What Petra Choi assumed would be a normal school day inside her classroom at Beye Elementary School in Oak Park turned into quite the surprise for the third grade teacher.
During the last week of February, Choi said she started hearing bells and loud cheering, which caught her off guard as she taught her students.
“I hear my fellow staff members and principal saying my name, smiling and ringing bells,” Choi said. “They all came into my room and we were all so shocked and surprised. I asked ‘What is going on?'”
What Choi eventually learned was she is one of just 32 Golden Apple Award finalists in Illinois. In total, 708 nominees were received from 67 counties across the state.
“I was crying tears of surprise and joy,” Choi said. “I really do thank God for this opportunity. This is such a blessing.”
Prior to arriving at Beye Elementary School, Choi recalled growing up in upstate New York, where she gained her first experience leading a classroom, albeit in her parent’s home.
“I’ve always wanted to teach, even as a very little girl,” Choi said. “I used to hold classes in my basement and invite the neighborhood kids to come. I would pass out homework and do stickers. It was a dream of mine.”
Choi later pursued that dream as she enrolled at Boston University to earn her teaching degree. After graduating, she began working in a school in Cambridge, Mass., where she was once named a finalist for the Massachusetts Teacher of the Year award.
“I stayed there for a total of 10 years between college and teaching,” Choi said. “I knew I wanted to teach in a town that was very diverse and had a good mix of social and economic levels, and diversity of cultures. I just loved that because I experienced that in Cambridge.”
Choi said she “hit it off” with former Beye School principal Jonathan Ellwanger, who recruited her to Oak Park more than a decade ago.
When the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered schools and sent teachers and students to virtual classrooms, Choi quickly developed a fully virtual curriculum. She spent evenings and weekends with parent volunteers testing her new coursework.
“I truly admire all teachers everywhere for how they’ve had to pivot online,” Choi said. “They had to create a sense of community and make learning authentic, engaging and fun. I feel like all teachers everywhere deserve 1,000 Golden Apples each.”
In addition to producing a list of more than 500 virtual activities and websites to share with her students, Choi developed the “Awesome Animal Research Project” to help maintain a sense of normalcy in schoolwork.
“It’s a really fun research project for the third graders to choose an animal and dive deep to learn all about its physical characteristics, habitat, diet, behavior, life cycle and so on,” Choi said. “They created a really beautiful published story with paragraphs and a table of contents. They really impressed me.”
In addition to creating their books through a learning app, Choi packaged various craft materials to send to each of her students to create dioramas of their animals.
“They loved it and all created these amazing dioramas,” Choi said. “They totally got passionate about their animal.”
In the coming days, representatives from Golden Apple will sit in on some of Choi’s classes to observe her teaching. Representatives are also expected to interview Beye school staff, parents and students to form an evaluation.
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As she soaks in the honor of being named a Golden Apple finalist, Choi said she still has no idea who actually nominated her for the award.
“I thought it was one of my current parents and I asked if it was her and she said no,” Choi said. “I still don’t know who nominated me. I wish I could find out because I really appreciate the kindness. I’m just honored and completely surprised to be at this point.”
Golden Apple Award recipients will be surprised with an announcement this spring. Northwestern University has provided a spring sabbatical to award recipients at no cost, and each recipient will receive a $5,000 cash award.
Twitter: @steveschering