On Tuesday, April 21, five of this year’s Golden Apple Award winners got together at NEIU to talk about what inspires them as educators and share some advice with NEIU students. All five winners are NEIU graduates from the College of Education.
The Golden Apple Awards for Excellence in Teaching were created in 1985, by Mike Koldyke, who decided outstanding teachers should be honored and recognized for their contribution to society. Ever since, the awards are given to 10 teachers out of hundreds of nominees every year.
The first presenter, Brooke Tippet-Thompson, is the music and choir teacher at Helen C. Pierce School of International Studies in Chicago.
Tippet-Thompson talked about her teaching philosophy, which is based on three points: the importance of play in education, relating abstract subjects to things kids already know and the negative consequences of empty praise. On this last point she said, “We throw ‘good jobs’ left and right and they don’t mean anything anymore.” She went on saying that children respond to honesty as well as challenges from their teachers.
She made the very significant distinction between “training students vs. teaching students”, pointing out that too many students today get through their classes by sheer memorization and therefore take very little away from the classroom.
Tippet-Thompson said she approaches teaching music as if it was a foreign language and the response from students is outstanding. Not only do they actively participate and enjoy her classes, they are also encouraged to do well in other subjects.
Tippet-Thompson was followed by Carol Broos who teaches music and theater at Sunset Ridge School in Northfield.
Her presentation focused on current developments in education thanks to the Internet. Her first piece of advice was to “clean up your Facebook page.” It is becoming more and more common for employers to check online profiles instead of references, and Broos is a firm believer that privacy on Facebook or MySpace is a myth.
She followed this up by encouraging present and future teachers to build up a Professional Learning Network. Through social networking and bookmarking sites like Twitter, Plurk, Classroom 2.0, Ning, Diigo and Del.icio.us, teachers can communicate, ask each other questions, and share interesting resources and links. The point is to create a collective learning environment for teachers, where they can share experiences as well as journal articles, lesson plans, etc. “Take everything you can,” Bross said, “but also share some stuff.”
Next up was Samina Khan, science teacher at Clark Academy Preparatory Magnet High School.
Khan described her journey from Ethiopia, through Nigeria and Wisconsin, and finally arriving in Chicago. She spoke of obstacles and hardships in her life, and the difficulty in finding her vocation. Despite the extraordinary circumstances of Khan’s life, she told her story to plentiful nodding and general agreement from the audience.
She also remarked that structure is imperative in any classroom and that children absolutely need routine and rules in order to learn. Nevertheless, she stressed that a teacher must consider every one of her students individually and cater to their needs. A turning point for her was when she understood that she must “stop teaching science and start teaching children.”
Khan ended her presentation by saying that her students helped her through tough times in her life and also allowed her to realize teaching was her calling.
Natalie Neris-Guereca spoke next. She is a fifth grade teacher at Pershing West Magnet School in Chicago.
She talked about the value of building an alliance with parents. With this goal in mind, she created Partners in Educations (PIE). She organizes quarterly meetings in which she serves parents pie and talks to them about their children’s learning needs. She prepares them to help at home, be it by reminding them how to multiply improper fractions or just going over the curriculum.
“Parents often feel like they don’t have a voice in the classroom,” Neris-Gureca said. She emphasized the importance of letting them know just how influential they can be without necessarily being present during class.
She has also organized a Saturday Book Club as a result of observing young girls interact in her class. This is a time when issues like low self-esteem can be brought up by discussing books that deal with them.
Finally, it was Donnell White’s turn. He teaches math at Clark Academy Preparatory Magnet High School in Chicago.
White believes in positive energy and innovation in the classroom. He said he incorporates games like basketball and even puppets into math class to get students excited about participating.
He lightheartedly mentioned that he had been a poor student growing up, and that has moved him to organize a program called the Proud Young Men Group.
White said that one of the most important things a teacher needs to do is form healthy relationships with his students. A teacher has to constantly remind himself that “kids, [like the rest of us], come to school with baggage,” he said; and he strives to try to understand where they are coming from on a daily basis.
The event was organized by NEIU’s College of Education’s Educational Foundations Program, Kappa Delta Pi, the Illinois Education Association, and the COE Student Affairs Committee. An audience primarily made up of College of Education students certainly appreciated the expertise and guidance of five extraordinary teachers recognized this year by the Golden Apple Foundation as some of the top educators in the Chicago area.