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Golden Apple Foundation recognizes Boone County teachers
By Kathryn Menue
EDITOR
Boone County has a lot to celebrate with six teachers making the Golden Apple Award finals.
These teachers include: Jeremy Edwards, of Belvidere High School (BHS); Lis Schurman, of Belvidere Central Middle School (BCMS); Danielle Turner, of Belvidere High School; Sara Wolf, of Belvidere Central Middle School; and Jared Young, of Belvidere North High School (BNHS), and Jeff Corn, of North Boone High School.
Jeremy Edwards teaches advanced placement biology for sophomores, juniors, and seniors at BHS. He also teaches freshmen biology and accelerated freshmen biology.
However, Edwards’ nomination didn’t come from one of his biology students. It came from one of his BUC club students, which is similar to a homeroom student. This student’s nomination demonstrates how well-rounded Edwards is in the education profession.
“When I got the news [about the nomination], I was excited for Belvidere HS,” Edwards said. “This is my third year at Belvidere, my 16th teaching overall, and I am honored to represent our fantastic teaching faculty.”
For Edwards, the nomination is more of a reflection of Belvidere High School’s willingness to collaborate rather than his individual effort.
“Our building is experiencing a positive culture change, which is a big reason why I am excited to go into work every day,” Edwards said. “I would not have been named a finalist without the hard work of my colleagues, students, and administration.”
Lis Schurman is the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade band teacher for BCMS.
After seven years of teaching, and four years with the Belvidere School District, Schurman was nominated for the Golden Apple Award by one of her 6th grade students and one of her 7th grade students.
“I was shocked to hear about being a finalist,” Schurman said. “I actually misread the first line of the letter wrong and thought it was about to say ‘Congratulations for being nominated, but you were not selected as a finalist,’ so when I re-read it, I was really surprised and excited. This award is so special, and I hold my colleagues who are past finalists and recipients with such high regard that I couldn’t imagine myself reaching the same standard as them.”
Danielle Turner is a health teacher at BHS. Turner has been a teacher for seven years, and this is her first year with the Belvidere School District. Her first six years of teaching “were spent teaching 9th grade health education at Boylan Catholic High School,” Turner said.
In her first semester at BHS, she made quite the impression on students, including Katya, the student who nominated Turner for the Golden Apple Award.
“I was elated to hear I had been nominated and had such an impact on my students, and it felt good to know that my passion for teaching was being recognized,” Turner said. “However, to hear I made the top 20 and was a finalist for the 2017 Golden Apple Award was more than I ever imagined.”
Sara Wolf is a 6th grade social studies and math teacher at BCMS.
Wolf began her career student-teaching at Belvidere Central over 12 years ago and was hired on as a full time teacher before she even finished her student teaching semester.
In her over 12 years with Belvidere Central Middle School, Wolf has helped a lot of students. One such student, Allana Eastridge, decided that Wolf should be recognized for her efforts. So, Eastridge nominated her for the Golden Apple Award.
“When I opened the letter and saw that I had been selected, I began yelling, ‘Oh, my gosh! I made it! I’m a finalist!’” Wolf said. “My son and daughter were with me, so they became excited too. After a minute or so of celebration, shock set in, and I just kept saying over and over, ‘I can’t believe it.’ I know so many amazing teachers, so to be a finalist, I feel incredibly humbled and accountable to prove my worth as a contender for this award.”
Jared Young teaches business education courses at Belvidere North High School. The courses he has taught include: Intro to Business I and II; Consumer Education; Salesmanship; Business Law; Accounting; Marketing Lab, of running the school store; and Virtual Enterprises International (VEI), where students do real work to create a virtual company.
Young started his teaching career seven years ago at Belvidere High School and taught there for two years before transferring to Belvidere North.
Due to his dedication to business education, Carl Hobbs, a 2011 Golden Apple winner and winner of the Golden Apple Assistant Principal Development Award, nominated Young for the 2017 Golden Apple Award.
“I was flattered,” Young said about his nomination. “Certainly, I’m not the only teacher deserving recognition at Belvidere North, but it is flattering to have my work and efforts recognized.”
Only 20 teachers in the state line area made the Golden Apple Award finalists list, and the Belvidere School District is proud to have five out of 20 on the list.
Plus, Boone County also was represented by North Boone High School teacher, Jeff Corn, being nominated for the Golden Apple Award.
“I had more than one recommendation [for the Golden Apple Award], and I am uncertain of who they were, though I believe the principal was one of them,” Corn said.
Corn teaches 9th through 12th grade mathematics in geometry, honors pre-calculus, and AP calculus. He has taught for 10 years, all 10 of which have been with North Boone Community Unit School District 200.
“I was and am excited to hear the news [about the nomination] and am ready for the next step,” Corn said.
To continue with the narrowing down process, the five Belvidere teachers and one North Boone teacher were observed in their classrooms by “trained community volunteers on four separate occasions between Jan. 17 and Feb. 17,” District 100 reported.
These teachers will give it their all to prove that they are more than worthy of the 2017 Golden Apple Award.
“I look forward to welcoming the community volunteers into my classroom this January through February,” Turner said.
After the teachers are observed, there will be an interview process, which will narrow the top 20 teachers down to the top five. These top five teachers will receive the coveted Golden Apple Award.
“I was a finalist two years ago and had the interview right after my first child was born and didn’t sleep the two days leading up to that, and find it funny that I am having my second child the same time this year,” Corn said. “The interview is within a week of the due date, again!”
Life outside of school won’t hold these teachers back to receive the honor of the coveted Golden Apple Award.
“Our annually bestowed Golden Apple Awards for Excellence in Teaching and Leadership celebrates outstanding teachers and school leaders and invite those awarded the platform to further our mission,” the Golden Apple Foundation reported. “Our innovative programs build on one another to transform teachers and teaching, enriching student and teacher lives.”
The top five Golden Apple Award recipients will be recognized at a banquet on Friday, April 28 at the Radisson Hotel, located at 200 S. Bell School Road in Rockford.
In other Golden Apple Foundation news, one Belvidere teacher already received recognition for her hard work by receiving a grant for her class.
“Since its inception, Golden Apple Foundation has provided funding to 241 educators and 196 projects totaling over $106, 000,” the school district released.
Kimberly Phillips, a pre-kindergarten blended teacher from Seth Whitman Elementary School, was “one of eight local educators to receive a Golden Apple Foundation grant check” to improve education in her classroom.
Phillips applied for the grant in the fall when the Golden Apple Foundation opened the application process. The application specified that the grants must go to a classroom in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade students in either Winnebago or Boone Counties for projects that are normally unfunded by the regular school budget.
After reviewing all of the applications, the Golden Apple Foundation picked Phillips’ classroom as one of the worthy educational programs to receive funding. The Golden Apple Foundation saw Phillips’ classroom as a wonderful opportunity to enhance bilingual education, so they donated a check of $373 to Phillips to establish a lending library in her classroom.
The lending library will provide “students whose native language is something other than English” with books, “so they can enjoy reading at home and with their families,” District 100 reported.
The Golden Apple Foundation Board of Directors recognized Phillips, and the other seven area teachers, at their Tuesday, Dec. 13 meeting.
The other awarded classroom project grants went to literacy, peer mentoring, conservation, and coding. All of the projects had a focus on creativity to encourage success in the various subjects.
About the Golden Apple Foundation
Golden Apple is a non-profit organization that works to inspire, develop, and support teacher excellence in Illinois, especially in schools-of-need.
Because the critical contributor to student achievement is the quality of the teacher in the classroom, Golden Apple is dedicated to providing exceptional preparation for teachers at all stages of their careers.
We identify motivated future educators with diverse backgrounds through our Golden Apple Scholars of Illinois program; provide advance teacher preparation, and mentoring both during and after college to ensure their lasting success in challenging teaching environments.
