Over the past few months, the IRC has asked members of our community to nominate Illinois teachers working with multicultural, multilingual students who are going above and beyond, and now, we’re celebrating them and highlighting their work. Keep an eye out for these features in the coming months – and if you’d like to nominate someone, email leanet@cntrmail.org.

Next up is Shelley Lumas, a Pre-K teacher in East St. Louis School District #189. 

Says Melanie Hood, who nominated her: “Mrs. Lumas is a very dedicated teacher. She not only spends time in the class with students, tutors them after hours. She has a great rapport with parents. She is one of the coordinators for the district spelling bee. She reaches students where they are and takes their academic achievement to new heights. She does not allow students to opt out. She doesn’t accept anything less than their best. She is a motivator, encourager, and all around inspirer! There is no limit to where she will go to ensure her children are the best that they can be. For those reasons, I feel that she should be highlighted!”

Shelley Lumas knows that Pre-Kindergarten is when educators begin to lay the foundation for a student’s growth and learning. To help ensure her students succeed, she knows that supporting the whole child means connecting with their family and community. “When you nurture that family, they’re going to do what’s best for their child,” she says.

What that looks like in practice for Lumas is teaching parents how to advocate for their children and connecting them with resources in their community, from helping parents get rides to medical appointments to sitting in on meetings with teachers at other schools to help be an additional advocate in the room. She connects with families at pickup and dropoff, tries to stop in on community and family events to connect with students and their families. And for multilingual families, Lumas uses a communications system that can translate into their heritage language. “I do for them exactly what I want for my own children and grandchildren,” she says. “I just give what I would want for my own.”

In the classroom, Lumas advocates for her students, and focuses her efforts on pushing them to achieve. She is a firm believer in there is “no opting out,” redirecting “I can’t” to “I can,” or at least, “I can try.” She says she works to build student confidence by lifting up and celebrating even the smallest accomplishments to build that confidence, and encourages parents to use the same strategies at home. She receives videos from parents of their students achieving milestones and making progress towards goals, like writing one letter of their names. “I believe that all students, regardless of the background that they come from or what’s going on at home, can achieve at high levels once you as the educator make them believe it,” she says. “Teach them to believe. Help them build that confidence.”

And Lumas’s work has been recognized both in and out her district–last year, she was named to the Branching Minds Hall of Fame, which recognizes educators and support staff excelling in MTSS/RTI. That recognition, she says, is important to show educators, especially those working with student populations with significant systemic challenges. “As an educator, specifically being in a district where almost 100% of our students come from low-income homes, we don’t always celebrate our educators,” she says. “We don’t always show they are appreciated or supported.”