Analco awarded

Jay County junior high art teacher Jacquelin Analco has a passion for art and for her students’ success.

The Art Education Association of Indiana recognized her efforts in October by naming her this year’s Indiana Art Teacher of the Year.

“It was very humbling,” Analco said, acknowledging her coworker, high school art teacher Kathy Ayers, who received the same award last year. “To be up there with her is humbling.”

Analco has been working for the district for about 10 years, and last year she stepped up as co-representative for the central eastern district of the Art Education Association of Indiana. (The district includes Jay, Blackford, Delaware, Fayette, Grant, Hancock, Henry, Madison, Randolph, Rush, Shelby, Union and Wayne counties.) She has also served as the arts and crafts director for the Indiana Deaf Camps Foundation for more than 10 years, a mission important to her because she has twin brothers who are deaf.

Over the course of her teaching career in Jay County, Analco has become more confident in herself, Ayers said.

“She gives 110% every day,” she added. “She stays late every day, she’s there on weekends … she is just always thinking about her job.”

Analco, who grew up in Detroit, Michigan, spent her elementary school years as a home-schooled student. She moved to Noblesville with her family during her teen years. She graduated from Ball State University in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in visual art education.

When Analco started teaching at Jay Schools, she worked part-time between Jay County High School and West Jay Middle School. The next year she taught photography and art classes at the high school. When the middle and high schools consolidated this year, she began teaching seventh and eighth grade art classes. The switch meant she had to prepare new curriculum for her students.

Teaching art is different from when she was in school, she explained. Art classes aren’t just about making crafts, she said, but rather learning skills from a variety of cultures and techniques.

Jay Schools recently purchased digital tablets and a laser engraver, which can be used to burn into wood, metal or glass, for the art department with a grant from DonorsChoose, a nonprofit that facilitates donations to public school projects. Analco is working toward getting some art vocational classes started next school year so students have the option to choose an art pathway for graduation requirements.

“She’s passionate about kids; she’s passionate about art,” said Jay County High School principal Chad Dodd. “Her ability to connect with kids and encourage kids and challenge kids — I think that makes her special.”

She attributed her success to many, including her husband, Shaun Wood, and her parents, Carol and Gary Analco, who are both teachers and inspired her career path.

“It’s something that’s kind of in your blood,” she said. “I wanted to make a difference in people’s lives, too.”

Carol and Gary Analco also always supported her art passion. She dove into art lessons when she started public school. During high school, Carol would drive her to Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis for college-level art classes.

Now, as an art educator, Jacquelin Analco wants to translate the same love to her students.

“I feel like kids, oh my gosh, they have so much talent,” she said. “If they only knew these few techniques, they could be so successful. I want to be supportive of them just like my parents were supportive of me.”

This year has brought its challenges for art teachers, who had a difficult time assigning work during the spring coronavirus shutdown because not all students had access to materials at home. Analco and Ayers combined efforts this summer to put together hundreds of take-home art bags for students in the event school shuts down again.

For now, though, Analco is thankful to be back teaching her students in person.

“I love working with the kids and watching them be creative,” she said. “I think that’s really inspiring for me … they come up with some really creative things that I wouldn’t have even thought of.”