Amy Kuo

Teacher: Amy Kuo

Subject: 4^th-8^th grade Multilingual/English Learners

School: Roscoe Middle School

Teaching experience: 7 at RMS, 16 total

What did a nominator or recommender say about this teacher?

• “Amy is deeply committed to excellence, passionately dedicated to her students and consistently operates at the highest level of professional practice.” – a supervisor’s letter of recommendation
• “Amy demonstrates genuine compassion, empathy and understanding. She incorporates fun, engaging, and age-appropriate learning activities that always prioritizes the student’s best interests. This dedication is so profound that even when her students achieve proficiency and graduate from needing EL support, they often don’t want to leave the program because they love seeing her. She holds necessary space for mental health issues, acknowledging the challenges of entering a new culture, and she encourages students to write about these transformative experiences. Her exceptional teaching strategies ensure our district consistently surpasses the Illinois Exit Rate for EL learners.

What does this teacher say? “I have made a commitment to helping my students think deeply, even in the early stages of English language development. Higher-order thinking promotes deep engagement and critical thinking, and this should be celebrated and accessible at all language levels. Each reading strategy taught or English phrase mastered can bring students one step closer to changing the trajectory of their lives or increasing the size of their dreams.”

What else do we know? Amy currently has students from four continents. “They each deserve to learn in spaces that feel as welcoming as possible.” She, and interpreters she secures for parent teacher conferences, do a lot of translating so that students’ families can understand how their children are doing in school and be part of their educational journeys. In 2025, her middle school colleagues voted her “Most Calm Presence: For Remaining Calm & Patient in Stressful Times.”