GLEN ELLYN – Glenbard West High School teacher Jim Fornaciari treats the classroom like it's a baseball diamond.

He uses the lessons of hard work and teamwork in class, and was recently named the Advanced Placement Teacher of the Year for the Midwest Region of the College Board.

That region includes teachers in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Fornaciari, who teaches three AP European History classes, is pleased with the award, though he thinks it's one that deserves broader recognition, and is more of an award for his students and department.

"I think that it's been great for the kids and I've gotten some very nice notes and letters from some parents," he said.

For several years, Fornaciari was the baseball coach at West. He strived to make sure his athletes would become supportive husbands, hard workers and productive adults. He often used lessons about teamwork and sacrifice to teach on the field.

Soon he realized those lessons could also extend to the classroom, and began incorporating elements of baseball into his classes.

Instead of a scoreboard, there was the number of students who passedthe AP exam. Instead of a seventh-inning stretch, Fornaciari would bring in European-themed treats. Instead of the Athletic Hall of Fame, there was the AP Euro Hall of Fame, which featured pictures of all the kids who passed the test.

"I try and do a lot of the things in the classroom that I did with baseball. Try and make it be like a team environment in the classroom," he said.

Fornaciari quit coaching in 2005 and decided to embrace efforts to make the AP curriculum more prominent at West. He started teaching AP European History, a class the school did not offer, after being approached by the department head about it.

"To be honest with you, I was a little apprehensive at first because I'd never done an Advanced Placement class, and in those days, there were not a lot of kids taking them," he said.

But Fornaciari began pushing kids to meet higher expectations and getting them to pass the AP exam. He hosts evening study sessions for students and is in contact with families about what's going on in class to ensure they always get the support they need.

The class is tough, and Fornaciari knows kids will get knocked down during it. But the students want to learn and are motivated to continue. Fornaciari's AP European History students who take the AP exam have a 99-percent passing rate.

"The kids I've got in class, they're great to work with, and it makes it easy. And a lot of fun," he said.

Kristin Brandt, social studies department chair at West, said it was a "no-brainer" to nominate Fornaciari because of the work he's done for the program.

"Jim has done so much to build our AP courses, not just the ones he teaches," she said.

The award is especially impressive, she said, given the growth in the number of AP classes offered now.

"I don't think he'd be satisfied until every kid took his course or AP in general," she said.

Fornaciari has been teaching for 30 years, spending the past 16 years at West. Prior to that, he coached at Naperville Central High School for 11 years and taught at Lincoln Junior High School. His first teaching job was at Normal Community High School.

He got his bachelor's degree from Illinois State University and his master's degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He originally thought about a career in radio broadcasting.

"Late in my high school career, I had a couple teachers that made a major impression on me. And I thought that's something that I wanted to do," he said.

Note to readers: This story was edited after publication to correct an error regarding Fornaciari's previous teaching experience.