Creativity and empathy have propelled two south suburban teachers into the running for prestigious Golden Apple awards for Excellence in Teaching.
Michelle Orth, who presides over a 5th grade classroom at Madison School in South Holland, teaching is about building strong connections. Those provide a hook to get students on board and give them the sense of trust to tell her when they need help or something is wrong. Her students include English language learners and special education pupils.
“I think my favorite thing about teaching is the relationships I get to build with my students,” said Orth. “I allow them to become part of my life.
“I get to know exactly what they need and when you have those relationships, you can effectively teach students because they feel safe in the class.”
She’s done special projects to enhance her students’ knowledge, too, including a program where they become news reporters who help write scripts and take videos of school events such as Black History Week and Deep Sea Explorers, where they learn about the ocean and do scuba diving.
Orth credits and tries to emulate the late Shirley McFaul, at Lewis University, who got her excited about education.
“It was just her excitement, her passion for education and I saw the immediate impact she had on the lives of students in our class,” Orth said.
Gerald McNair, the principal of Madison School who was one of the educators who nominated Orth for the Golden Apple award, said it was an easy choice because she is “highly creative, innovative, inspiring and, indeed, a caring educator.”
“While Michelle Orth is always on the cutting edge of new ideas to motivate students to learn and stay engaged, she always shows patience and a caring attitude along the way,” said McNair. “Michelle Orth motivates us all to be creative and resourceful in the hopes of inspiring students to always do their best.
“She is truly one of the best.”
Fellow Golden Apple finalist Shavon Brewer, a teacher at Northwest School in Evergreen Park, has found a way to ignite the interests of her math and other students.
Knowing math can present a stumbling block for many students, so Brewer breaks down concepts and makes learning about numbers fun.
She might present a decimal number and ask students where the starting and end points are, asking them to discuss the question with a few other students. She pairs them with picture cards, so a pupil with a picture of a cookie on the card gets to work with another who has milk on the card.
She also breaks down equations into simpler forms.
“It allows them to really grasp the concept … to think more conceptually,” said Brewer. “I want students to dig deeper.”
Students use “Pear Deck,” a software system where they type answers on a laptop, which are projected onto the whiteboard at the front of the room.
Room transformations help them get into the mood, so she will decorate the room like the television show “Survivor” and put students into groups where they work on problems in teams. They solve problems and compete with other “tribes.” Though no one gets kicked off the island, there are other incentives.
“That gives students confidence, too,” she said. “In my classroom, we never feel isolated.”
Though Brewer said she found math a challenge in elementary school, she was able to grasp it in high school and college with the help of teachers.
“Teachers helped me see math in a different way … I think of math now like a puzzle,” said Brewer.
She also started a drama program at the school and has been directing plays there for several years, including a production of “Finding Nemo.” Her many other contributions include a 5th grade ambassador program, where she meets with students to find out what they think the school needs, or helps them brainstorm ideas, such as showing kindness.
Principal Matthew Banach said the nomination was a “testament to the great work she does with students.”
“Ms. Brewer helps students succeed by finding creative ways, both in and out of the classroom, to help them grow including having a nurse log in her classroom to show how bugs interact in the environment, making lessons digitally interactive, and also encouraging them to be creative themselves through her work with the drama club,” he said.
Her students appear to be big fans, too.
“She kind of enhances math,” said student Grace Jennings. “She knows what we need to learn, instead of just teaching us all one way.”
Janice Neumann is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
