Add creativity and mix in a healthy dose of high energy, and you have Allison O’Hern.
“Teaching allows me to be really creative,” the Teacher ACE Award winner said from her classroom at Rantoul Township High School, where she is part of the Language team and teaches English 1, English 2 and Creative Writing. “I love looking at curriculum and finding new and unique things.”
Forty North will present The Arts, Culture and Education awards Tuesday at the City Center in Champaign. The awards celebrate those who cultivate the arts in Champaign County.
O’Hern looks forward to school each day: “I love seeing the kids and their new activities and experimenting. This room is very much my happy place. ...”
An “English nerd” ever since she can remember, O’Hern presents each of her graduating English students the book “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe” by Bejamin Alire Saenz.
She said she enjoys helping students “utilize literature to think critically about our world.”
“It’s so exciting to have students see beyond the page into the world they live in. Helping students express their voices and opinions through writing is a privilege I hold dearly," she said. “My classroom is a space of creativity and critical thinking where my students continue to impress me with their drive for success.”
O’Hern, 30, co-runs, with Andrea Cox, RTHS students’ involvement in Art Speak, a spring internship with the Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois. Students have the opportunity to visit local art and artists.
For the last two years they have worked on a piece exhibited at the Boneyard Arts Festival.
Professional artists are also brought in, and the students work with pop artists at Krannert. The students also participate in poetry slams called Speak Cafe.
“It’s more than poetry,” O’Hern said. “They can perform poetry or short stories. Or people get up to dance and sing, and (present) their artwork.”
With teacher Karen Hughes, O’Hern has started the new Aquila literary magazine, where students and staff can submit their own works for publication. O’Hern said she also recently received the OK to start a Legos club at the high school.
“One of my good friends resparked my joy for Legos in the last year, and I’ve kind of become obsessed with it,” she said.
O’Hern has also been involved with the school’s Mural Club, which has created “some amazing murals” at the school.
A graduate of Downers Grove South High School in suburban Chicago, O’Hern earned a bachelor’s degree from Augustana College and a graduate degree from the University of Illinois.
She taught sixth-grade English language arts for three years at Geneseo Middle School before coming to the Rantoul school, where she has taught for six years.
“I still remember getting off a phone interview with (the RTHS administrator team) and telling my spouse, ‘That’s where I want to work,’ ” she said. “I absolutely love this job. I couldn’t imagine leaving Rantoul. It would be a very hard place for me to leave.”
In her spare time, O’Hern enjoys reading YA (young adult) science fiction and fantasy books, attending plays, making Lego creations and playing board games.
Other ACE Award winners who will be celebrated Tuesday:
• Kannittha Fay, Advocate ACE Award.
• Span Knightly, Artist ACE Award.
• John Holton, Volunteer ACE Award.
• Gallery Art Bar, Business ACE Award.
• Bob Chapman, Lifetime ACE Award.
Winners were chosen from more than 65 public nominations by an independent panel of community-based judges.
By DAVE HINTON