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WCCC teacher DeLong named Postsecondary Teacher of the Year

By Janelle Patterson 4 min read

Like a game of Clue, he expects his students to apply the classroom to their environment with the use of their senses and deductive techniques.

"I tell them 'the good Lord gave you five senses, what are they,'" he explained Monday. "They list them off, you know. Sight, touch, smell, listen, taste. Then, I tell them, I'm going to give you permission to use four of them. You don't lick anything in a chemical plant."

Jeff DeLong, of Parkersburg, has taught at the Washington County Career Center for five or six years, he can't quite recall the exact time.

In part, because he started teaching out of volunteering his time outside of DuPont Washington Works where he's been full-time for 32 years.

"But you can tell he has a passion for teaching, for helping us get it right when it matters, when we need to think," said Mackenzie Peters, 30, of Williamstown, a current student of DeLong.

"For example, he had us fill a tank and we had about 30 seconds to divert it in a (simulated) emergency," added project partner Guy Allman, 19, of Boaz, pointing to real tanks sitting on the concrete. "We had to check in that short time the valve, did it leak, is there a pump failure, is there contamination, all to prevent a chemical spill. He makes it real-world for us out there."

DeLong was recognized Monday as the 2021 Ohio Postsecondary Teacher of the Year by the Ohio Department of Higher Education and the Ohio Association of Career and Technical Education.

"I went to school to be a teacher … but anyone can be a teacher, you can just read down the board," said the veteran chemical operation instructor. "But to be an educator, you help students practice thinking for themselves."

Thinking, through cross-application of classwork from other components of the industrial maintenance mechanic programs, chemical operation programs, and the instrumentation and electricity programs.

The Ohio Association for Career and Technical Education Executive Director Christine Gardener pointed to DeLong's nomination Monday as a testament to that thorough thought.

"He took things one step further and also became a student of the Washington County Career Center, he took the instrumentation and electricity technician program," she read. "By doing this he could assess what the students were being taught and ensure that all three programs correctly complemented each other. That (is) an example of going above and beyond as an instructor."

Then, with State Rep. Jay Edwards in tow, DeLong walked through the outdoor lab where students not only problem-solve in real-time but also under the pressure of the same weather elements and noises they will experience on the job.

"We're out there when it's cold, when it's raining," he described, pointing to donated valves, pipes and tanks arranged on the concrete between the adult tech and high school buildings off of Ohio 676. "I'll mess it up and let them figure out how to fix the flow. I'll give them a drawing of this that's wrong, and they need to figure it out."

That trial-and-error, students said, helps them embed the knowledge into how they check for problems and create solutions.

Does it intensify the pressure? Yes.

"But I love it," said Peters. "I wish I would have gotten into this sooner."

Monday after cake and dignitaries were through, the educator was back in the classroom with critique and questions for his students presenting their final project: design of a chemical plant process.

"Nobody's stopping in a crisis at a chemical plant to be quiet because you've got to stop and quietly think," he explained. "It's go now, it's teamwork, it's communicating and using your head."

Questions in class Monday reviewed materials within the application of students' interests, from ketchup production to sugar refinement or the fermentation of alcohol.

"It seems like common sense that you have to immerse yourself in that education outside of a classroom, but sometimes innovation is just the application of common sense," added Gardener.

She noted now is the time for career centers and technical education to market themselves to the many adults looking to pivot, looking for additional training in a post-coronavirus economy.

Looking, she said, to get back to work.

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