Jill VanNess, an English Language Development teacher at Lodi High School, recently won San Joaquin County's Teacher of the Year award. (Brian Feulner/News-Sentinel)

County honors Lodi's VanNess as teacher of the year

Jill VanNess has welcomed students into her home for dinner or transported them to visit prospective colleges. Those are among the creative strategies this Lodi High English language development teacher has used with her students, and they are among the reasons she was chosen as this year's San Joaquin County Teacher of the Year.

In May, VanNess earned the title of teacher of the year for the Lodi Unified School District.

San Joaquin County selects its teacher of the year from applicants and nominations throughout the area's 14 school districts. As this year's selection, VanNess now advances to the state level, where she will be considered for one of five California teachers of the year awards.

Bill Atterberry, Lodi High principal, credits VanNess with the great strides that English learners at the school have made on both the California High School Exit Examination and the end-of-year content standards tests.

"Jill possesses the uncanny ability to balance empathy with professional assertiveness, as well as constantly explore creative opportunities to help her students succeed," Atterberry said in a statement issued by the San Joaquin County Office of Education earlier this week.

Atterberry also recognized VanNess for her work as the department head because of the staff she has built and the expectations she has created for student achievement. He added that students who were barely passing their classes soon found themselves enrolling in college.

As for VanNess, she said she feels that coming from a family of educators and studying abroad in Germany helped shape her as an educator.

"As a foreign exchange student in high school, I learned what it was like to be a student in school and not know the language," VanNess said in the statement. "At this point, I realized I loved interacting with other cultures and wanted to teach English to English-as-a-second-language learners."

In addition to teaching English-language learners, VanNess also teaches freshman English classes. She worked in a West Sacramento school district for four years prior to coming to Lodi Unified nine years ago.

"It's an honor to work with so many nice people. I'm getting the award on behalf of a bunch of people," she said.

She lives in Lodi and is married to University of the Pacific professor Mark VanNess. They have three children who attend LUSD schools.