Park View teacher Jill Lang is CCSD 89 Educator of the Year
Park View Elementary School second-grade teacher Jill Lang is the Community Consolidated School District 89 Educator of the Year. At the 59th annual Glen Ellyn Community Awards on March 14, Lang will be honored by the Chamber of Commerce for making Glen Ellyn a better place to live, learn, and work.
“Jill is incredibly deserving of this honor,” said CCSD 89 superintendent Dr. Emily Tammaru. “She is wholeheartedly committed to our students and helping them succeed. She’s so quietly humble and yet she is always there to collaborate with others so students have what they need to be successful.”
Lang has known she wanted to be a teacher since she was in elementary school. She and her twin sister would come home from school and “teach” their stuffed animals.
Lang began her teaching career when she was asked to take over a class for a Park View second-grade teacher who was taking maternity leave. The teacher didn’t return and Lang hasn’t left. Since 1987, she has been teaching first or second grade at Park View.
“For me, it’s not really been a job,” Lang said. “It’s been a true love.”
Lang, who is retiring at the end of this school year, comes from a family of teachers. Her parents met at a Palatine elementary school where her mother was teaching second grade and her father was the physical education teacher. Lang’s daughter is now an elementary school teacher in Wisconsin.
Those generational connections are evident at Park View, too. Some of the students Lang taught have returned to school as parents of Park View students – or even co-workers. Jaime Stavros was in Lang’s first-grade class and now teaches third grade at Park View. It was in Mrs. Lang’s class that Stavros first understood she also wanted to teach.
“I can think back on so many instances where she made me feel unique and special,” Stavros said. “You can just feel the love coming from her. She is the kind of person you want to be around.”
Principal Kristie Mate says when former Park View students visit, they often ask about Mrs. Lang.
“They remember the feeling they had in her class. They remember they felt success, they felt cared for, and they felt loved,” Mate said. “She is a genuine, caring, kind teacher and co-worker.”
Lang says even after 36 years, the students still teach her something new every day.
“I’ve learned so much from all the other teachers and from the kids,” Lang said. “Everybody who has shared part of themselves with me along the way – this award is really for them.”
Posted: March 13, 2022
