Copyright Chicago Tribune
Sheila Hardin doesn’t teach high school math for the money or for the fame — though she’s at least got the latter. In October, the Oak Park River Forest High School veteran of 31 years was named the state’s best math teacher by the Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics, her peers. But it’s not even for her colleagues that she walks the same hallway she’s walked since she was a student in ninth grade. “There’s never a day I don’t find joy in what I do,” she said. “I went to this school. I graduated from OPRF High School and I take strong pride in the students and staff. No school is perfect, but there is never a day I go home there isn’t a moment I don’t laugh, or there’s never a day without joy.” She gives joy as much as she gets. Mary Wiltjer, a math teacher at Glenbrook South in Glenview, led the nomination process for Hardin and has known her for over two decades. Wiltjer said Hardin is something of a legend in the math community, at least around these parts. “When I asked people to help write letters and things it was almost like, how has she never been nominated before? It was a very wholehearted effort,” she said. Wiltjer said while the award is for math education, Hardin is simply a remarkable teacher — one of the best, period. “She is just one of the most naturally talented, to start with,” Wiltjer said. “She perpetually is working at her craft, always asking of herself, how she can be better? She is the most reflective teacher I think I know, which is incredible, because I know a lot of amazing teachers.” Hardin puts in the effort. She rejects the notion of a “math person.” She believes math can be understood by anyone, and it is her job to make it so. If that means extra work and extra hours, so be it. She will work with a student so long as the student agrees to put in the effort. “I try to make myself very available before and after school,” she said. “I will work with students, I will reteach anything a new way, a different way. … There’s no judgment in that. I think students respect someone who holds you to a high level and says I know you can learn this. You didn’t learn it today, but maybe tomorrow. There is no done in math.” And there is no “done” in getting better at teaching, either. Hardin is blunt in her self-assessment. She expects to fail every year and said if you expect to find failure in your practice and if you actively work to fix that, you naturally improve. “I’d love to say I’m always successful,” she said. “Teaching in some ways is almost a 100% failure rate because there’s always a new gap you notice or a new problem.” She said teachers should start the school year prepared to fail and look at how to improve based on what’s not working. “If I’m not seeing where it’s not working, then I’m not getting better and I want to get better every year,” she said. Jesse Wright is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
