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The 2024 season was the first time Drew Hoth didn't play tackle football since the fifth grade. But he had a new passion to takes it places as he started student teaching. He's set to be a 5th grade teacher at Mitchell when the school opens in the fall.
Thank You, Teachers
A tribute to education's local heroes
Daily Chronicle/Shaw Local News Network
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Multiple Kishwaukee College educators and staff recently received accolades for their efforts inside and out of the classroom.
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Sycamore educator Annette Keca is going to space. Sort of. To be more precise, she’s been selected as one of 80 educators across the country to participate in a prestigious Teacher Innovator Institute at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
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From our Thank You Teachers special section: Read the letters sent by students and parents to DeKalb County teachers
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May 1 wasn’t just National Principal’s Day for Jefferson Elementary’s Melanie Bickley. She also received a surprise: She was named Administrator of the Year by the Illinois Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.
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Few educators wear as many hats as Mark Sykes, according to testimony from colleagues who recently sang his praises for an award recognition. Sykes, a 32-year veteran educator with DeKalb School District 428, has been named the 2025 Wirtz Award for Excellence in Education recipie
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By all accounts, Sycamore Middle School career and technical education teacher Kevin Boltz has gone above and beyond to give his students access to equipment that some only see once they’ve arrived on a college campus.
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Deb Wheeler, one of three family members who work at South Prairie Elementary School in Sycamore, is getting ready to retire at the end of the school year. “[It’s] bittersweet because I do love what I do," she said.
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Educators from across DeKalb County recently received accolades for their teaching at an annual awards ceremony meant to highlight local learning.
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If you’ve ever walked the hallways at Lincoln Elementary School in DeKalb, you may have noticed a buzz among students, faculty and staff about the Iditarod.
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Jenni Smith, a veteran educator who’s been teaching for about 25 years, said she always likes to remind her eighth-grade math students at Huntley Middle School in DeKalb that you can’t get from the bottom to the top-most landing without doing all the steps in between.