During her time as an undergraduate at Millikin University in Decatur, Naperville native Abbie Loos fell in love with central Illinois. After graduation and a stint in the Dominican Republic, she came right back to Decatur.
All the while, she worked toward receiving her master’s in teaching and learning with an endorsement in English as a second language and bilingual education. For the last five years, she’s taught at the Urbana Early Childhood School as their dual-language blended preschool teacher.
“Abbie has a passion for teaching in early childhood,” Principal Katie Madigan said. “She is enthusiastic about developing relationships with each student and family and goes above and beyond to do this for her students.
I find my work important because … preschool is the foundation of a child (and families) experience in education. For many of my students and families, it is their first experience at school. Our program allows families to build a routine, trust and confidence in school that they will carry through their educational career. Within my classroom, we use creative curriculum, which is a framework that puts our students’ interest at the heart of their learning. I observe what inspires my students and their curiosity and use that as the jumping-off point to teach the standards and skills they need in their next educational experience.
I became a teacher because ... I credit my younger brother with the inspiration of becoming a teacher, but I believe I was destined to be a teacher even before he was born. There is a seven-year difference between us, and when he was born, I was at the age where I could help care for him and was very aware of how he was growing and developing. When he was in first grade, he was diagnosed with attention-deficit disorder, and I watched him and my family navigate the accommodations he needed in order to be successful in the educational environment. I knew I wanted to be a part of others’ educational journeys and advocate for their educational needs so that they too could be successful.
My favorite or most unique lesson that I teach is … One of the things I love about teaching preschool is I very rarely teach the same lesson twice. In my classroom, I utilize Lilian Katz’s “The Project Approach.” This means I derive my instruction around my student’s questions and inquiries. From there, we acquire new skills and information as students engage in first-hand research. At the end of our project, our students find a way to present what they learned either through a formal presentation to family, community members or their peers. One of my favorite projects I ever did was a clothing project that started from a frequent morning conversation about students noticing things on their clothes. As we began talking about clothing, the students had many questions about what we could make clothes out of and how clothes were made. We invited families to send in old clothing for us to explore and studied clothing purpose and design. Then the students designed their own clothes for our baby dolls. As we were talking about clothes, the idea of sewing came up. It was clear none of my students had sewn before, but in talking with their families, I learned that many of them didn’t know how to sew (on a machine) but had a strong interest in learning. At the culmination of that project, after teaching each of my students to sew on a machine (with adult help), I invited families into my classroom, and their 3- and/or 4-year-old taught them how to sew on the machine. It was a beautiful moment of learning that I will hold with me forever.
My most fulfilling moments are when ... a student pushes me to try something new. I believe education is an ever-evolving thing that is constantly growing and changing just as much as the students in our classrooms. When a child is inspired or genuinely curious about something they are experiencing for the first time and I get to join them in that experience and add to it, I feel truly inspired. I am curious by nature, so when a child asks a question that I had never considered before, it inspires me to learn something new and bring them alongside me as I do.
I keep students engaged by ... constantly finding ways to bring their learning into real-world experiences. I believe the goal of education should be to put learning into the context of a bigger picture outside of school. If I can find ways to make learning meaningful, exciting and real to my students, then I feel I have done my part to prepare them for a future that does not yet exist.
My favorite teacher and subject to study in school were ... science in eighth grade (at Hill Middle School). I had a fantastic middle school science teacher who made asking questions and researching things exciting. She would tie informal conversations into real-world context while also showing us how science factored into what was happening in the world. She had a passion for teaching that was infectious and made me genuinely feel heard in her classroom. She inspired me to take every science class in high school my schedule would allow and almost become a scientist.
If I weren’t a teacher, I would be ... a psychologist. I love learning how the brain works. When a child learns something new, I can see their brain processing the new information and building new neural pathways. I enjoy listening to others and hearing how they see the world from their perspective and giving them new ways to reframe an experience.
— ANTHONY ZILIS