Huntley teacher up for state award

Dennis Brown still remembers when he decided to become a teacher.

It was his third semester at DePaul University College of Law. He was doing well in his classes and getting experience at a law firm. But something wasn't right.

"I was just miserable," Brown recalls. "I just hit a brick wall. I said, 'I need to get out of here. I don't know what's going on but I hate being here.'"

Brown approached the principal at St. Viator High School in Arlington Heights, where he had attended high school. Brown asked if he could substitute teach; the principal said yes.

"I was thrilled," Brown says. "You find the thing that you really want to do and it just clicked. And I stayed for three years."

After St. Viator, Brown accepted a job at Huntley High School, where he teaches journalism, yearbook and, in a nod to his pre-teaching career path, criminal law.

If Brown has had any regrets about his career switch, he hasn't expressed them lately. The Illinois State Board of Education announced Friday that Brown is among eight finalists for the Illinois Teacher of the Year award. The winner, to be announced in October, will compete for National Teacher of the Year.

Brown, who advises the multiple award-winning Huntley High School newspaper, "The Voice," says being named a finalist is a huge honor in itself.

"It makes you want to do your job better," he says. "It's like winning an Oscar."

Also among the finalists is Trish Vanderploeg, an eighth grade English teacher at Plum Grove Junior High School in Rolling Meadows.