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on an ordinary tuesday morning at CiCs irving park, CiCs Wrightwood,

and CiCs Washington park, the Chicago international Charter school

environments were humming along—but three deserving teachers’ days

were moments away from moving from the ordinary to the extraordinary.

sHaWnee neWsome, CiCs WasHington park direCtor

The importance of teacher appreciation in data-driven schools

by Kate Floyd | photos by Tommy Giglio

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At 9:59 a.m., just east of South Michigan Avenue in Woodlawn, 2nd grade teacher Tiffany Harper was making her way to an appointment with CICS Washington Park Director, Shawnee Newsome. To the southwest, in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood on South California Ave.,

Daniel Goodwin was preparing his 7th graders for the day ahead. Further north, near the corner of North Spaulding Avenue and West Grace Street, Anna Lam had just started a reading lesson with her CICS Irving Park 2nd graders.

When the clock struck 10, representatives from OfficeMax, excited school administrators, and the friends and family members of Ms. Harper, Mr. Goodwin, and Ms. Lam swung open the doors of each

teacher’s classroom with an emphatic and thunderous “congratulations!” At each campus, the teams presented the winning teacher with a huge box full of resources from Post-its to a camera and printer, wheeled in a brand new ergonomic office chair, and handed out individual gift

bags to each of the students. The next 20 minutes were filled with tears, stories, and gratitude.

Tuesday’s celebrations were made possible by an initiative called “A Day Made Better,” a national project co-sponsored by Adopt-A-Classroom and OfficeMax. Each year, through an online nomination process completed by school principals, “A Day Made Better” allows thousands of teachers across the country to receive a surprise visit

to their classrooms, heaps of praise, and nearly $1,500 worth of classroom supplies.

The initiative also allows school administrators to properly acknowledge the hard work being done by their top teachers. After Ms. Lam had received her gifts and successfully returned her class’s attention to their reading lesson, her already buoyant spirit seemed revived and energized, to which Janet Heiman, the Associate Director at CICS Irving Park, said, “It’s not the material things that make today special. It’s the fact that we get to recognize Ms. Lam’s work and give her the appreciation she deserves.”

Lam, who is in her 6th year of teaching, notes that receiving such encouragement helps to sustain her through the job’s tougher moments. “Being a teacher can be physically and emotionally draining—we work long hours and we put our hearts and souls into it. Still, I believe in a very positive classroom environment and feel rewarded when my efforts help my students work hard and succeed.”

No Small Feat Teachers in urban charter schools have an incredibly challenging job to do. As the public holds charter schools accountable for their promise to help fix what is broken in the education system, charter school teachers’ performance is under the microscope. Day in and day out, they are expected to navigate their students’ social-emotional issues, keep their classroom focused, employ different instruction methods to engage individual learners, cover their curriculum, and prepare students for high-stakes tests. If it’s their first year teaching, they have a particularly rowdy group of students on the roster, or the school culture is in a state of flux, the obstacles are even more plentiful and difficult to overcome.

This puts the pressure on charter school administrators to make job satisfaction a priority for their staff, at a time when shrinking budgets prevent them from being able to offer teachers bonuses or raises

top left: david leWis, CiCs WrigHtWood direCtor

bottom: staff partiCipating in “a day made better” aWard presentation to anna lam, CiCs irving park

“Being a teacher can be physically and emotionally draining—we work long hours and we put our hearts and souls into it.”

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to show their gratitude. Short of financial rewards, school principals are exploring a wide array of teacher recognition methods to ensure that their staff feels respected, supported, challenged, and acknowledged. While there is no single panacea, as individuals vary in their needs and motivations, there are a number of methods that can make a difference.

“What do you need to be successful?” The first time his mentor asked him what he needed to be a successful teacher, David Lewis was speechless. An elementary school teacher at a neighborhood school at the time, Lewis, who is now the CICS Wrightwood Director, realized no one had bothered to ask him that question before. “It made me reflect, it was tough to answer but it was very effective.” Now he asks his teachers that same question, to instill in them the ability to dig deep, identify the steps they need to take as educators, and determine what they must ask of others to achieve their goals.

Shawnee Newsome, the Director of CICS Washington Park, also uses her teaching background to guide her. She taught at a single school for eight years, and was disappointed when her efforts were not rewarded with a sense of appreciation. “That experience left me with a desire to do better for those around me as a director. Any decisions our teachers need to make to support themselves personally and professionally, I am behind them.”

Kudos and Shout-Outs Ms. Newsome and Mr. Lewis both discussed the importance of tangible rewards—for example, Lewis hands out Kudos bars to teachers deserving of

accolades each week and features the Kudos recipients in a weekly newsletter. “It may sound a little cheesy, but it’s a small gesture to say ‘I acknowledge you, I’ve seen what you’re doing, I appreciate what you’re doing, I know it’s hard work,’” says Lewis. Newsome’s team shares gratitude in a variety of ways. “We ask teachers to give each other shout-outs and nominate each other for the gestures they make over the course of the week. They can anonymously nominate a colleague to thank them for helping to plan an event or model a lesson. The nominees receive $5 gift cards or a mug with hot cocoa or tea,” shares Newsome.

Newsome also offers tangible encouragement on note cards and Post-its, offsetting the pressure that comes with working in a data-driven environment by pointing out the positive things she has observed. “We operate in such an evaluative network; it’s important everyone knows we’re there to applaud their effort.”

Food for Thought Supportive leaders and regular accolades play a key role in teachers’ job satisfaction, but without meaningful professional development and advancement opportunities, an educator’s job can start to feel stale.

offiCemax aWard reCipients CloCkWise from left:

daniel goodWin, CiCs WrigHtWood

anna lam, CiCs irving park

tiffany Harper, CiCs WasHington park

“We operate in such an evaluative network; it’s important everyone knows we’re there to applaud their effort.”

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Director Amy Torres fosters an environment of continuous learning at the CICS Irving Park campus and sees the teachers as part of a professional learning community.

“The teachers feel very comfortable observing each other; they trust each other and share best practices with each other so they can all be successful,” says Torres. One example of the teachers’ collaborative culture: over the course of the school year, teachers create individual student profiles comprised of notes on each student’s academic and behavioral

performance. In June, they share the profiles with teachers who teach the grade above them, so by August all teachers are familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of their incoming learners.

With respect to advancement, Newsome and Lewis emphasize the need for their staff to have professional options. “Developing leadership skills can work out in different ways. As a teacher, you can move up and become a peer mentor or team leader,” says Newsome. Ultimately,

Newsome’s priority is “to build our teachers’ capacities and help them grow.” When Lewis speaks with teachers about their professional goals, he tries to find the best fit for each teacher’s passions. “I ask them, ‘Do you want to be out of the classroom, do you want to move to another grade level, how do you want to challenge yourself?’”

Making the Grade The number-one motivator for most teachers is a job well done. But for some educators, their students’ performance is more of an intrinsic motivation than an extrinsic one. Torres shared one such story: “At CICS Irving Park, we share our data very publicly, but although we want a sense of healthy competition here, we also wanted to make sure we weren’t marginalizing anyone in the process.”

In earlier years, before the start of each school year, her teachers would gather and publicly view each teacher’s name and the percentage of that teacher’s students who met their goals. But they changed their tune when “an anonymous survey that we conduct indicated that for some teachers, seeing their scores up in public made them lose motivation.” As a result, she says, “This year we publicly shared the grade level average, but you don’t see the individual teachers’ results. We reserve that for grade level meetings where we share with teachers their peer data so it’s more intimate, less threatening.”

When students hit it out of the park, everyone feels a sense of pride. Lewis shared a moment that brought him and his team great joy: “We got our EXPLORE test results back, and our 8th grade class got an aggregate score of 15 when the national average is 14.9. Even when we have challenging years, at the end of the day when I look at the success that our kids are having, it makes all the rest of it worth it. We’re making it happen. We’re here to make sure our kids feel affirmed and in a place of calm. We give them what they need to do their best and they do exactly that.”

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“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” —William Arthur Ward

top left: anna lam, offiCemax aWard Winner, and CiCs irving park parent

beloW: CiCs WasHington park student

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A Standing Ovation

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Chicago International would like to thank

all of the wonderful, dedicated teachers

who make a difference in the lives of

nearly 9,000 students and their families.

We asked each of our school directors to

nominate one exceptional educator who has

made a particularly special impact on his or

her campus community. Here's what they

shared about the nominees:

Jennifer Campione | Basil

1ST GRADEMs. Campione has been well known to students, staff, and parents as the teacher who communicates all of the essentials for each student to be successful throughout the entire school year. Ms. Campione’s greatest attribute is her connection to her students’ needs, followed by her strong dedication to making sure that every child is successful due to the learning that takes place in her classroom each and every day.

Katie Crist | Bucktown

3RD GRADEMs. Crist has endless amounts of energy and excitement about providing our third graders with the education they deserve. She is creative and has a way of always showing her own enthusiasm about teaching and learning. It is contagious!

Daniel Goodwin | Wrightwood

7TH GRADEMr. Goodwin has high expectations for students, his classroom is student-centered and disciplined, and students are always engaged in active learning. Mr. Goodwin supports the school programs, collaborates with peers, and communicates regularly with parents.

Tiffany Harper | Washington Park

2ND GRADE Ms. Harper creates the most amazing classroom environment and experiences for each student in her community on a daily basis. The students are encouraged to do their very best each day as learners and as human beings. She also achieved 100 percent of her students meeting or exceeding their NWEA targets this past spring, which demonstrates her commitment to our community.

Donna Henry | Longwood

12TH GRADEMs. Donna Henry is a six-year CICS Longwood veteran. Students look to her for firm but fair guidance as she works with seniors on polishing their academic performance in preparation for college. Parents lean on her to keep them informed not only on academic progress, but also around preparing to apply to and enter college prepared for success. Colleagues know that they can count on Donna to listen to their concerns and provide helpful feedback in enhancing their instructional practices.

Jane Holper | Northtown Academy

SPECIAL EDuCATIONMs. Holper is deserving of this award for a number of reasons: she articulates outcomes and has students self-assess progress towards outcomes; exhibits strong teacher collaboration and proactive support of general education teachers; communicates in a positive and proactive manner with families; and has an extremely deep knowledge of students.

Joseph Joyce | Avalon

6TH GRADEAs a first year teacher in 2009–2010, Mr. Joyce’s overall student growth for his class demonstrated his subject area strengths and dedication to individual students. Mr. Joyce’s initiative to excel personally for the achievement of his students proved him as a confident and supportive piece of the school-wide community.

Anna Lam | Irving Park

2ND GRADEMs. Lam’s pedagogical practices reflect current research on best practices. She uses data to inform her instruction and differentiates for all students. While she views assessment and evaluation as integral components of the teaching-learning process, she encourages children to improve their potential rather than to compete with others.

Karla Lyles | Lloyd Bond

KINDERGARTENThe ultimate compliment that a teacher can receive is when people (parents and staff members) state that “I would love for my child

to be in that class on the teacher’s worst day.” What separates Ms. Lyles from others is that the same compassion and desire for development that she demonstrates for children, she also extends to staff members who are not on her team.

Audry Peden | Ralph Ellison

12TH GRADEAudry is committed to supporting and coordinating students’ extracurricular needs, and has coordinated family involvement activities such as: Daughter/Father, Son/Father basketball tournaments, organizing Biannual Community Showcases, and weekend open gym for parents. She does this while carrying a full teaching load and completing her Master’s degree during the evenings. Audry is a perfect role model for the young women at Ralph Ellison.

Molly Shields | West Belden

SPECIAL EDuCATIONMs. Shields is really unbelievable. She has an innate ability to foster relationships with her students and connect with them on a level that encourages a love of learning and a motivation for whatever it is they are studying. She teaches students to think beyond the classroom—in fact, the environmental program she developed at our school came from the students’ interest in helping the environment, and now we compost all of our food and scraps from the cafeteria.

Keeley Stitt | Loomis Primary

ARTShe is phenomenal! She teaches the children from the viewpoint of the artist. They learn the history of the artist, their type of artistry, and they create examples of the art form. This is great for K-2nd graders as they learn an appreciation for art, art forms, and apply it to their student work.

Susan Thomas | Prairie

2ND GRADESusan Thomas is passionate about teaching and educating her students. She engages students with creative, yet rigorous, instruction so that students are thinking while learning!