Oak Park 4th-Grade Teacher A Finalist For This Year's Golden Apple Awards

One Oak Park teacher made the top 34 finalists for this year’s Golden Apple awards, a series of accolades that recognize Chicago-area teachers for outstanding work in the education field.

Joseph Gray Jr., a teacher at Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Elementary School in Oak Park, was one of the handful of finalists selected from a starting pool of more than 600 contenders. All award nominations were for educators in the Chicago area that teach between the fourth and eighth grades.

Gray, a fourth grade teacher, operates an extensive Blogspot website — “Mr. Gray’s Good News” — to update his parents and kids on their assignments, progress and upcoming events in his classroom.

According to a release from the Golden Apple organization, which is a nonprofit in its 32nd year of recognizing teachers across Chicagoland, 10 award-winners from the remaining 34 teachers will be announced in early March at a Celebration of Excellence at a Chicago Hilton. Tickets and details about the event are available here.

Gray, alongside the others, will undergo a final round of reviews and classroom observation before the Golden Apple committee makes their final picks, the release states. The committee is comprised of professors, educational consultants, former Golden Apple winners and administrators.

According to the release, “committee members utilize industry and research-based professional standards to identify teachers who exemplify the best of the teaching profession.”

All Golden Apple recipients will be provided with a tuition-free, spring quarter sabbatical to study at Northwestern University, provided by Northwestern itself. A $5,000 cash award and the recognition of being a Fellow of the Golden Apple Academy of Educators also come with the win, the release states, giving teachers a chance to make a larger impact in the education field.

“Golden Apple has championed for decades the belief that superior teaching quality directly improves every child’s educational experience,” Dominic Belmonte, CEO of Golden Apple, said in the release. “These finalists are shining examples of the transformative power excellence in teaching plays in improving students’ lives. We are proud to continue our tradition of honoring teaching excellence and congratulate these candidates on their selection as finalists.”

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