Marricea Page has taught fourth grade at Peoria’s Maude Sanders Primary School since 2011, earning the honor of Peoria Public Schools’ Classroom Teacher of the Year in August.
Maude Sanders principal Dan Hiles credits Page’s ability to make lessons “exciting and relatable to her students,” while Superintendent Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat touts her focus on “students’ social-emotional needs before academic needs.”
Page, a Peoria native and Bradley University graduate, was recently honored by the Illinois State Board of Education as the Teacher of the Year for the 20-county West Central region – making her one of 10 finalists for Illinois Teacher of the Year Award that will be announced on Oct. 21.
She spoke with Joe Deacon about the accolades, her inspiration and approach to teaching and how she’s adjusted to virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Joe Deacon: Congratulations on the Teacher of the Year honor for the West Central region. What was your initial reaction to hearing about the honor, and what does it mean to you?
Marricea Page: I was completely surprised. I had no idea there was even an award for the regions of Illinois, and so to hear that I had been chosen as the recipient for West Central region, it was just very humbling. I was very honored just to be in consideration, let alone to be the one awarded. So it was it was amazing.
I was so confused when they announced it, because I didn't know what was going on. They had us on the Zoom call, and it was under pretense of I was doing a survey. But then I see all these superintendents and my boss on, and they announced it that way. So it was just an amazing, amazing experience.
So this means the state Teacher of the Year Award will be announced later this month. Has that that crossed your mind, and what would that mean?
Page: Again, that's just something that I never thought I would be in consideration for, and so just to be one of the 10 finalists in itself is just an honor. We have amazing teachers in our district, I know we have amazing teachers in the state. So to even be in the running for that right now, I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it, that I'm in this position. And so I find it just a true honor just to be recognized on this level.
So what inspired you to pursue a career in teaching and what is your classroom approach?
Page: I have to say, when I was younger, I had an aunt who was a teacher; I would visit her and she would make me her little teacher's assistant. And it was instilled in me then just to want to help and to want to teach. So it’s just my love of learning and my love of helping others learn.
I remember I was that kid in school that didn't always get what was going on in the classroom, the concepts being taught. And so my approach in my classroom is: I want to teach so that every kid can succeed, and that means finding different ways to reach my different learners. Because when you feel successful, you want that feeling to continue, and you're more engaged and you're more willing to do the work. So I just put my kids in a position to where they can be successful. They might not be my straight-A student, but they can be successful, they can feel successful – and that's just my entire approach, just to make every kid feel like they can do it.
Obviously, this academic year is pretty unique with the virtual learning going on right now. What challenges has this presented, and how have you been able to adapt to it?
Page: I think one of the biggest challenges for me, and for any teacher right now, is just that connection that we're so used to making with the kids in person. Relationships are the foundation of any classroom, and to not be able to be with your kids in person and to see them in person, it's a challenge. But I have to say that we have been going above and beyond to find other ways around that, just to get our kids engaged, to see how they're doing, to see if they need anything – remotely. It has been a struggle, but I think at this point we're all doing the best that we can with it.
It's about just building the relationships; not so much focusing on content right away, but just making sure our kids are all right. So if that's just in our Zoom calls, we just take time and talk about things that are on our mind, good or bad. Just making those personal connections with the kids. I think that that has been the struggle; however, it's made us be more creative with how we can still form those relationships with the kids remotely.
If I understand the plan correctly, I believe that fourth grade would be going back possibly later this month. How eager are you to get back to the classroom?
Page: You know what, I am very eager to have my kids with me. All teachers want to be with their kids; no one ever wanted to do this remotely. However, safety has to be at the forefront. But as long as the procedures are in place for this to be done safely, we're ready. We're ready to have the kids back in person, even if it's just a few days a week. That's going to put our kids more at ease, it's going to put the teachers more ease, because now we have them, and we have them in front of us. We can teach them the way we want to teach them, and we can have those conversations and build those relationships with them in the classroom together.
So I am excited. I'm still nervous, I'll be honest, I'm still nervous; there's risk either way it goes. But I'm going to be so happy to see them and have them with me.
I understand mentoring is a big part of your work. What benefits come from mentorship?
Page: Oh, my goodness. Mentoring, not only your colleagues ... in my opinion, we all have leadership skills and we all have things that we're good at, and we need to share that with one another. I don't care if you've been teaching for two years or 20 years, we can all learn from someone else's experiences. In the long run, if we're learning from each other, if we're helping each other out, that's pretty much for the benefit of our kids – and that's what this is all about making sure that they are succeeding.
I like to mentor other teachers, I like to mentor new teachers coming into the profession, prospective teachers coming into the profession, because we really need to bolster that community, among our colleagues. Because when one teacher is winning, the name should be able to share that with other teachers because that's going to trickle down to our kids, and that's where we need to make effects. We need to positively impact our kids. So when we're working together, when we're learning from each other, that's going to it's going to affect our kids in a positive way.
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