The Kane County Regional Office of Education named Cynthia Martinez of East Aurora School District 131 as the county’s 2024 Educator of the Year at an annual banquet on May 3.
Nearly 1,000 guests gathered for the 48th annual Educator of the Year Banquet at the Q Center in St. Charles to celebrate the contributions of educational professionals across Kane County, according to a press release from the Kane County Regional Office of Education.
Martinez, an eighth-grade history teacher at Fred Rodgers Magnet Academy in Aurora, was chosen as Educator of the Year from a record-setting pool of 57 nominees, officials said in the release.
In an interview on Thursday, Martinez said she sees herself in her students because she also grew up in Aurora and even went to high school in the same building that now holds Fred Rodgers Magnet Academy.
However, when Martinez was a student, she didn’t like history class, she said.
“Growing up as a first-generation Latina, I felt like that part of the history was missing. I didn’t really see myself in the history books,” Martinez said.
Even when Martinez didn’t like the material being taught in her classes, she was always interested in history, but it wasn’t until she started taking college-level classes that she started to see what history education could be, she said.
Now, in her own classroom, Martinez said she wants to give her students the history education she wishes she had as a kid. She makes an effort to teach history from all angles, including those left out of the history books, she said.
As an example, Martinez said she discusses the impact that Chinese and Irish immigrants had on the westward expansion of the United States, as those groups primarily built the railroad tracks. Also, she said she has been teaching her kids about Mexican cowboys, and how they were the blueprint for the cowboys of the American West.
In those lessons, she makes a point to connect the topics her students are learning about to current events or modern-day scenarios, she said.
Through these connections, Martinez said she shows her students that everyone can make a difference for the better.
“We can’t wait for a superhero. All of us can take a little role, whether it’s picking up trash in the community or whether it’s getting involved if we see something that we disagree with. Instead of being a naysayer and just complaining, we have to look for solutions within our community,” she said.
Martinez’s teaching style matches her message of self-empowerment. Students’ desks are arranged in groups facing each other, not Martinez, and she said that she encourages students to discuss and debate topics amongst themselves.
As they struggle to figure things out on their own, they also find their own potential, she said.
It helps that many of her lessons are hands-on, which lets students directly engage with the history or put themselves in the shoes of those they are studying.
As an example, she said that when the class was studying World War I, she flipped over the desks to make rows, then had her students make their own trenches. Then, she would introduce problems that soldiers in the war had to face, like disease, dwindling food supplies and more, she said.
After the interview, Martinez pointed out posters made by her students about the bombing of Pearl Harbor in World War II. She said that students studied primary sources from the event and were able to figure out the reasons the attack happened from those sources, not from a textbook.
Martinez is only able to teach using these methods because she has such a strong team of other eighth-grade teachers at Fred Rodgers Magnet Academy, she said.
“I feel like I have been very blessed that I’ve always had a team of teachers who are willing to do that kind of stuff,” she said.
It was also her school community’s support that led to her recent award. To be put in the running for the Kane County Educator of the Year award, teachers must be nominated by their school, then picked at the district level, Martinez said.
After they have been nominated by their district, they are reviewed by a group of student teachers, retired teachers, university representatives, business representatives and national board certified teachers, according to Justin Sampson, the director of communications and marketing at the Kane County Regional Office of Education.
Based on those reviews, Office of Education staff members then collectively make their pick for the Kane County Educator of the Year award, among other awards.
Martinez said she was completely shocked when her name was called at the May 3 banquet.
“I thought maybe I’d have a shot at the middle school level,” she said. “I didn’t think I was going to win the overall.”
The banquet was also a celebration of the contributions made by over 190 retiring educators from the nine school districts in Kane County, according to the county office’s news release.
Among those recognized were Annette McMahon, principal of Oak Park Elementary School in East Aurora School District 131, who was named Administrator of the Year; and outgoing Superintendent Jeff Craig of West Aurora School District 129, who won the Regional Superintendent Award.
Other award winners from the event and their categories included Educational Service Personnel, Jamie Snyder, Davis Primary School in St. Charles District 303; Student Support Personnel, Michelle Vargas-Herbst, Geneva High School, in Geneva School District 304; Early Career Educator, Taylor Cyr, St. Charles East High School in St. Charles School District 303 and Carson Porter, Central Middle School in Central District 301; Elementary/Early Childhood Teacher, Peggy Hernandez, U-46 Planetarium in Elgin District U-46; Middle School Teacher Bradley Staker, Kaneland Harter Middle School in Kaneland School District 302; and High School Teacher, Michael Jakubowski, Hampshire High School in School District 300.
“This was a showcase of the passion and accomplishments of our educators, and it was remarkable to see the crowd that gathered to commemorate these individuals,” Patricia Dal Santo, regional superintendent of education for Kane County, said in the release.
“We had the opportunity to acknowledge those who are just beginning their careers, those who are stepping away after decades of dedication, those who are no longer with us, and those who simply try to make each day special for students, families and colleagues,” she said.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
