A second grade teacher at John Middleton Elementary School in Skokie was named a finalist for the Golden Apple award, given by a nonprofit group which furthers teaching excellence.
Wendy Maa is one of 30 pre-K to third grade teacher finalists for the award, with the prize including a spring sabbatical at Northwestern University at no cost to the teacher and a $5,000 cash prize. Golden Apple’s president, Alan Mather, said 600 teachers applied for the award this year, and 30 were named finalists. He said 10 winners will be announced in a surprise fashion in their classrooms this spring.
Mather said any pre-K to third grade teacher in the state could be nominated for the award. The nominees are then invited to send an application for the award. Mather said a team of mostly former award winners reviews the applications and grades the finalists on civic engagement, cultural competence, student engagement and their ability to educate different types of learners in a classroom.
Mather said winners can take the sabbatical in any field they like. He said previous winners have used the opportunity to pursue hobbies and earn a teacher leadership award. “It really does vary,” said Mather “But this is a chance to be recognized and renewed.”
The Skokie Review contacted Wendy Maa to ask her about her teaching style. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Why did you decide to go into teaching?
A: I’ve always been good with kids and so when I was younger, I babysat a lot. My parents wanted me to go into teaching and I said, ‘absolutely not.’ I actually have a degree in biology and political science, but once I left college… I ended up being an aide at a school, and I fell in love with it and went back to school and got my degree in teaching.
Q: How much time do you spend each week preparing lessons?
A: I think that depends week to week. On good weeks, five hours, maybe or an hour or two a day. And then on heavy weeks it can be like 10.
Q: What’s the difference between a good week and a heavy week?
A: There’s just like different teacher responsibilities that go on top of the regular day to day of planning and teaching a lesson. Sometimes we have assessment week. So if it’s an assessment week, it’s a little bit less planning because we’re giving assessments… but then also it means grading assessments.
Q: When you’re teaching a class that includes both rapid learners and slow learners, how do you devote enough time to the students who need it, but ensure that rapid learners don’t get bored?
A: I teach younger students; their attention span is already not very long. I do a lot of small group teaching and a lot of movement. We do a lot of stations in the classroom so that helps me be able to meet all the kids’ needs in different moments throughout the day. (The students) also have independent practice that I’ve set up for them when they’re not in a small group with me.
Q: What tips do you have for other teachers to teach effectively or motivate students?
A: Continue to be a learner and really work on your practice. I think there’s always new things to learn. I think every year my lesson plans never look the same, because the students in front of me are always different. I think having that kind of attitude helps keep things fresh in a lot of ways, and also knowing that I see these kids during the weekday more than their parents do, and knowing that they’ve entrusted me to be part of their education. I think that just motivates me to want to do my best for them.
The Skokie Review also spoke with Middleton’s principal Nikki Tammaru to ask about Wendy’s impact at Middleton.
Q: What makes Maa a stand out teacher?
I can hear Wendy in her classroom laughing with her kids. She’s got such a great laugh. She’s always having fun with her kids. She’s highly collaborative with her team. They have a super strong team. She knows all of her students. She’s incredibly focused on their success. She holds them to incredibly high standards. Her teaching style is fun, (and) it’s of high quality.
Q: What do you see that she does, exactly, for her students?
Like I said, she makes learning fun for them. They want to be in there. She also has really, really high standards for them. So they’re not just sitting there goofing around doing coloring book pages; they’re learning at really high levels, but in a way that they’re excited. It’s almost like they’re on their edge of their seats all the time in her room.
Q: What’s one thing that Maa does that other teachers can incorporate into their classrooms?
I was in her room just hanging out one day, she was teaching a lesson… and other kids were working independently. A student was struggling with his technology. And so she had (another) student do tech support. And you can tell it was something that is incorporated regularly because the tech support kid and the kid who needed support knew exactly what to do. And she didn’t have to stop her lesson. They figured it out. She’s created student-led classrooms.
In addition to that, she’s a very strong reading teacher. She teaches everything very well, but I’ve seen her teach small group reading and I’ve encouraged multiple teachers to go into her classroom to see how she plans for instruction, how she uses data and how she actually differentiates and teaches different guided reading small groups based on the needs of the students.
