River Woods first-grade teacher up for prestigious teaching award

There's a moment Renae Brooks lives for every single day in her first-grade classroom.

She's not exactly sure when it will come. She's not exactly sure if it will come. But when it happens -- and it usually does -- it's the kind of thing that makes a teacher's heart flutter.

She'll be working with students, maybe trying to explain a concept or unravel a problem, and suddenly she sees that unmistakable sparkle in their young eyes.

"It's that 'aha!' moment when they discover things," she says.

Brooks has had countless such experiences during her 28 years in the classroom, but it says something about her that it still thrills her so.

It's what helps make her a popular figure with her first-graders at Naperville's River Woods Elementary School. It's what helps make her a popular figure with many parents, administrators and peers, too.

It's also one of the reasons Brooks is among 17 finalists for the 2008 Kohl McCormick Early Childhood Teaching Awards, to be presented in June to five top-notch Chicago area educators.

"There are hundreds of Naperville teachers who are deserving of being nominated for this. I'm just one of them," the Bolingbrook resident says. "I think I was just lucky."

'I love what I do'

It really didn't surprise anybody when Renae Brooks decided to spend her career in the classroom.

Even as a young girl she always loved children. And if she needed extra motivation to pursue such a career, she had several aunts and uncles who were teachers and role models.

She began working in Naperville schools 28 years ago and over the years has taught kindergarten, first, second and third grades.

She started at Maplebrook Elementary School and then moved on to help open Scott, Ranch View and finally River Woods.

The latter turned out to be the last stop on her tour of Naperville Unit District 203, and she's been here for the school's entire 20-year history -- including about the past 15 years as a first-grade teacher.

"I love what I do," she says. "I'm the catalyst who sparks my students' interest."

Talk with her for a few minutes and you can't help but be struck by two things.

First, there's the youthful enthusiasm in her voice, as if she's discovering all the wonders of the classroom for the very first time.

Second, she makes the keys to her success working with first-graders sound deceptively simple.

Listen. Be patient. Give out lots of hugs.

There's much more to it than that, of course. Brooks is always trying something new, always trying to find the perfect way to reach the 22 6- and 7-year-olds she works with every school day.

"You have to be constantly changing activities and keeping them excited," she says. "I want to be able to look at the clock at 2:30 p.m. and say, 'Wow, time flies when you're having fun!"

Principal Laura Peterson, who was among those to send a nomination letter on Brooks' behalf, agrees.

"Renae is very innovative with her approaches," Peterson says. "She's very technology-oriented; she teaches her students skills and then they carry it well beyond that."

Brooks is "very grounded in literacy and math," she says, and "always willing to go the extra mile for her students."

Stressing literacy

If you're going to go the extra mile for your students these days, you better know a little something about technology -- and Brooks does.

She puts it to good use in her classroom and also uses it as one of many methods to stay in touch with parents to keep them involved in their child's education.

She's created a "share-point site" in which mom or dad can see videos of what their children are doing during the school day. It also offers parents the chance to access their child's work, keep track of how they're progressing and help them with some lessons they can do at home.

But she's equally excited -- maybe even more so -- about the work teachers at River Woods do with reading and writing.

"We're showing kids a real love and enjoyment for literacy," she says.

It's one of the areas where she thinks educators have made the greatest strides over the past three decades.

"We're doing a much better job putting print in front of our students and stressing the beauty of language we have in stories," she says. "We're modeling things to make them good readers and good writers, too."

As part of that program, Brooks loves to read aloud to her students, and most of the kids seem to love it right back.

There's no better feeling, she says, than to be sharing a story with a classroom full of children "and have them tell you they want you to keep going, they don't want you to stop."

Building excitement

Brooks doesn't say it, but when you talk to her you get the feeling she views her career a little like those story-loving first-graders: she wants to keep going and doesn't want to stop.

She's not shy about saying she'd like to be one of the five teachers who will be honored at the Kohl McCormick Early Childhood Teaching Awards luncheon ceremony June 3 at the Westin River North in Chicago.

She wouldn't mind the $5,000 personal cash award, or the $1,000 award for her school, or any of the other prizes that come with it. She wouldn't mind having her husband and two grown children see her inducted into the Kohl McCormick Academy of Outstanding Educators.

You work hard for 28 years -- often coming in early or staying late -- and it's nice to get a little recognition.

At the same time, she says she's met some of the other teachers up for the award and knows how much it means just to be nominated, just to be considered among the best at what you do.

"I feel honored," she says.

Lou Bank, vice president of the Dolores Kohl Education Foundation, knows how much it means, too.

He says members of his organization reach out to contacts throughout the area to solicit nominations for the awards and then make site visits to ensure they know what's really going on in each finalist's classroom.

They'll name the five winners in mid-April.

"You look for different qualities, but they all tend to fall under six criteria for an outstanding educator," Bank says.

They aren't exactly words you'll find on most first-grade blackboards, but here they are: innovation; leadership; respect for students; the ability to implement developmentally appropriate practices; partnerships with parents and family; and a demonstrated commitment to professional growth.

It's also crucial, Bank says, that the winners are able to communicate with the general public about what they do and the importance of early childhood education.

"This is also about educating the public that this isn't baby-sitting," he says. "The work these teachers are doing is going to help set the tone for these children's lives."

Passion for learning

Renae Brooks knows all that. Talk to her and you can feel the passion for what she does bubbling to the surface.

No matter what happens with the contest, she knows the real joy is in the teaching, in seeing that twinkle in her students' eyes and knowing she helped put it there.

"I want my kids to be excited about learning," she says. "I want their parents to be excited about what their children are learning."

And at the end of the day, she says, "I want everybody to be proud of their accomplishments -- even me."