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2008 Finalists
Seventeen Educators Named as Finalists for the CHICAGO -- Seventeen of metropolitan Chicago's finest educators who work with children from birth through age eight have been selected as finalists for the 2008 Kohl McCormick Early Childhood Teaching Awards. The finalists exemplify the best practices of quality early childhood teaching: dedication, innovation, leadership, respect for children and their families, and commitment to professional growth. They work in preschools, home day care centers, childcare centers, Head Start programs, Preschool For All programs, and kindergarten through third-grade classrooms in public, private, and parochial schools in Cook County. The process began last fall when an esteemed committee of leaders in the field of early childhood education conducted site visits and selected 17 outstanding teachers as finalists for this award. Five of these outstanding educators will be chosen to represent the best of the field, following a final application process that includes additional site visits and interviews by members of the Kohl McCormick Academy of Outstanding Educators. Those five representatives will be announced in April, and they will be honored at the 2008 Kohl McCormick Early Childhood Teaching Awards luncheon ceremony on Tuesday, June 3, at the Westin River North in Chicago. Each of the five representatives will receive:
Each is also inducted into the Kohl McCormick Academy of Outstanding Educators. While there are numerous teaching awards in the United States, the Kohl McCormick Early Childhood Teaching Awards is the first awards program to formally recognize the contributions of teachers working with children from infancy through third grade. In its thirteenth year, the Kohl McCormick Awards program has become a model for recognition of outstanding early childhood educators. “While education reform debates continue at a local and national level, we must remember that our early education teachers are the ones who lay the foundations for literacy and prepare children for success in school,” says Sara Slaughter, education program director of the McCormick Tribune Foundation. “The Kohl McCormick Teaching Award winners accomplish this by teaching and nurturing our youngest learners each day. The McCormick Tribune Foundation applauds these winning teachers.” “It’s remarkable the difference a quality educator can make in the development of a young child, and in shaping how a parent helps their child develop,” observes Mildred Ebietomiye, Director of Education for the Dolores Kohl Education Foundation. “ We hope that this awards program helps demonstrate to parents everywhere what they should be looking for when searching for an educational partner for their young child, while at the same time recognizing those outstanding educators for all they’ve done for their students and families, and the greater Chicago community in which they live.” The Kohl McCormick Early Childhood Teaching Awards program is sponsored by the McCormick Tribune Foundation and the Dolores Kohl Education Foundation. Since 2000, the education program of the McCormick Tribune Foundation has committed more than $40 million in resources and expertise to improve the quality of early childhood education in the metropolitan Chicago area. Finalists – 2008 Kohl McCormick Early Childhood Teaching Awards
Sherrie Bell-Smith
Renae Brooks
Doris Campana
Barbara Clear
Alejandra De La Pena
Marsha Fincher
Tanya Foster-DeMers
Anna Franczyk
Marie Iezzoni
Joan Kenney
Donna McGee
Luz Orozco
Alicia Peshel-Schoenbeck
Pauline Semp
Marisol Sierra
Sabrina Silverstein
Mary Woitas
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