Romeoville Teacher Nominated for Golden Apple Award

Submitted by Valley View School District:

Cindy Abel’s third-grade teacher changed her life.

Now, as the R.C. Hill Elementary School 4th grade Challenge teacher reflects on her 2015 nomination for the prestigious Golden Apple Award, she’s hoping she can do the same thing for another child.

“Since I started teaching, I’ve had one goal…truly in 25 or 35 years of teaching, if I change just one kid’s life, I’m OK,” she said. “I don’t know who nominated me but, to be honest, I felt maybe I touched one kid who nominated me. It’s nice to be nominated.”

Since her “amazing” third grade teacher told Abel she was smart and should be a teacher, she has been focused on one thing.

“I knew then I wanted to be a teacher,” the Plainfield resident said. “That never changed.”

Upon graduating from University of Illinois-Chicago with a Bachelor’s Degree in elementary education, Abel spent seven years as a 1st and 3rd grade bilingual teacher in Summit. She came to VVSD as a bilingual teacher at Independence Elementary School in 1998 and, after taking off a few years to raise her young family, came to Pioneer Elementary School to teach 2nd and 3rd grade for four years. Then she moved to Hill, first as a 4th grade general education teacher for four years, and more recently in her current position for four years.

Abel serves as the R.C. Hill teacher’s union representative and is an educational liaison for the union. She is also on the School Climate Committee, the Young Authors Committee, and the VVSD Gifted Committee, and she runs the Hill 4th grade catapult war tournament.

“Elementary teachers do it all. We have to make learning fun if we want kids to stay in school,” she said when asked about her philosophy. “We spend more time with these kids than their parents do. You gotta love them. You gotta take care of someone else’s baby.”

The Golden Apple Committee plans on narrowing down the number of nominees in the next month or so. The ten 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.