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| Illinoisan Could Become Teacher of the Year |
(IRN)-If Alton High School's Annice Brave becomes the National Teacher of the Year, she will be the first person from Illinois to earn that honor in more than forty years.
Brave has been at the school for 23 years and teaches English and journalism. She is one of four national finalists and is looking forward to going to Washington, D. C., in May.
"My students have already told me that when I meet the president I cannot shake his hand. I have to give him a fist bump," Brave said. "So I will be sure to do that just for all the Redbirds at Alton High."
Brave says good teachers never stop trying to get better. "There's not a day that goes by that at the end of the day I don't sit down and say, 'well what the heck happened today?'" said Brave. "And how can I make it better tomorrow? Or what kid wasn't getting it and what do I need to help that kid out tomorrow?"
"I don’t know if that makes me any different from other teachers, but I think that's what makes me a good teacher," she said. Brave says a big concern for her in Illinois is funding of public schools. "We can and we have to improve public schools, we know that," she said. "But we also need to get our policymakers to understand the importance of investing in our public schools."
She said despite those worries, she prides her school on the way it approaches each student. "We take a very systematic approach to this," said Brave. "We don't just teach to those top honors kids or to the lowest kid in the learning curve. We try to address every kid in that curve."
Brave said the recognition isn't about her; it's about the hard work of educators in the American public school system. However, she couldn't help but note what the honor meant to her, as she audibly held back tears. "This is all just a dream for a little public school teacher to get this kind of recognition," she said.
(Source: Illinois Radio Network) |
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| 01 14 11 by Newsroom |
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