At the beginning of September, Dr. Chris Jenson discovered he was the recipient of the Horizon Award for the Blue Valley School District.

The Horizon award is an annual recognition for a first year teacher who has demonstrated exceptional teaching at either the elementary level or the secondary level from each district in Kansas.
The district had five other nominees for the secondary level.
“The school district has extraordinary talent and I’m happy to be a part of it,” Jenson said. “I was flattered to represent Blue Valley. [The recognition] was very nice.”
Jenson was nominated by Principal Scott Roberts for his accomplishments last year, despite the fact that Jenson did not teach at Blue Valley Southwest. Jenson taught Foundations of Medicine at the CAPS building, which required Roberts to contact CAPS administrators to help him write his essay. Roberts, however, had known Jenson from when he taught as a student teacher for science teacher Dianne Dunn two years ago.
“We only had one option,” Roberts said. “But he was the obvious option. He was probably the best student teacher I’ve ever seen. I received 15 parent e-mails talking about what a great teacher he was.”
The Horizon award also included an essay describing his teaching style and what advice he would offer to teachers.
“[It was] a very interesting story of why he became a teacher,” Director of Professional Development Kelly Ott said.
Ott is a part of the Horizon Award Selection Committee for the Blue Valley District. To judge these applications, she selects five people to form a committee. This committee is then given the applications, and all traces of a name or school are removed to eliminate bias.
Currently, Jenson is a chemistry teacher.
“He is a great teacher,” junior Cassie Johnson said. “The thing I like about him is he’s an ER doctor so he applies everything to real world situations. Even though he knows that we’re not going to be doctors or anything, it’s just cool to learn something that actually is used in the real world.”
Jenson works to understand from his students’ perspective.
“Whenever you ask a question, some teachers make you feel bad,” Johnson said. “He kind of takes responsibility for us to understand it. He’s really understanding if we don’t get something.”
Johnson had Jenson as a student teacher in Biology, and she noted how his teaching style has evolved since then.
“He was definitely better than any of the other student teachers I had, but very much like regular ones because he handed out many worksheets,” she said. “Now he’s very personable, more now than he was.”
As part of his teaching, Jenson tries to make activities to which he knows the students can relate. As homecoming was approaching, he made an atomic homecoming dance and there were certain characteristics atoms wanted to stay away from.
“He’s kind of quirky, but he tries to make learning fun,” Johnson said. “I was really dreading Chemistry because it’s chem and no one likes it, but going to Chemistry doesn’t really seem like a class. I’m learning but it’s fun.”
Jenson says he mutually admires his students.
“I firmly believe that opportunity to teach is a wonderful thing and you only get out what you put in,” he said. “I enjoyed putting in it of effort a passion.”
Roberts says that Jenson is a valuable asset to the school.
“He wants to make a difference and teach,” Roberts said. “It’s a pretty special teacher we have and he’ll continue to grow and get better and I’m excited to watch that.”
Because Jenson won the Horizon award for the district, he will move on to the state level. The state level requires letters written by teachers, friends and former students. He will also have to write two more essays. One is about the advice he would give to a first year teacher, and the other are his teaching instruction and strategies.
Jenson is competing against 32 other teachers in the Kansas. Winners will be notified in January and then invited to attend the Kansas Experience Education Network (KEEN) Feb. 21 – 22 in Topeka. There, they will learn about more strategies for teaching and there will be a luncheon to celebrate the winners.
“Dr. Jenson is an outstanding nominee and candidate,” Ott said. “Whether he wins or not, he is just truly an outstanding teacher.”