A shift in careers not only brought fulfillment into the life of a St. Catherine- St. Lucy Catholic School teacher, but it also got him recognized by the Illinois Reading Council for his dedication to promoting literacy.
Mike Kennedy, seventh and eighth grade history and English/language arts teacher, is the recipient of the 2024 Barack Obama Library Award.
The award will be presented March 14 at the 2024 Illinois Reading Council Conference held in Springfield.
“IRC is excited to recognize the work of our outstanding Illinois educators receiving awards for their work in promoting and teaching lifelong literacy with their students, colleagues, and communities,” said Carrie Sheridan, executive director of the Illinois Reading Council.
Kennedy will be awarded a classroom library, valued at $1,000, which will consist of “carefully selected literature that is culturally relevant for African American readers” in the middle school grade range.
This award and a career in education came to Kennedy later in life: He began teaching when he was 60 years old.
To provide for his family, Kennedy, a father of six, worked at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for most of his life. Kennedy was a commodity broker dealing in foreign currencies and then also clerked in the Eurodollar pit for a few companies, working with customers directly before leaving around 2011.
After trying his hand at retirement, he desperately wanted something to do and decided to put his teaching degree into use.
Catching his second wind, Kennedy pursued a teaching career and eventually was student-teaching at St. Catherine for a semester before he was hired full time.
“There is not a lot of money in what I am doing now, teaching in a Catholic grade school,” Kennedy said. “But I love doing it. I don’t understand people that retire, I couldn’t possibly retire, I would lose my mind. I will be working here until I drop dead.”
A strong advocate for literacy, Kennedy is excited to add the collection of books to his classroom library.
“Reading is fundamental, and I believe that,” Kennedy said. “I believe that reading is the basis for education. There are millions of people out there that are trying to scam you every day and if you can’t read, you are behind the eight ball.”
As the school moved away from standardized testing, Kennedy said they measure a student’s current improvement through a program called I-Ready, which has been mandated by the Archdiocese of Chicago.
“The kids take three diagnostics throughout the year,” he said. “The diagnostics tells the system where they are and they are given assignments that they work on throughout the year to enhance their reading.”
Kennedy’s eighth grade students showed tremendous improvement on their second diagnostic.
“They are so bright, it is the best class I have ever had,” Kennedy said. “They are so willing to work. They want to improve. It was a fulfillment of what I thought they could achieve.”
The superb improvements led to his nomination by Principal Sharon Leamy.
“Mike Kennedy believes in turning children into life-long readers,” Leamy said. “He searches out books by African-American authors with African-American protagonists. Last year, his 7th grade class grew 342% in their final standardized assessment in April.”
According to Leamy, 63% of Kennedy’s students were reading at or above grade level.
St. Catherine-St.Lucy is a small Catholic school consisting of 210 students from preschool through eighth grade: 100% of the students are African-American and 85% of them hail from the Austin neighborhood. About 70% of the students qualify or receive reduced lunch, Leamy said.
“Mike is a humble man, dedicated to the mission here at St. Catherine-St. Lucy,” she said. “He is so proud of his students and what they have accomplished- but it would not have happened without [his] guidance and commitment.”
Students were able to improve their reading scores through the practice of reading and encouragement from Kennedy, who said the only homework he assigns is to spend 30 minutes each night reading.
Students are also required to turn in four book reports every trimester- a total of 12 book reports per year.
Spending time in the classroom reading is also important to Kennedy, who said he starts each class reading out loud for a few minutes and will pick students to read out loud as well.
Kennedy’s class has already completed seven novels since the beginning of the school year.
“These are kids who haven’t read a book, they haven’t read a book since ‘The Cat in the Hat,’” Kennedy said.
That love for reading has become contagious.
“The biggest kick is when other teachers tell me that these kids who have never really read before, had never been readers, they catch them in their math class or science class and they have a novel in their lap,” Kennedy said, adding that while that might not be the best time to be reading, the fact that they are reading is something to consider. “These are kids that never read before…we have turned them into lifelong readers.”
Seeing his students so engrossed in a book that they have walked into walls and doors is a positive change, he said laughing.
“I am trying to teach the kids how to love reading,” he said.
And it seems like he is succeeding.
Along with the money prize, Kennedy will attend the Illinois Reading Council “Pillars of Literacy: Skills, Strategies, Joy, and Magic,” 2024 IRC Conference, which will host sessions to encourage attendees to continue to advocate for literacy learning.
“IRC encourages our attendees to grow, learn, and be informed about current literacy topics,” read the conference program. “Allowing us to share our voices in literacy practices, research, application, student needs, and more.”
Kennedy said he was excited to attend and hear from bestselling author Nic Stone, whose debut novel “Dear Martin,” reached #1 on the New York Times bestsellers list, as he has used her works in his classes.
‘If you are a fluent reader and you can comprehend what you are reading, then everything else is easier,” Kennedy said. “It is really fulfilling for me.”