Former Kane County teacher of the year dies
When the school year would begin with a fresh class of Spanish-speaking students at East Aurora High School, Janet Weber would stand and stare at the students without blinking. She'd listen as the students conversed in Spanish, speaking freely as if using their own special code. Usually about the third day of class Weber would start speaking Spanish fluently back to them and watch their eyes bug out with the knowledge that their teacher both heard and understood everything they'd been saying.
It also let the students know there was nothing to hide. The journey toward reading and writing English would be made with a teacher who was one of them.
Weber, 63, died Nov. 1 after a four-month battle with sinus cancer. She left behind a legacy of infusing students with the same love of reading she possessed her whole life.
Weber became Kane County's Educator of the Year in 1992. Test-makers would say Weber was a good teacher because her students performed. Weber's peers said she was a good teacher because she made students want to learn.
After retiring from East Aurora High School, Weber couldn't shake the itch to teach. She joined the staff at Wredling Middle School in St. Charles as a part-time reading specialist. But it was more than a part-time activity. Weber researched and brought new computer programs and technology to the school to help students learn that are still in use at the school today.
When money was needed to make learning tools available to all students, Weber researched and wrote grant requests that resulted in thousands of dollars flooding into the school in just her three years on staff.
"She was just an advocate for all kids," said Wredling Principal Melissa Dockum. "She could assess what needed to be done, and she would just go forth and do it. She would honor people. She would listen to them and observe and find all the good in the people she was working with. She just made people want to be better teachers."
Assistant Principal Linda Fehrenbacher agreed.
"She taught kids who didn't really have reading as a passion," she said. "But somehow the lessons and texts she would choose would be something that would be of high interest to the kids. She just got in there and worked, and she would not take credit for anything. She made a difference here."
Weber's husband, Dick, said his wife loved to stay active with walking, aerobics or skiing. She loved to travel with her girlfriends and saw most of the world, but Paris was her favorite city. Yet nothing inspired the same passion as when she was in a classroom.
"She loved the kids," Dick Weber said. "She loved it when the kids would come back and see her at school. She'd often end up with sons and daughters of her former students. She just loved what she did."
Memorial services for Weber are at 11 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 5, at St. John Neumann Catholic Church in St. Charles. Visitation is from 3 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Yurs Funeral home in St. Charles. The family asks for donations to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago in lieu of flowers.