Educator Tara McCarthy is national finalist for Adapted PE award

Northern Illinois University professor Laurie Zittel distinctly remembers the day she knew one of her graduate students had all the makings of a special teacher.

Tara McCarthy was working toward her master's degree in adapted physical education and considered Zittel her mentor. Still does.

But on this day, Zittel was observing McCarthy in a gymnasium at an early childhood center in DeKalb.

Zittel could tell McCarthy had a natural empathy, an evident passion for teaching children with disabilities.

"It was at that moment that I thought to myself this is a very, very talented woman who is going to make a huge difference," Zittel said.

Roughly 20 years later, the mentor now finds herself looking up to McCarthy as her professional role model.

McCarthy teaches in DuPage County schools through the Cooperative Association for Special Education, or CASE. Across the state, she's known as a specialist in modifying physical activity for children with profound physical and intellectual disabilities.

She's also gaining national attention as one of five finalists for the Adapted Physical Education Teacher of the Year award from the Society of Health and Physical Educators.

"She is an incredibly talented professional, specifically in this particular area that a lot of people shy away from, and Tara will step out and have the kindest heart and the gentlest heart," Zittel said.

McCarthy's career began as something of an accident. It "chose" her, she will say.

But as someone who grew up with a learning disability, someone who excelled in sports and cared for a mom with multiple sclerosis, McCarthy is perfectly suited to her profession.

'Incredibly creative'

During the school year, McCarthy's schedule is predictably unpredictable. She doesn't have a home base, but travels to school districts within the Glen Ellyn-based cooperative, teaching students as young as 3 years old through eighth grade and storing equipment out of her car and a classroom in Queen Bee Elementary District 16.

"In a single day, approximately every hour, I'm in a different building and a different class," she said.

It's an overwhelming routine, but McCarthy is easily restless and likes it that way.

In many respects, she seemed destined to teach children with significant needs. Even a management job at the former retail chain Venture Stores prepared her for her teaching career when she decided to take a sign language class to communicate with senior shoppers with hearing impairments.

"I tell anybody who asks that my life is run by fate," she said.

McCarthy grew up in a large, Irish-Catholic family in Oak Park, the youngest of six kids.

"I didn't learn to read until about third grade," she said. "So that whole learning process is, and still to this day at the age of 47, 18 years of teaching, it's still difficult for me. Every report I write is difficult. To overcome the anxiety of the thought process of writing, it is difficult."

But those frustrations lent her an understanding as a teacher, who has such a rapport with special-needs students her mentor coined a phrase after McCarthy gave her stamp of approval to adapted exercises: "Tara-tested and child-approved."

"She is an incredibly critical thinker, and she's incredibly creative," Zittel said. "She's also incredibly observant. She is excellent at assessment, so she can watch a child, she can interact with a child, and know, and at least begin to get in the ballpark, of 'where do I begin with any piece of technology, adapting any equipment?'"

Most of McCarthy's students have autism. Others have multiple disabilities. One has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair.

"Tara really embodies that all kids can learn and all adults can learn, that everybody comes with the skills necessary to do great things," CASE Assistant Director Cindy D'Ambrosio said.

So when their peers are playing Spikeball - the latest craze in PE classes - McCarthy designs a modified version for her students.

She breaks down the game to individual skills of catching, rebounding and hitting a specific target. Students without fine motor skills catch the ball through Hula Hoops or a bucket.

McCarthy approaches teaching with a sense of humor and a nurturing, gentle style so the process of learning "naturally unfolds," says Carrie Christopher, a special education paraprofessional.

Before they started working together, McCarthy also taught Christopher's 12-year-old son, Logan, who has Down syndrome, in the fourth grade. Around that time, he began to take more of an interest in sports, competing in gymnastics and baseball.

"I definitely owe the spark to her," said Christoper, who now works with McCarthy as a special education paraprofessional. "And I'm just elated that he is in involved, and he is active, and he is trying to challenge himself."

A competitive drive

From a young age, McCarthy thrived as a three-sport athlete. She played soccer, softball and basketball at Trinity High School in River Forest, winning MVP honors.

Her competitive drive translates to teaching, motivating her to constantly problem solve and introduce new technologies and strategies to help students push past their physical limits.

"She will ask for help and is not afraid to ask for help," Zittel said. "She's very humble. She's very modest. She's approachable, but that competitive side of her has driven her to 'if I don't know something, I'm going to go find it out. Either I'm going to ask somebody or I'm going to research it or I'm going to try it.'"

After high school, McCarthy went to Triton College in River Grove, but had to drop out to become her mother's caregiver. She lost her years of eligibility to play sports at the collegiate level.

"Even when I was younger, things were set in place with her care or with oxygen, home health and modifying the home for accessibility and things like that," she said of her late mom. "That was all inherent, never knowing that was where I would end up today."

With encouragement from her sisters, McCarthy later enrolled in NIU and gravitated toward a major in physical therapy. On her first day, she ended up in the wrong orientation group and landed in the physical education program.

"My very first class on my very first day in the very first hour was my adapted PE class ... and at the end of that lecture, I went, 'That's what I want to do.'"

National recognition

At Heritage Lakes Elementary School in Carol Stream earlier this year, McCarthy begins a class with "Lazy Monster," an app with a video model of a cartoon character for students to mimic a warm-up exercise and help their muscles relax.

"That's so important to have adapted physical education so we can address those needs, individualize those activities, so we're still increasing heart rate. We're still increasing blood flow for students in wheelchairs," McCarthy said.

She often records demonstrations of exercises and equipment modifications to share with her Twitter following of 780. It's one reason she's so accessible to other teachers.

She's delivered more than 30 professional development presentations. She helps Zittel's graduate students with grant writing so they can secure technology.

If she wins the national award - the Society of Health and Physical Educators will announce the honoree April 9 through 13 at a Tampa conference - McCarthy and her seminars will be even more in-demand.

"I think that's why she is up for this award, because her impact is so great and so much greater than a typical teacher teaching a classroom," D'Ambrosio said.

McCarthy advanced to the national stage after the Illinois Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance named her the 2018 Teacher of the Year.

She's humbled by the recognition, validation for an emotionally exhausting job.

"I've had students who have passed away based on their disability and that takes a toll, and you never forget them," she said. "When I'm at work, I'm putting my entire heart and soul into everything I'm doing."

But it's not the accolades that fuel her dedication. It's the moments like this one at the Carol Stream school: Kneeling beside her student's wheelchair, McCarthy helped the girl gently extend her arm, giving her the choice of pushing a ball with her hand or using a switch system that sent it down a ramp and crashing into bowling pins.

"It's the smallest things that they fight for every day that are the most meaningful," McCarthy said.

As McCarthy's star rises, 20 years after Zittel predicted as much, her mentor sees her advocating for her students, for their inclusion, their physical fitness, their access to play.

"She is in the right field, and what she has given to kids with disabilities and the way she has touched their lives is a blessing to all of them and their families," she said.

<p>Curriculum vitae</p>

Name: Tara McCarthy

Occupation: Adapted physical education teacher for the Glen Ellyn-based Cooperative Association for Special Education

Residence: Warrenville

Age: 47

Education: Bachelor's degree in physical education from Northern Illinois University in 1997; master's degree in adapted physical education from NIU in 1999

Honors: One of five finalists for the Adapted Physical Education Teacher of the Year award from the Society of Health and Physical Educators