NU-TEACH Facilitator Receives Golden Apple Award Sam Dyson, a Chicago physics teacher who is a facilitator in the School of Education and Social Policy’s NU-TEACH alternative certification program, was selected as one of 10 winners of the Golden Apple Award for Teaching Excellence. Dyson, who teaches at Walter Payton High School, works with interns in the NU-TEACH program. He observes their teaching and co-teaches sessions during their summer courses. NU-TEACH provides an alternate path to teaching certification for skilled mid-career professionals who want to prepare for teaching in Chicago schools. “All the teachers I know wish they had received more support and encouragement in their early years,” says Dyson. “They also wish they had received more detailed, practical guidance about how to achieve the delicate balance between chaos and accomplishment that is common to the experience of teachers, especially new teachers. Working with NU-TEACH helped me provide some of that valuable support to new teachers. It is another way of giving back while helping to ensure the success of our profession.” After receiving a bachelor’s degree in physics from Yale University and a master’s degree in education from Harvard University, Dyson worked at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and published scientific journal articles. However, like many NU-TEACH interns, he turned to teaching out of his desire to give back. “I worked in science research for a couple years, and by the end of it realized that, while I still had the energy within me, I ought to be giving to others some of what has been given to me by so many loving, patient teachers.” He adds, “I am motivated by a desire to use God's gifts for the good of others, and there is no other profession that uses — in fact, demands — more of me than teaching does on so many levels.” Dyson has been successful at teaching because of his unique combination of innovation, dedication and expertise. He describes his approach to teaching as “building bridges”: “My main strategy is to create experiences for students by which they are motivated to build conceptual bridges from what they already know to some new knowledge, concept or skill. These bridges are the key to understanding. I would say that to understand is the ability to create connections between otherwise or previously disconnected islands of thought. If I have succeeded, they will have had an experience in which their focus is on incorporating new physical experiences into their own conceptual network of understanding. I will just be there to guide them from behind, as a quote from Mandela says.” One innovation Dyson has brought to Payton is teaching Zulu. He studied Zulu at Yale for three years, and he enjoys helping his students discover the appeal of the language. “After my first year of teaching in South Africa in 1996, I saw teaching Zulu in Payton's weekly seminar program as an opportunity to maintain contact with the language and culture while sharing the joy of one of the world's few click languages,” he says. “Students really dig learning the language as colorful and expressive as Zulu. It is a real treat to hear a click pop out of your mouth as you fluidly pronounce a language that sometimes sounds as much like music as speech.” Dyson has a valuable suggestion for new teachers: “My strongest advice is that you be sure to take time to celebrate the many successes you will have. If your experience is anything like mine, there will also be many failures. As Golden Apple President Dom Belmonte puts it, there are two rooms in the minds of all teachers. One is happy and full of all the smiling students who you have ever had a connection with or who you have helped to overcome their struggles to learn. The other room is quiet and sad, full of all of those students who you feel like you have failed. Try not to spend more time in that sad room than is healthy. Try to be motivated as much by your successes as your failures, because you will surely have both.” Sylvia Smith-DeMuth, director of the NU-TEACH program at Northwestern, commends Dyson for his contributions to the NU-TEACH program and to education in general, and she will be attending the Golden Apple Foundation’s award ceremony on May 12, when the awards will be presented. “We are so proud of Sam knowing that he is most deserving of this award. He has done so much to help NU-TEACH be successful.” by Marilyn Sherman with photo courtesy of Golden Apple Foundation Updated May 9, 2007  E-mail this story
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