Wilmette Teacher Wins Golden Apple Award

WILMETTE, IL — A Wilmette elementary school teacher and graduate of New Trier High School and Northwestern University has won a 2018 Golden Apple Award. Gwen Faulkner, a second grade teacher at McKenzie Elementary School was named as one of the 10 winners of the award. Faulkner was met Thursday with a surprise visit from family, friends and officials from the Golden Apple Foundation, which selected her from a record high 650 nominees. Parent Alexa Burnell, whose daughter was in Faulkner's class last year, nominated her.

Faulkner, a Northfield native who now lives in Chicago, said she had always been interested in working with children. She started volunteering with Head Start as part of a psychology course in college, and stayed for two years because of how much she enjoyed the experience. After college, as she pursued a PhD, Faulker worked at a childhood cancer care center.

"That was a good reminder that life is short, and I don't need 'work' at work," she said.

She explained what is unique about teaching second graders.

"They can do so much on their own, and they really are getting an exciting budding independence and are celebrating that. Also, they have magical thinking, they look at the world for its possibilities," Faulker said.

There was a record high number of nominees for the prestigious award for educators.

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Find out more about this year's Golden Apple recipients and how to nominate a teacher for next year's high school edition of the awards.

From the Golden Apple Foundation:

Gwen’s classroom is engineered to be a student-centered, flexible learning environment. Her students tweet daily about their classroom activities through the class Twitter feed, which she started several years ago as a means for parents to stay informed about what their children were doing at school. They take turns serving as class reporters to capture and caption the day’s significant moments.

This year, students also began delivering “on-air” reports via video clips of their presentations during non-fiction reading and writing units.

Parents of Gwen’s students share with her that this communications channel helps them to have more fruitful conversations with their children about school.

At the end of the school year, the class will review the Twitter feed to reflect on and appreciate how much they have learned and grown.

Student empowerment is core to Gwen’s teaching. This year, through a partnership with Together We Rise, she helped her students tackle concerns they had shared about the lack of personal integrity, kindness, and diversity in the discourse surrounding the recent presidential election. The service-learning project led by her students helped raise funds to purchase suitcases for children in foster care. The effort helped her students feel empowered to take action to help others and fostered their personal awareness and empathy.

Gwen says the lifeblood of her classroom is love and laughter. As a result of her achievement in the classroom, she was recognized with a teacher tribute from The Alliance for Early Childhood Education, Beyond Pencils and Gluesticks Grants.

“Golden Apple is proud to recognize this year’s award recipients for their exceptional accomplishments in the classroom,” said Alicia Winckler, Golden Apple president and CEO. “Each of the recipients is uniquely talented and epitomizes the dedication, skill and drive in the teaching profession that facilitates better futures for scores of young people.”

Golden Apple’s selection committee is comprised of college and university professors, educational experts, administrators and former Golden Apple Award recipients who use industry and research-based professional standards to identify exemplary educators and school leaders. Members of the selection committee observed finalists’ classrooms, and also interviewed their colleagues, administrators, students and parents during the selection process.

Northwestern University provides each Golden Apple Award recipient with a tuition-free, spring quarter sabbatical to study at Northwestern University. Each recipient also receives a $5,000 cash award. Award recipients become Fellows of the Golden Apple Academy of Educators, giving them a stronger voice and a larger stage from which to make a difference in education.

Golden Apple soon will be awarding the 2018 Stanley C. Golder Leadership Award, which honors an exceptional principal/head of school. All recipients will be featured on May 19 on a WTTW one-hour TV program and livestream marketed to local school communities.