Carol recently retired after thirty-three years of teaching music grades kindergarten through eighth grade in Illinois. In August 2012, she began working for the Golden Apple Foundation using her arts and technology background as the Technology Coordinator. Her passion is to bring infuse music and technology together in education.  She is on the SET Connections Board, she chairs the Golden Apple Foundation Academy Board, and is Poster Co-chair for the Illinois Computing Educators. 

Terri teaches 6^th grade social studies and 8^th grade American History at Greenville Junior High School.  She is Nationally Board Certified in Early Adolescence/Social Studies-History.  She received the Those Who Excel Education Award Program/Illinois Teacher of the Year:  Award of Merit 2009-2010.  She is a Mentor Teacher and works with first and second year teachers in her district to offer assistance and guidance to allow for a smooth transition in to teaching for the novice teacher.  Terri also serves on the Greenville College School of Education P-12 Advisory Council.  The Council’s role is to review Teacher Education Program elements and revisions, review the conceptual Framework, examine assessment data, and advise whether modifications need to be made in the college’s Teacher Education Program.

Rob teaches fifth grade in Edwardsville. He is both an Illinois Teacher of the Year Finalist and a Peabody Logos Leader in Education.  Rob continues to empower his students as leaders of their 5^th grade classroom.  Rob’s students demonstrate mastery of material using prezis, wikis, and wix –sites like http://gestraining.wix.com/2012kids.  Last year’s projects included solar power experiments and a “battery garden.”    This year, 5th graders have successfully modified power wheel cars to run on solar power and will be launched a weather balloon into space http://kplr11.com/2012/09/18/student-balloon-blasts-off-near-space/ .  Rob also teaches graduate and undergraduate education classes at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville.  

Jake is the Social Studies Instructional Coach at Thornton Fractional South High School in Lansing, Illinois. He is a 2010 recipient of the Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching and is the second individual to win the award after being mentored and prepared for a career in teaching as a Golden Apple Scholar. He currently serves as President of Thornton Fractional Federation of Teachers, IFT/AFT Local #683, which has been working cooperatively with District 215 to develop a teacher evaluation instrument based upon the Charlotte Danielson model.  Jake is especially excited to report that after the successful pilot year of a new teacher evaluation model this summer his local district reached a 3-year contract agreement a full year early, giving his district time to focus on key instructional efforts including aligning curriculum to the new Common Core standards.  His work on building a collaborative environment will be featured in an upcoming American Institutes of Research publication, Everyone at the Table. The article has been previewed on Advance Illinois’ newsletter and website.  A high school representative on the Golden Apple Academy, he is part of a team of educators working to address the question, “Are we testing too much?”

Natalie is a 2008 recipient of the Golden Apple Teaching Award.  She recently rejoined the team at Pershing West Middle School as Assistant Principal, where she previously served as a teacher.  Last year, Natalie worked as an Instructional Support Leader in Chicago Public Schools Fulton Network, which includes approximately 30 elementary and/or middle schools.  Natalie is very active in common core literacy implementation in her schools, especially the use of Understanding by Design, backward mapping, to connect learning goals and assessments.

Rana teaches fifth grade at A. O. Sexton Elementary on the South Side of Chicago. In 2006, she was awarded the Milken National Educator Award.  She has worked closely with teacher preparation programs at both the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago (her alma mater). She has hosted numerous teacher candidates. Rana has received several grants for materials and technology for her classroom and school. For three years, she has been a TAP Mentor Teacher, where her duties include observing and coaching teachers, rating teachers’ effectiveness, serving as a member of the school’s Leadership Team and leading professional development throughout the year. In 2009, Rana earned a master’s in educational leadership, and she is working toward her National Board Certification.

Paul is the Social Studies and World Languages Division Head at Hersey High School, He is a 2005 Milken National Educator. Paul focuses the work of Hersey’s Professional Learning Communities on cross-subject integration of college readiness skills.  Teachers from every content area are working on implementation of a common core curriculum and measure gains through the EPAS system.  As a result of shared focus on coherence and skills, Hersey’s measurable growth for all learners is consistently among the best in the state.  His team also provides professional development workshops to over 40 high schools in Chicago, Rockford, and throughout Wisconsin.

Craig teaches entrepreneurship to students throughout Effingham County in a unique partnership with local businesses and area high schools. He is a Milken National Educator and an Illinois Teacher of the Year Finalist.  Craig is busy transitioning his CEO Class to a new teacher this year, as he works to replicate CEO in 4 new sites in both Illinois and Indiana.  This involves a lot of travel and creative scheduling, but he is still teaching class every morning.  On the film front, Craig’s latest Major League Baseball film, The Perfect Place, recently made its debut at the Baseball Hall of Fam in Cooperstown, NY.  Craig is a member of the Advance Illinois Board of Directors.

Tim is teaching at Eastern Illinois University’s Department of Early Childhood, Elementary and Middle Level Education, after retiring from 38 years of teaching middle school science in Charleston.  He is a Golden Apple Award Teacher and remains active with Golden Apple Academy.  Tim attended the NEA Foundation Awards this summer.

Anne recently began work on her Type 75 certification, after earning her National Board Certification in the December 2011, and continues to teach second grade in her bilingual twin immersion classroom at Dewey Elementary in Evanston.  

Eliza just finished up her Golden Apple sabbatical, spending time taking a leadership class through Northwestern University.  She returns to teaching her 7th & 8th grade writing workshop and 7^th grade reading at CPS’s Zapata Academy where she focuses on developing units to invest Latino students in their writing, find their voice, reflect on, revise, and share their work.  Eliza is also a member of her school’s Instructional Leadership Team. She is a graduate of the University of Chicago Urban Teacher Education Program (UTEP_ and supports UTEP as a mentor and hopes to be a clinical instructor in the spring.  In the meantime, she is hosting student teachers from ISU this fall.  In addition, this year, Eliza joins both Teach Plus and Chicago Foundation for Education as a policy fellow and an Action Research Leadership Institute fellow, which are aimed at developing teacher voice, reflection, and sharing practice.

Kevin leads the Academy of Finance at Carl Schurz High School in Chicago. Kevin was the 2010 Illinois Teacher of the Year.  Kevin’s work with the Carl Schurz Academy of Finance is featured in the Youtube video below as an exemplar of programs preparing students to be college and career ready.  http://youtu.be/L8Wy_Umjhbg

Tim is in the Department of Technology Engineering Education at Coulterville High School. He is an Illinois Teacher of the Year Finalist and a Peabody Logos Leader in Education. Tim once again spent the summer working with his Construction and Manufacturing Technology students to make improvements at Hoyleton Children's Home, a residential treatment program for children and adolescents with severe developmental, emotional and/or behavioral issues.  

Astrid, a 20-year teaching veteran, leads 2 kindergarten sections per day in Cicero School District 99.  Most of her students are learning language in both Spanish and English.  Astrid would like to find flexibility in the common core standards to meet her students’ needs, but worries the model does not align well with early childhood best practices nor, in some cases, the experiences of children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.  She is both a strong advocate for all-day kindergarten, as well as a teacher’s discretion to match curriculum to her students needs based on experience.   This year she belongs to the Parent Involvement Committee.

Mike is a new member of the EAC and a recent Golden Apple winner.  Like Eliza Ramirez, another new EAC member, Mike spent the spring semester on Golden Apple sabbatical studying at Northwestern.  This fall, he returns to Carl Sandburg Middle School in Mundelein to teach science and technology, and coach.  Mike participated in planning efforts for the 2012 Educator Leadership Institute.  

Melissa is an Illinois Teacher of the Year Finalist. This fall, she accepted a new teaching position as the special education teacher for the third grade team at Riverton Elementary School outside Springfield.  Melissa is excited for the new position as she sees Riverton on the cutting edge of new reforms, as well as technology.   Melissa was recently chosen by ISBE for the Illinois Educator Leadership Cadre for PARCC.  This fall, she is participating in a weeklong study with the Business Innovation Factory to get a conversation going about strong feedback loops, impediments to feedback, and how to integrate into schools. She is also doing guest blogging on Laying the Foundation for successful teaching habits and stress relief, chairing the IEA’s statewide special education committee, and working toward her Type 75 certification at the University of Illinois-Springfield. 

Linda teaches second grade in Cicero District 99. She is an Illinois Teacher of the Year. She received Northern Illinois University’s distinguished alumni award earlier last year.  This summer, Linda attended a 3-day comprehensive literacy conference to help prepare for common core implementation.  She also participated in agenda-setting discussions for this summer’s 2012 Educator Leadership Institute.  This fall, Linda will be a teacher representative to the state’s P-20 Council Educator Licensure Steering Committee, which is working on issues impacting teacher preparation, recertification requirements, gradespan configurations for teacher endorsements, diversity in the educator workforce, clinical and student teaching requirements, and more.

Cheryl gave the keynote address at the summer Educator Leadership Institute, which brought together over teachers and administrators from around the state to Bloomington to discuss key issues and reforms facing districts, and to inform ISBE on implementation challenges and opportunities around the new Common Core Standards, professional evaluations, and how we certify and license teachers.  Also, this summer Cheryl especially enjoyed a leadership conference, Diversity in Resources, in Washington, D.C. which specifically addressed the use of technology to support math instruction for students of color and those with disabilities.  She is a member of the Advance Illinois Board of Directors.

Rebecca teaches math and science at Warrensburg Latham High School.  She has enjoyed the EAC experience as a place to learn about state-level reforms and work with other award-winning teachers.  This past spring, Rebecca participated in efforts to review Illinois’ Test of Academic Proficiency or TAP).  Teachers gathered at the Illinois State Board of Education to review and set passing standards for the test which is given to students wishing to enter Illinois schools of education. She recently attended ISBE’s elementary and middle grades advisory group meeting to discuss setting math teaching standards.