The Golden Apple Foundation must like what it hears in Lake Bluff and Lake Forest, as it has chosen two music teachers as finalists for the Golden Apple Award.
Scott Baeseman, a music teacher and chair of the fine arts department at Lake Forest Country Day School and Ann Cvitkovic, director of choral activities at Lake Bluff Middle School, are among 34 finalists out of more than 600 applicants.
This is the second time that Baeseman, who has worked at Lake Forest County Day for 19 years, has been a finalist. As a college student, he aimed for a dual career, earning degrees in both education and opera performance. For 10 years, he taught during the day and either sang or auditioned for performances in the evenings.
Teaching, particularly at the elementary and middle school level, keeps him young.
“When you’re working with kids, you’re getting a fresh pair of eyes on the world,” Baeseman said.
Students have changed over his time as a teacher, he said.
“I think technology has been a great gift to educators, but also our most challenging thing to maneuver around,” Baeseman said. “Kids’ attention spans are shorter than they were 25 years ago. I think that’s because kids are in the era of instant gratification. You have to teach them how to go deep. The other thing is to encourage them to have grit (persistence) in everything they do.”
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What hasn’t changed is how Baeseman ends all his classes.
“I say, go make a difference,” Baeseman said.
Both teachers put in plenty of hours. Baeseman starts at 7:30 a.m. and usually doesn’t leave until 5 or 6 p.m.
Likewise, Cvitkovic puts in an extra three to four hours a day beyond school hours. She also works with many students, as 75 percent of the students in the school – 245 – are in choir. That doesn’t include her guitar or general music students.
Cvitkovic likes the “lust for life” of students at Lake Bluff Middle School.
“They can be so courageous in the things they are trying,” Cvitkovic said. “I find that really exhilarating. For example, when they first come to middle school, they are afraid to sing by themselves. They usually start in duets or trios. You see them start to blossom, and by eighth grade, they are doing solos or singing in musicals.”
And it’s not only about music.
“Middle school is a time of change, physically, emotionally,” Cvitkovic said. “Their peer groups are changing. They are getting more homework and needing to be more independent, figuring out who they are and who they hope to be. I’m trying to give them a safe environment to figure those things out.”
Last fall, a former student who is now engaged to be married visited Cvitkovic.
“He expressed the feeling of learning more than music in my classroom,” Cvitkovic said. “As a teacher, you realize you are making an impact on students, but you don’t know to what degree.”
The Golden Apple Foundation accepts nominations from Cook, DuPage, Kane, McHenry, Will and Lake counties. Those nominated are invited to apply, a process that requires writing several essays which are read by as many as 40 people, including superintendents, university faculty, principals and former award recipients, said Dominic Belmonte, CEO of the Golden Apple Foundation.
“They look for a deep devotion to students, a belief that one cannot give up on a student and for evidence of superior teaching ability,” Belmonte said.
Members of the selection committee then conduct site visits where they observe the finalists and talk to students, parents, colleagues and administrators. Winners, who will be announced in March or April, receive a tuition-free spring sabbatical at Northwestern University and $5,000.
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