Enthusiastic, caring, involved and fun are some of the adjectives students use to describe Jennifer Marinace, eighth-grade English teacher at Robert Louis Stevenson Middle School.
Her colleagues in the educational community are using a different descriptor: Napa County Teacher of the Year.
Barbara Nemko, Napa County superintendent of schools, announced last week that Marinace had been chosen for the honor over three other finalists, each from the city of Napa: Kristy Lindsey of Redwood Middle School, Nanette Sauceda of Phillips Elementary School and Keith Waechtler of River School.
A photo shows Marinace holding her hand to her mouth in shock as Nemko announces her as the winner during a reception held at the Napa River Inn Plaza in Napa. The Napa County Office of Education will submit Marinace for consideration as California Teacher of the Year.
“Jennifer brings talent, passion and knowledge of the craft of education to her students and colleagues daily,” said Marylou Wilson, superintendent of the St. Helena Unified School District. “Her calm, caring and diplomatic manner is extended to every student, every day.”
The honor affirms that Marinace is onto something with her classroom climate of what she calls “controlled chaos.”
She likes to separate students into groups and let them explore a topic on their own instead of hearing her lecture on a topic. For a lesson on the Holocaust, she’ll show each group a piece of Nazi propaganda and ask them to analyze its techniques. She’ll rotate around the room, encourage groups that are making the correct inferences, or nudge them in the right direction if they’re not.
“She encourages us to write and share our ideas by creating a neutral environment,” said eighth-grader Jeanette Ramirez, who also thanked Marinace for helping her improve her English and grammar skills and for incorporating games and “fun activities” into her lessons.
Her reading assignments give students the same sense of freedom. For the Holocaust project, instead of having everyone read “The Diary of Anne Frank,” Marinace gives each student the option of reading it or an alternative book that might better suit his or her taste and learning style. In her experience, even reluctant readers will catch the reading bug once they find a single book they love.
Her teaching philosophy is that students “should have a purpose for learning.”
“It’s not just ‘read this, write in this style,’” Marinace said. “It’s about ‘How can I learn about others? How can I research something that interests me?’”
“I want them to see that they can use reading, writing, research, listening and speaking to make a difference in the world, to effect change.”
That goal is reflected in eighth-grade projects like Manifest Destiny and the Immigration Challenge, which take a multi-disciplinary, multimedia approach to research and presentation. For other lessons, inspired by a school visit from Rep. Mike Thompson, students might be given the option of writing a letter to the editor or to Congress. To lend immediacy to historical research, students are invited to ponder “Anne Frank today as a Syrian girl.”
“They have to incorporate all that research and everything they’ve learned, and somehow apply it to what’s happening today,” Marinace said.
Marinace has been teaching at RLS since 2000. She says there’s always a point in the school year – sometimes in October, sometimes not until January — when she realizes “I’ve fallen in love with this class.”
The feeling is mutual, according to her students.
“Ms. Marinace has been a great English teacher,” said eighth-grader Ellie Aslanian. “She is so involved with the subjects she teaches and really cares about her students. I have truly not seen many teachers who care so much about their students and truly want them to learn more. For her, teaching is not a job. It is her life, and it means so much to her.”
“Every morning, when I walk into first period English she always has the biggest smile on her face and talks very enthusiastically about what we are doing that day,” said Sonia Haug. “She is very organized in the classroom, even when there’s a problem, like a website or video is down, she always comes up with something else for us to do.”
In addition to teaching English, Marinace runs the eighth-grade AVID program. It helps students, many of whom are the first in their family to plan on attending college, acquire the study skills and personal support they need to prepare for high school and college.
“Throughout the year, Ms. Marinace has helped us improve a lot of our English skills,” said Samantha Acevedo, an AVID student. “She is a great teacher, and includes in her lesson plans fun games and activities. She has helped me improve my writing skills and grammar.”
Marinace is the third St. Helena teacher in seven years to win the countywide award, following St. Helena High School teachers Evan Blasingame (2011) and Chris O’Connor (2015). She said the broad array of resources available to St. Helena teachers gives them an edge.
“If I want to do something, I can ask for a grant from the Public Schools Foundation, I can go to the Parent Group, or I can go to my principal,” she said.
The Teacher of the Year program is sponsored by the Napa County Office of Education, Napa Valley Education Foundation, NapaLearns, Rotary and Kiwanis.
