Teacher

Oak Park teacher named Regional Teacher of the Year

There are two kinds of teachers, Ashley Kannan claims. There’s the one particular who relished heading to university and was a by natural means very good pupil. Issues came uncomplicated. That instructor, he claimed, is like the Michael Jordan of the classroom and retains the exact same expectations for pupils, wanting to know why some “don’t get it.” The 2nd kind is the complete opposite, the one who experienced a rough time in school and has vowed to make absolutely sure no one particular else goes via the identical point. 

Kannan, a longtime instructor at Julian Middle Faculty, is the latter. In spite of currently being named Regional Instructor of the Calendar year for Prepare dinner County and a finalist for Illinois Instructor of the 12 months — which in the education and learning environment is like snagging an MVP award — Kannan nonetheless remembers what it was like currently being the only “Brown kid in class” and growing up Indian in Oak Park. 

“When I was at Hatch, my very first working day consuming lunch outdoors, I experienced a couple of fifth-graders knock in excess of my lunch box and get in touch with me a ‘dot head’ and a ‘sand N-phrase,’” recalled Kannan, as he leaned again on his chair within his classroom on Julian’s fourth floor. He can even now picture the adults who stood close by and didn’t intervene. 

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