Peter Medlin

“Even when the resources were available to teachers, it was still a lot of that burden was still put on them,” said co-founder Ylanda Wilhite.

“I said, ‘Hey, there might be a chance that we might not come back in person.’ I just wanted to let them know," said 3rd-grade teacher Jorge Alfaro.

Special Education teacher Jessica Sperry gives us an education on what it's like teaching special needs students...during a pandemic!

WNIJ's Peter Medlin went to the exhibit to get educated on how these artifacts don’t just tell the story of the school, but also how education has evolved.

As we wind down 2021, we take a look back at three of our favorite conversations with educators this year.

WNIJ's Peter Medlin rode along on a school bus one morning in Rockford to hear about how the shortage is affecting drivers and students.

“It's hard to attribute which ones do I need to focus on. Which ones have that causal connection to chronic absenteeism or not,” he said. “Like if I am looking at my (Illinois) School Report Card that just came out and I'm seeing, ‘Oh, geez, our IAR literacy scores really dropped last year!’ Well, how much of that do I attribute to chronic absenteeism?”

Two science teachers talk trying to conduct science labs remotely and not knowing if your students were paying attention or there at all!

"What better place for middle schoolers to be in than this cyclone of ‘What are my rights in this circumstance?'”

NIU is a part of the state’s new Early Childhood Access Consortium for Equity and offers full-tuition scholarships.