Miranda Thompson is a Golden Apple winner.
Thompson, who earned her B.S.Ed. in Elementary Education in 2006, was among six winners named March 9 during surprise ceremonies in their Rockford-area classrooms.
She also was among eight finalists with NIU College of Education degrees, joined by fellow alumni Kelli Blank, Nicole Busker, Dianna Dornink, Amanda Hahn, Kimberly Plaster, Lisa Robinson and Jennifer Rowe.
Now in its 26th year, the mission of the Golden Apple Foundation is to inspire, celebrate and support excellence in education in the Rockford area.
A product of the Harlem School District 122 where she now teaches kindergarten at the Donald C. Parker Center, Thompson says her own teachers shaped who she would become.
“Growing up, I was extremely shy and introverted, and in the classroom, I really didn’t talk much,” she says.
“As the years went on,” she adds, “I remember a couple specific teachers who really made it a more comfortable environment, made it a safe space and provided an opportunity that just kind of sparked something in me to make me think, ‘OK this is something that I could do as well for other people.’ ”
Consequently, “my priority is making a safe, welcoming environment for students. Their basic needs need to be met first. I try to greet every single student as they come into the classroom in the morning, whether it’s a high-five or just asking them what they did at last night at home or about something personal.”
She also makes sure that her students feel respected and that they can “talk to me about things outside of the classroom.”
That philosophy of open communication includes parents, she adds, so that “when behaviors might arise, my students know that their parents and I are in partnership and a team.”
Kindergartners in Thompson’s classroom see a teacher who strives to “be enthusiastic. I’m not afraid to be silly in front of them, and I think that really wins them over and gets them excited about school.”
“I’ve taught a variety of grade levels, but the thing I love most about teaching kindergarten is that they all come from such different experiences. Some of them have had no school, and some of them have had a lot of school, so one thing I love is that they make so much growth in kindergarten,” she says.
“We assess them and see how much they know coming in, and when you compare that even a month or two later, it is unbelievable how much growth they make,” she adds. “They’re very excited about school, so my goal is basically to make sure that keeps going when they move to first-grade.”
She also wants children to know “it’s OK to make mistakes because that means I’m learning,” something that boosts their confidence.
Her own self-assurance grew during her time at NIU.
“The professors I had were extremely passionate and very supportive,” Thompson says. “They showed me that they loved what they were teaching, and that kind of rubbed off on me.”
Golden Apple acknowledgement is having a similar effect; she was also a finalist in 2020, at the beginning of COVID-19, which not only wrestled her from her comfort zone as she welcomed visitors to observe her teaching but inspired her to earn a master’s degree.
“I’ve become more and more comfortable with people coming in the classroom. I’ve looked for ways that I can mentor other people in the building,” she says. “It’s given me the confidence to help other people and to make them feel successful coming into the field, because it’s been hard these last few years, and I want us to continue to get great teachers.”
BLANK, ALSO A KINDERGARTEN TEACHER at Harlem’s Donald C. Parker Center, encountered some turns in her path to the classroom.
“It started in sixth grade; I had a teacher who was just phenomenal and who really helped me, and that kind of set the precedent of where I wanted to go. It was my goal all through school,” says Blank, who earned her M.S.Ed. in Literacy Education (2011) and B.S. in Early Childhood Studies (2004) in DeKalb.
At Rock Valley College, however, she decided to pursue a career in accounting.
Three semesters later, she says, “I said, ‘No, this isn’t for me.’ My heart really was with kids, so I switched my field and I switched my major. I stayed at Rock Valley, got some general courses under me and then transferred to NIU.”
Jobs as a babysitter and at a day care center confirmed her renewed direction.
“Knowing that I’m making a difference with kids I really where I wanted to focus, and that’s where I ended up,” says Blank, a Rockford native.
“My degree is for birth through 8 years old, and just watching the kids grow – there’s so much growth and so much potential in the early childhood years – is where my heart is,” she adds.
“I’ve taught early childhood. I’ve taught first grade. Now I’m in kindergarten. Every day is a new adventure, and every day we learn something new. It’s just amazing to see the spark and the joy of 5-year-olds and 6-year-olds. They’re good little children who just love to learn, and they soak it all up.”
Blank similarly soaked up her NIU coursework, which she says “provided me some guidance, provided me some classroom management skills and provided me so different techniques to use for behaviors. It gives you a little bit of everything you need, and then you just kind of grow as you teach and keep growing
“Going through a pandemic, and trying to keep our sanity through a pandemic, has been tough, and this just kind of sealed the deal of why I’m doing what I’m doing,” says Blank, a self-described lifelong learner currently in pursuit of her NIU M.S.Ed. in Educational Administration. “It’s nice that people are able to recognize what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.”
Meanwhile, Blank is grateful for the Golden Apple requirement to examine her “why.”
“As part of the process, you write a self-reflective essay about why you’re doing what you’re doing,” she says. “That was pretty eye-opening, because I have never written about myself in that manner, so writing five pages all about what I do and why I do it made me rethink why I am doing this and why I’m happy that I’m in my field.”
HAHN ALSO HAS KNOWN her destination forever.
“As long back as I can remember, I never wanted to be anything but a teacher,” says Hahn, who teaches fifth grade at North Boone Upper Elementary School in Poplar Grove. “I really think that it’s just who I am. I’m a teacher.”
The alumna of NIU’s B.S.Ed. in Elementary Education program appreciated her student teaching experiences in the Harlem School District, where she was placed in a fourth grade “pod” with 75 children representing three classes.
“Sometimes, the teachers taught them separately. Sometimes, they taught them as a whole group. Sometimes, they rotated. That experience really taught me how to manage a mass quantity of kids at the same time, and by watching those teachers, and learning what worked and what didn’t work, really taught me how to manage all the different behaviors,” she says.
“Obviously, I’ve never had to teach that many kids at one time since then, but it really prepared me for the years when I had maybe 32 kids on my own.”
Hahn didn’t find a teaching job immediately after her 2002 graduation, working in day care centers and eventually becoming the director of one – which, she says, “was fine, but I’m not super good at being in charge of adults. Being in charge of kids is great.”
After teaching 14 years in the Rockford, she’s now working in the school district where she grew up and where her children are now students: “It’s everything that I always wanted, and I can’t imagine doing anything else,” she says.
“I love when the kids remember you from 15 years ago; even when I struggle to think, ‘Who are you?’ they know exactly who I am. They remember,” says Hahn, who also loves “watching them ‘get it’ – even later, like when they say, ‘Hey, do you remember when we did this? Now I’m in eighth grade, and I still remember it.’ But it’s just about being there and making relationships with them. It doesn’t always have to be about what they learn.”
Finding herself among the Golden Apple finalists motivates her “to keep going. I’m making a difference. I feel seen. I feel like I’m doing something right.”
“With what goes into making learning exciting and interesting and completing with all the video games and all the online stuff they have access to now, we’ve really had to change what we do,” she says. “It feels like people are noticing. People are paying attention.”
ORIGINALLY FROM BARTLETT, Plaster found her inspiration from family.
“My ‘why’ is that my grandmother was a teacher. For years, she taught Home Ec and P.E. in a small town in Indiana, so I think it was just kind of in my blood,” says Plaster, who teaches third grade at Galapagos Charter School in Rockford.
“The reason I keep being a teacher is obviously because of the kids,” she adds.
“I currently teach a demographic that is underserved, mostly African American and of low economic status. They really thrive on the structure I provide. Yesterday, I had to leave early, and it was like the end of the world, you know, which is sad – but it’s the reason I’m here. They need strong individuals who can give them the structure they need but in a loving way.”
Plaster, who earned her B.S.Ed. in Elementary Education in 2016, says that the rewards go both ways.
“Those light bulb moments. The hugs. The notes. The not understanding something for months and then, all of a sudden, ‘I get it!’ ” she says. “That is how they keep me, for sure.”
Her NIU preparation demonstrated a valuable lesson she transmits to her third-graders.
“The professors have a huge focus on not getting it right the first time but getting it right,” says Plaster, who’s currently back at NIU in pursuit of her M.S.Ed. in Special Education with an Advanced Special Education Practices specialty. “That’s something that you carry into this career: You know that you’re going to make mistakes. It’s very trial and error.”
She credits her faculty for constant communication and feedback, and appreciates the exposure provided by her clinicals.
“NIU did a really good job of putting me in all different demographics throughout all my clinicals, which helped a ton,” she says. “Before I even got into the career officially – I don’t want to say I saw it all because every day surprises you – but I got to see a lot of different techniques with a lot of different students from a lot of different demographics.”
Plaster also appreciates the validation from Golden Apple and “knowing that what I’m doing is on the right path.”
“Teachers are their own harshest critics, and I think that sometimes we get, day to day, ‘Am I doing enough?’ I think this was just that pat on the back that I needed to say, ‘Yes, you are doing enough.’ ”
FOR ROBINSON, TEACHING is about fostering relationships.
“Relationships with kids, of course. Staff. Families. I’ve been in education long enough now where I have had siblings and cousins of former students,” says Robinson, who earned B.S.Ed. in Special Education: Deaf and Hard of Hearing in 2004. “Those relationships continue and are stronger and more reliable as time goes on and connections are made.”
The kindergarten teacher at Rolling Green Elementary School in Rockford also considers social-emotional learning “vital.”
And that belief has been reinforced more than ever this year.
One of Robinson’s kindergartners lost her mother in September, only a week or so after school began.
“I’m a big advocate of classroom community, so we have morning meetings and we talk about feelings,” she says. “I feel strongly about it because I don’t feel like I was ever taught in school what emotions are, how to respond to them, what they feel like in our bodies and what they look like on human faces. We really dive into that.”
But Robinson felt great anxiety about when “Caroline” would return to school at the end of September.
“Thoughts ruminated about how I would react, how the rest of the children would react and what feelings it would bring up in our kindergarten classroom. We had built a pretty strong community while she was gone, and when she came back, her fists were balled, she was quiet and she didn’t want to participate in anything.”
Outside school hours, however, Caroline and her family participate in counseling to privately explore, understand, confront and strive to accept their emotions. The process carries over the classroom, connecting smoothly to the behavioral skills students practice there with the help of their teacher.
Eventually, Robinson says, “Caroline opened up. She finally just said it, and I’m so thankful she did. She clearly articulated, ‘My mommy died, and I feel really sad about it.’ That statement opened the door to so much growth in her grieving process that is still apparent in March, many months later.”
Robinson’s students then “cried with her. We loved on her. Kids asked to get her Kleenexes and wanted to hug her. And we talked about it. She’s had rough days since. She’s had good days since.”
Caroline also has special support: One of her classmates was only an infant when her mother died, and although Robinson knew she could not share that information with Caroline, it eventually took place organically between the two girls.
“She said the most beautiful words I’ve ever heard from a kindergartner. She said, ‘I lost my mommy, too, and I want to be your friend.’ And they have been inseparable ever since.”
Being a Golden Apple finalist is “encouraging,” Robinson says.
“Teachers always want to do better,” she says, “but when I see myself among these 19 other educators who I have looked up to, and who I consider to be amazing, it makes me want to be even more of what I already am.”
