Educator and author Renee Jones named Nebraska’s 2023 Teacher of the Year

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Congratulations to high school English teacher and author Renee Jones, who has been named her state’s 2023 Teacher of the Year. Photo Credit: Lincoln Public Schools

Congratulations are due to high school teacher Renee Jones from Lincoln, Nebraska. She has been named her state’s 2023 Teacher of the Year!

Renee teaches English, reading interventions, and oral communications courses at Lincoln High School. She says that connecting with students is the key to their academic success. In her classroom, she emphasizes building relationships. In fact, she says her philosophy can best be summarized as connection before curriculum. “Connecting students is the most influential and important element of my role as a teacher,” Renee declares. “Connecting students with me, with their peers, and with themselves, is at the heart of gaining the confidence they need,” she continues. Renee is so passionate about and successful at this practice that she was selected to speak on the topic at the 2022 South by Southwest (SXSW) EDU National Conference in 2022.

Renee’s selection as the 2023 Nebraska Teacher of the Year is not the only recognition she has earned. In 2019, she garnered the  Foundation for Lincoln Public Schools Inspire Award.

And these awards are not the only accomplishments Renee can boast about. During the pandemic, Renee authored a memoir describing the complications of balancing her work with her responsibilities as the mother of four young children. The volume, published by Google books in 2021, is entitled It Was Always Four: My Pandemic Journey in Becoming and Walking Away from Life as a Stay-At-Home Mom.

Renee earned her Bachelor’s degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Nebraska, Omaha. She earned her Master’s degree in Educational Leadership in 2020 from Doane University, a private university located in Crete, Nebraska. She inaugurated her career as an educator in 2015 when she was hired to  teach English at Bryan Community Focus Program in Lincoln. In all, her career as an educator has spanned eight years.