day, he knew exactly what he wanted to do.
“I had an epiphany one day, that the best way to make the biggest impact on the world was teaching,” he said.
Today, Jenkins has just begun his 14th year of teaching and his 10th at Franklin’s high school. He splits his time between teaching 10th-grade English and a 12th-grade dual-credit English composition class.
“I think it’s always challenging no matter the number of years you have under your belt, that’s part of what keeps me here. Intellectually speaking, every day is different and every class is different,” Jenkins said.
“What keeps me here is the students, that’s a given. Working with teenagers gives me hope for the future. Another thing that keeps me here is I get to work with a great staff and department and I get to work with amazing teachers every day, so I have brushes with greatness on the daily.”
His desire to teach English classes stemmed from his love of storytelling, Jenkins said.
“I just really like stories. I really came into writing in college when I joined a sketch comedy troupe, ‘All Sorts of Trouble for the Boy in the Bubble,’” he said. “It made me the writer I am, we were writing every week, and it taught me what it meant to get peer feedback. Comedians are razor-sharp and brutally honest, and it taught me how to accept difficult feedback and to write every day. It happens not just on the page, but listening, having conversations, staring out the window, how to recognize writing outside of an essay or filling out a form.”
Jenkins was chosen by his fellow faculty members to represent the school in the statewide contest. He then submitted a teaching portfolio and wrote a series of essays based on prompts as IDOE officials narrowed down the list of nominees. Essay prompts included issues and trends in education, teaching philosophy, and what drove Jenkins to be a teacher, among other topics, he said.
Jenkins is able to think of activities that will engage students in the material they’re learning about, he said.
“We’ll do roleplaying activities. For example, in the first nine weeks, sophomores are writing opinion editorials and roleplaying as journalists,” Jenkins said. “We also do a mock trial so they’re roleplaying as witnesses, judges and lawyers.”
While he won’t know if he’s won the award until later this semester, he wants to use his platform to highlight the importance of educators as a whole.
“I feel like a lot of the time we want the spotlight to be on our students, it’s really an opportunity to represent the voices of all the great teachers I work with,” he said. “It’s not just about me, but being a representative for teachers in Indiana. It seems to me this doesn’t mean I’m the best teacher, but what it means is people feel like I’m doing a lot of things they also do and I can represent their voices because I work with phenomenal teachers.”
Courtney Hess
As a child, Hess was inspired by her own teachers to become an educator.
“I had some amazing teachers in elementary and middle and high school and they had an impact on my life,” Hess said. “I liked to be in charge as a kid and that also drew me to it. I did cadet teaching in high school with Nancy Goss at Edgewood Primary School and saw the impact she had on kids and how engaging and fun it could be and I just knew teaching was for me.”
Hess now has 15 years of teaching experience and said during that time, she’s evolved to understand the importance of the profession beyond academics.
“It’s about so much more than academics,” Hess said. “I teach students how to regulate their emotions inside and outside the classroom. My goal is to mold resilient, kind, empathetic students to reach their greatest potential. At the beginning, I was worried about academic standards, but it’s about making sure students feel connected and loved before any learning takes place. I’ve taken a step back and prioritized those other things first.”
The key to excellence in teaching is understanding what makes each student unique and adapting to meet the needs of those students, Hess said.
“Kids come with so many different life experiences that affect their academics, behavioral and social skills,” she said. “Our principal had us do a reflection of our ‘why.’ I truly believe every child has so much greatness inside of them. I want every child to feel seen, valued, heard and loved, and to achieve greatness. The main thing might be a behavioral or a social goal or a reading goal. We just want to see growth. We want to hone in and help them with what they need the most help with.”
The nomination for Teacher of the Year was an unexpected but welcome surprise, Hess said.
“I am just in complete shock about the whole thing,” she said. “I’m humbled to be recognized as a leader for meaningful and impactful work. I value the profession so much and it means so much to be recognized as an exemplary leader. I will forever be grateful for this recognition.”
