Award-winning kindergarten teacher gets it just right

• Reprints

Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

I got to see a great teacher in action one morning this past week.

Kim Edwards Anderson teaches kindergarten at Chase Elementary School in Humboldt Park and is a recipient of this year’s prestigious Kohl McCormick Early Childhood Teaching Award.

In announcing the award, the Kohl McCormick folks sent me a nice write-up about Anderson’s compelling back story. She grew up in Englewood wanting to be a teacher, inspired by an opportunity after eighth grade to work as a teacher’s aide through the city’s summer youth jobs program, only to be discouraged by family elders who considered the teaching profession too low-paid and lacking prestige.

She lost focus for a while, got pregnant at age 20 and quit college. Then with the support of an uncle who encouraged her to pursue her dreams, she fought her way back on track, teaching in day-care programs as she slowly earned her degree and then got the job she wanted with Chicago Public Schools. That was in 1988. Now at age 50, she’s being recognized as one of the best in her profession.

Like I said, it’s a nice story, but what I really wanted to know was what makes Anderson a great teacher. Now that I have an idea, the challenge is to get it across to you.

Anderson barely broke stride from her instruction plan as she welcomed me into her classroom Thursday at mid-morning. Before I could even find one of those miniature chairs to park my fanny, her 25 students were asking me and my fellow visitor a question.

“Do you have zippers?” they inquired in unison, as I checked frantically to make sure that mine was in the proper up position.

“How many?” they asked at about the time I realized this was a math exercise. My one zipper and the two zippers of the other visitor were quickly tallied, added to the day’s previously chronicled attendance of 25 zippers and recorded on a flip chart — all of this accomplished by the kindergarteners themselves in an enthusiastic yet orderly process.

Thus it went for the next couple of hours, most every minute of class time a subtle, multi-layered symphony of learning opportunities for the students, carefully orchestrated by a classroom maestro with a smile playing constantly at the corners of her mouth and the love for her students right out there on her sleeve.

Anderson has undoubtedly always had that smile and special bond with students, but she would tell you herself that her teaching methods have been a longtime work in progress. As a self-proclaimed “workshopaholic,” her addiction to improving her skills is what originally caught the eye of those who nominated her for the award.

Partly as a result, her classroom is chock-full of books and colorful instructional materials, most of them purchased by Anderson herself, gathered through the years to help stimulate these all-important young minds.

Anderson disdains workbooks, preferring “more hands-on stuff” that parents are encouraged to check out and take home.

“What I like about this age is that you get to work with the parents as well as the kids,” Anderson tells me later in the lunchroom.

Some say it’s this emphasis on partnering with parents (each of whom receives her home and cell-phone numbers) that most distingushes Anderson. She holds workshops for parents to teach them how to help their children learn at home. When she gets parent volunteers, she puts them to work directly with the children instead of cleaning the room or stacking books. She has even helped parents learn to read by teaching them how to teach their children.

What I got to see firsthand, though, was what distinguishes her in the classroom: a relentless determination to get students to think for themselves. Rarely does she supply the answer to a question or problem, whether that’s correctly spelling a word or divining which flash card pictures are opposites.

“Ask three before you ask me,” is one of her catchphrases, which the students know means to approach each other about how to do something before asking her. “The idea is they can teach each other,” she said.

In this manner, she also doesn’t tie any shoes, the kids quickly getting the message that if a classmate can help them tie their shoes, they can probably learn to do it.

There are other such phrases that help her maintain an orderly classroom, while also allowing wiggle room for wiggly 5-year-olds.

“When I look at you, I want to see you looking at me,” she says.

“On the bottom, criss-cross, applesauce,” her cue to a squirming boy to sit down.

“Kiss your brain,” she instructs when the class figures out an answer. The students each kiss a hand and hold it to their forehead.

Sure, some of it is corny. It also works.

Underlying everything is an approach that takes personally whether each student is making progress. She’s currently concentrating on improving how she deals with students for whom English is a second language, treating it as her weakness as opposed to theirs.

There are many great teachers out there. I hope that by singling out Kim Edwards Anderson that I’m in some small way also recognizing the others.