Q: Explain your award and when it happened?

A: “I was notified last Wednesday by Mrs. [Erin] Novak that a student nominated me for teacher of the month, WGN [news], and I won. [WGN] told [Novak] they were going to come in on Friday to do the video tape. I really didn’t have any idea of why they nominated me. I had no idea. That was all I got. Then Friday they came to video tape. Then they aired it two Fridays ago.”

Q: How did you feel when you found out you were nominated?

A: “I felt very lucky and happy that a student took the time to fill out the application. I took a look at the application and it was not an easy yes or no. She took some time to think about her answers and put time and effort into it. That made me feel good she did that.”

Q: Did you say anything to the student after you found out?

A: “Yes, I did when she came into class later on that day. I was like ‘Hey, I heard you nominated me and I won.’ She had no idea I won and she said, ‘You won?’ I think she was a little nervous. I told her that’s okay, I’m not really one for the publicity and all that. She was really cute.”

Q: Were you nervous when WGN came and videoed.

A: “Oh yes, I was nervous the entire time. I didn’t change my lesson plan at all and students had one in-class work day with me to work on their cookie recipes they were making for Santa. That was their day to do their work, so I just left it, I didn’t change anything. I was just helping them make sure their commands were correct, so their projects would be good. They had me ‘mic’ed up so that could be good or bad. Of course they used the one clip to put on the news about scraping gum off desks, but that’s just me.” 

Q: When you watched it at home how did it make you feel?

A: “I got teary-eyed. I got teary-eyed when I heard what Aiyana Trevino (11) had said, so that’s what made me get emotional and sentimental. It was so sweet. I have weekly chemotherapy, so it can be easy for me to have an easy excuse to stay home, to relax and rest, which is probably what I should be doing a little more because I have to worry about my numbers when they do blood work and stuff. I’m going to go as far as they say I can until they tell me at Northwestern I can’t go to work. If they tell me that, then I will listen. Until then I will just keep trying to rest when I can and eat when I’m supposed to get that blood work to stay in the range where they want, to get that chemotherapy, because that would be devastating to me if they said I wasn’t healthy enough. It gives me a lot of inspiration and I’m glad I can be a positive role model for the kids, because you know life is crappy sometimes and sometimes you are dealt a bad hand. But to me you don’t just lay in your bed curled up in a blanket and watch Lifetime movies, to me you just keep going. So I’m going to keep going as long as I can.”