2009 Finalists

Nineteen Educators Named as Finalists for the
2009 Kohl McCormick Early Childhood Teaching Awards

CHICAGO  -- Nineteen of metropolitan Chicago’s finest educators who work with children between birth and age eight have been selected as finalists for the 2009 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, and kindergarten through third-grade classrooms in public, private, and parochial schools in Cook and DuPage Counties.

The process began last fall when an esteemed committee of leaders in the field of early childhood education conducted site visits and selected 19 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 2009 Kohl McCormick Early Childhood Teaching Awards luncheon ceremony on Tuesday, June 2, at the Westin River North in Chicago. 

Each of the five representatives will receive:

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 fourteenth 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 Foundation. “The Kohl McCormick Teaching Award winners accomplish this by teaching and nurturing our youngest learners each day. The McCormick Foundation applauds these winning teachers.”

“Great teachers make all the difference in the world. They have the potential to impact the development of a young child as well as their surrounding environments,” observes Catherine Knox, manager of the Kohl McCormick Early Childhood Teaching Awards.  “These teachers are models within the field of early childhood education.  They partner with their students and families, inspiring change in the communities in which they work.  I believe we can all be inspired by their dedication and commitment as they invest in our collective future, one young mind at a time.”

The Kohl McCormick Early Childhood Teaching Awards program is sponsored by the McCormick Foundation and the Dolores Kohl Education Foundation.  Since 1993, the education program of the McCormick Foundation has committed more than $67 million in resources and expertise to improve the quality of early childhood education in the metropolitan Chicago area. 

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Finalists – 2009 Kohl McCormick Early Childhood Teaching Awards
(List with finalist’s name, school, location of school and residence, phone, type of educational program.)

Bertha Baillie

School:                        Salt Creek Primary School (Elmhurst, Illinois)
                                    980 S. Riverside Dr.
                                    Elmhurst, IL 60126
                                    630.832.6122
                                    Kindergarten
Residence:                  Aurora, Illinois

 

Dayna Darby
School:                        Talcott Fine Arts & Museum Academy (West Town, Chicago)
                                    1840 W. Ohio Street
                                    Chicago, IL 60622
                                    773.534.7130
                                    Preschool for All

Residence:                   Belmont Cragin, Chicago

 

Alejandra De La Pena
School:                       Lloyd Elementary (Belmont Cragin, Chicago)
                                    2103 N. Lamon Ave.
                                    Chicago, IL  60639
                                    773.534.3070
                                    Head Start Preschool

Residence:                   Logan Square, Chicago                

 

Arinda Feiwell

School:              Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez Elementary School (Little Village, Chicago)
                          3000 S. Lawndale Ave.
                          Chicago, IL  60623
                          773.534.1600
                          Preschool for All- NAEYC Accredited

Residence:         Clearing, Chicago

 

 

Nicole Gaynor            

School:                        Bret Harte Elementary (Hyde Park, Chicago)           
                                    1556 E. 56th Street
                                    Chicago, IL 60637
                                    773.535.0870
                                    Early Childhood Autism –NAEYC Accredited

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