Tibbott's Cindy Zylstra Nominated for Golden Apple Award

Submitted by Valley View School District

Tibbott Elementary School’s Cindy Zylstra readily admits teaching “is different from moment to moment.”

“When you see a child do something, you have to pick the reaction that works for that child, not some blanket thing you got out of a book somewhere,” said the longtime 2nd grade teacher. “It just doesn’t work that way.”

Zylstra, who was just named a nominee for the coveted Golden Apple Award, is thrilled to be nominated but she is quick to add “it’s a mixed bag.”

“It’s an honor. I don’t know who nominated me, but I find myself wanting to meet an expectation that somebody put out there,” she said, pointing to “silly dilly things” she has done recently like spilling her water bottle. “You’re very self-conscious because somebody thought I am doing something great and here I am doing something so ridiculous.

While being a nominee is “really fantastic,” she humbly adds “When you think about it and look around, there are so many other people who are doing so much more than I am.”

Zylstra, who launched her teaching career at Tibbott 15 years ago, believes the key to teaching is listening to kids.

“You don’t always understand them, but you have to know them. When they speak to you, you have to listen,” she said. “You have to come up with the right response at the right time. There is no canned program that can do that. It’s all about saying and doing the right thing at the right moment.”

Teaching, she says, is not an easy job, particularly with what she terms “the negative stew” into which both parents and teachers have been thrown lately.

“You need to have people around you that you can rely on, people who can force you to laugh when you don’t want to laugh or pick up the pieces when it’s gone too far south. Those are the people who you need,” Zylstra said. “Tibbott has always had those kinds of people. We’re a unit.”

Zylstra is putting the finishing touches on her paperwork for the nomination and will await the Golden Apple Committee’s decision on narrowing down the number of nominees in the next month or so. The ten overall winners will be selected in the spring.

The Golden Apple Awards for Excellence in Teaching was the idea of Golden Apple founder Martin J. (Mike) Koldyke, who felt that excellent teachers did not receive adequate recognition for their contributions to building a stronger, better-educated society. Every year since 1986, Golden Apple has chosen 10 outstanding teachers to receive this prestigious award. These teachers become lifetime members of the Golden Apple Academy of Educators, which conceives, develops and supports programs for teachers to make them more effective in the classroom.

Golden Apple is a non-profit organization that works to inspire, develop and support teacher excellence in Illinois, especially in schools of need.