missouri humanities council

2010 Awards Recipient
Jean M. Turney, St. John the Baptist Elementary School, St. Louis

Excellence in Education

The saying goes that learning isn’t just for the classroom, and for Jean Turney neither is teaching. Turney, a teacher at St. John the Baptist Elementary School in St. Louis, continuously takes her students beyond the four walls of the classroom and inspires others to do the same.

Turney didn’t start off with dreams of being a teacher but knew that she wanted to live and help in foreign country. She found herself leading a high school class in Belize, Central America. There, Turney developed a curriculum based on classroom interaction, teaching without books, and many of the other resources found in American schools. The circumstances were challenging, but the students’ desire to learn couldn’t be matched.

“Belize was the greatest place to learn to be a teacher. Everyone was so grateful to be in school and valued the opportunity for education,” Turney said. “I loved reading their journals and thoughts. People were so generous, giving everything they had to people in need. I wondered, who am I to be teaching them and how can I tell these stories?”

When Turney returned to the States, she knew that the best way to share what she learned was to become a teacher in her own community. She created a “Thursday Curriculum” to build in special global lessons and activities. In small groups, students researched specific countries and created country displays or exhibits that were presented at a school-wide Mission Carnival which raised funds to help build a library at the school in Belize.

Turney has recently continued her global education by traveling with her daughter, Erin, to teach at the Youth Building Peace Camp the past two summers in Jinja, Uganda, Africa. The camp focuses on entrepreneurship with a social conscience.

“There is a certain level of education, but they couldn’t create jobs themselves. We worked to create opportunities for our students to help themselves and others,” Turney said. “People are so open to try, and they want a better life for themselves and their country. The poverty, AIDS and corruption make it difficult, but there is so much that can be done with very little.”

Each time Turney returns home she has more to share with her students and the community.

“I feel gifted, lucky, blessed to spend time in another culture. I think I get so much more out of what I do than the students,” Turney said. “I love bringing the lessons back and helping my students here to appreciate that we’re connected in this world. Even though it seems so far away, we’re very much alike.”

But Turney’s desire to explore teaching opportunities are not limited to just the international connection, she also uses the community around her to give students a hands on approach to nature and science. One of her proudest accomplishments is pioneering a program that uses Forest Park as an outdoor classroom through involvement with Forest Park Forever’s Voyage of Learning Teachers’ Academy. Using grants, Jean makes it possible for her students to visit the park multiple times a year to learn about nature and how it is intertwined with science, history, language and other traditional subjects.

“The program exposes them to an outdoor space that can become their own, helping them fall in love with nature and with our world,” Turney said.

Turney’s goal is that her own students will keep their love of nature throughout their lives, and to help other teachers facilitate similar programs.

“Jean inspired a new way of learning to spread through the school, a catalyst for other teachers,” said Kathleen Anger, Turney’s former principal at St. Johns. “She is not only a model teacher, but also an individual we can all admire.”

For Turney, it’s all about making a change for the better in the world.

“Teaching is probably the single best way to promote social change, to tap into the young people and help to make it better,” Turney said.

Over the past four years, Turney has successfully secured over $20,000 in grants for educational programs including grants from National Geographic, Target, Best Buy and the National Council for Social Studies. In addition to designing and implementing programs on the environment, leadership and service learning for students of all ages, Turney has also presented at various workshops and conferences. She was awarded the Keeper of the Park Award from Forest Park Forever in 2007 and the Christa McAuliffe “Reach for the Stars” Award from the National Council for Social Studies in 2008. Turney is also a member at the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, the Forest Keepers Network through the Missouri Department of Conservation and the National Council for Social Studies.