Elmhurst teacher a McCormick finalist

After 30 years in education, Bertha Baillie still remembers the 3-year-old boy who could read anything.

Fascinated, she brought the tiny boy a medical journal and he spit out large, complicated medical terminology without hesitation. But he couldn't comprehend a word of it.

She spent a summer internship trying to help that boy learn and she's spent a career living what he taught her.

Now those lessons and an energetic career in special education and kindergarten at Salt Creek Primary School in Elmhurst has led Baillie to become a Kohl McCormick finalist -- one of the area's most prestigious awards for early childhood education teachers.

Baillie, 54, of Aurora, says she accepts the recognition on behalf of all educators who have had that one student or many students who drive them.

"It's a very challenging, very rewarding profession in that you get to learn from (students)," she said. "You can't do this job without knowing that you're learning a lot from your students because they're your teachers too."

Baillie always knew she wanted to teach but never thought about teaching small children. Her experiences - growing up in Mexico, then Europe for a few years and finally in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood - taught her to love diversity and learning. She imagined a career teaching archaeology and anthropology to high school or college-age students.

Baillie looks back to her summer interning at the University of Chicago Diagnostic Nursery while she was earning her bachelor's degree from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis.

She'll always remember that little boy who could read but not understand.

"(I remember thinking) he obviously has broken the code of knowing how to read, but why doesn't he know what he's saying?" she said. "I remember being really struck and energized by the thought of maybe there is something I could do to help him understand what he was reading."

That experience led her to begin a career in 1979 at Salt Creek, teaching one of the area's first courses geared toward children with autism. Her teaching position has evolved several times throughout the course of her career, from early childhood special needs to now a full-day kindergarten teacher.

During that time, she hasn't wavered in her passion and dedication to the profession, Salt Creek Principal Nancy Fryzlewicz said.

"She has not lost that interest. She continues to do new things, she continues to explore and make learning fun for kids and have high expectations," Fryzlewicz said. "It's not often you see someone teaching for that long that has that enthusiasm."

As an example, Dr. Seuss' birthday just passed. To celebrate, Baillie read "Green Eggs and Ham" and brought in an electric skillet from home and cooked eggs, adding green food coloring to make green eggs.

During the holidays, she brought in items representative of how people around the world celebrate. On St. Nick's Day, students lined their shoes in the hallway.

And before the election, she taught students about the concept of voting. They practiced different methods of voting, such as raising their hands or casting ballots. They took a practice vote by deciding whether the class should eat lunch in the cafeteria that day or eat lunch in the classroom.

"We all learn by doing," Fryzlewicz said. "They remember things so much better."

Baillie is among 19 total Kohl McCormick finalists. Of those, five recipients will be chosen and honored at a luncheon ceremony June 2 at the Westin River North in Chicago.

"Baillie is an outstanding educator who not only considers herself a teacher but also as a student who learns daily in her classroom," said Catherine Knox, manager of the Kohl McCormick award. "(She) is kind, motivated and enthusiastic. She has a genuine love for children, which is evident every time you walk into her classroom."

The awards program is sponsored by the McCormick Foundation and the Delores Kohl Education Foundation. Since 1993, more than $67 million in resources have been expended to improve the quality of early childhood education in the metropolitan Chicago area.

For every Bertha Baillie, there are countless other teachers out there who deserve the praise as well, Baillie said.

"It's a very important honor because teachers just don't always get that extra recognition that they deserve," she said. "We're the silent people making an impact on kids' lives every day."