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astand outperformance

Teacher Liz Beck uses her talents to inspire students at Washington Park

by Hilary Masell Oswald

A funny thing happened to Liz Beck on the way to the theater: Instead of standing in the lights of Broadway, Miss Beck found herself standing in front of a room full of students. And loving it.

A graduate of Barnard College of Columbia University in New York, Miss Beck intended to take her music degree and launch a career as a Broadway actress. She figured she’d need a job while she was audition-ing for roles, so she applied for a teaching position in New York City’s public school system.

“New York was desperate for teachers, and I thought that teaching was an easy job with plenty of time off,” she remembers. “Boy, was I wrong.”

Miss Beck landed a job as a music teacher for 7th and 8th grade students at a public school in Manhattan, where, she says, “The gangs ran the school.” But she loved the work, and after three

years in New York, she moved to Chicago, where she accepted a position at Chicago International Washington Park. Now in her fourth year teaching 5th grade math, science, and social studies there, she laughs a little about how she accidentally found a job she loves.

“I believe that with children, you get back what you put in,” she says, as a way of explaining what has kept her in the classroom. “Kids are brilliant at finding the real you, and they know instantly if you care about them. It’s amazing.”

Miss Beck’s classroom is a lively, colorful, demanding place, where on any day you will find her students absorbed in her teaching. “I have out-there ideas about education,” she says. “I teach to my brightest kids. I differentiate my instruction to see how it suits my students, but I will not be the teacher who neglects the brightest kids. That’s terrible.”

FocalPoint | 23Photo by Caroline Voagen Nelson

And she relies on her students to figure out the value of their learning. “I ask them, ‘Why do you need to know this?’” she explains. “They come up with great ideas. I think people underestimate kids a lot. If you ask them for good answers and expect good answers, you’ll get them.”

Pamela Creed, director of Washington Park, uses a string of superlatives to describe Miss Beck. “She’s extremely dedicated and motivated, and she cares about her students and holds them to high standards,” Mrs. Creed says. “There is no challenge too big for Liz, which I love.”

In addition to teaching all day and serving as a mentor for new teachers, Miss Beck runs Washington Park’s Community Schools, an after-school enrichment program that provides opportunities for students to stay on campus and explore their interests. Teachers lead “clubs,” such as Public Speaking,

Cheerleading, “The Wildcat Times”—the newspaper club, which publishes a paper created entirely by students each month— and Mad Science for aspiring scientists. In all, Washington Park offers 23 clubs for students and one for parents (“Coffee Club,” where parents come to discuss different issues).

As if that’s not enough, this summer Miss Beck designed and led an enrichment program she called “A Picture Perfect Summer.” For four weeks, she led 15 rising 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th graders through photography-related lessons. The students built a darkroom and learned how to take and develop their own photographs. They learned about the science of photography by studying shutter speeds, basic optics, and periscopes. They hosted visitors such as a book author, who talked about how she chose photos for her book, and a graphic designer from the Chicago Cubs organization, who showed the

students how he makes posters.

And, best of all, says Mykaila Potts, 11, they went on field trips. “We went on a food tour. We went downtown. We went to a bunch of museums,” she says with awe. “It was really fun.” The program’s trips included an archi-tectural boat tour (where students practiced taking well-composed photographs), a visit to the Museum of Science and Industry, a stop in the Signature Room restaurant on the 95th floor of the John Hancock Building, and a morning at the WGN studios, where they watched a live taping.

“I wanted the program to be about learning, but not like they’re used to in the classroom,” Miss Beck says. “I just wanted something that would stretch their minds.”

This innovative approach to teaching is possible in charter schools in ways it’s sometimes not in traditional public schools,

AStandOutPerformance

Photo by Caroline Voagen Nelson

Miss Beck says. Though her summer program was extracurricular, she uses the same creative streak to reach her students in the classroom. “I think charters are a nice alternative, and when they’re run right, they can be successful,” she says. “I enjoy having a hand in the planning. I like that we can do what we think will make a successful school, and it’s working.”

Mrs. Creed agrees. “We have more freedom in terms of curriculum,” she says. “We have children from all different levels of academic achievement, and our teachers can reach them. Teachers like Liz could go to a tradi-tional public school and make more money, but the teachers here love what they do, they love to innovate, and they have a passion for educating the children in their classes.”

That passion fuels Liz Beck for about 12 hours each day—that’s how long she spends

at Washington Park’s campus. She begins each of these long days with a mantra that hangs in her classroom: “Love them unconditionally. Teach them uncompromis-ingly. Encourage them unceasingly.”

“I ask myself, ‘Am I doing this today?’” she says. “It took me a while to realize that it’s more than just test scores and me doing my thing in the front of the class. It’s about a life. You might be the only one who is a positive force in this kid’s life.”

Deidra Jackson, 12, was one of those lives who spent a year in Miss Beck’s 5th grade classroom. Now a 7th-grader, Deidra still adores her former teacher. “She’s a heartwarming person,” Deidra says. “She’ll never forget you. It makes me feel like” — she pauses for just the right way to explain Miss Beck—“like she’s another part of my family.”

“ I believe that with children, you get back what you put in... Kids are brilliant at finding the real you, and they know instantly if you care about them. It’s amazing.”

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