Class is in session on a Monday night as the state of Illinois’ honor Kimberly Thomas for being Illinois’ teacher of the year.

On Monday night between 7 and 8 p.m. in the Robert G. Buzzard Auditorium, students and faculty gathered to honor Thomas for being the teacher of the year in Illinois.

Before the event, guests were greeted at a table with a blue paper that had a bingo card printed on it. The blue bingo card had “#MATH MUSCLES” on it.

When Thomas was announced to the front of the auditorium, she started her speech formally and transitioned to show her personality of a fun and friendly teacher.

She threw her papers in the air and got interactive with the audience after transitioning from her formalities.

With the bingo cards, Thomas told the audience to fill bingo spaces with the answers to math problems she gave to the audience and other words having to do with her class.

Attendees who won bingo yelled, “math muscles.”

Thomas is a sixth, seventh and eighth grade math teacher and has been teaching math for 24 years.

Thomas said most of her students who had her as a teacher had a different perspective on math, and some even loved it.

She said chuckling, 1000s of her students loved math after her class.

“If you ask most of them, they have remembered something about my math class.” Thomas said.

She currently teaches at Woodruff Alternative School, located in Peoria, Ill. The school houses the Peoria Country and it is a school for children that have been expelled or almost expelled from a non alternative school.

“It will all fall into place if you put kids first,” Thomas said giving advice to other teachers. “It’s so important.”

There are some teachers that refuse to teach at alternative schools due to the negative feedback they get and scary stories about them. Thomas is willing to give children in an alternative another chance because she believes in them.

“These kids just need an extra chance and I believe in that,” Thomas said. “I choose to be here. I chose to be with you guys.”

In Thomas’ math class, she uses her “mathlicious” method to help her students enjoy the class more. Her method is intended to make students want to learn and come back to class.

Mathlicious is also a way for students to learn without knowing it.

“I always tell them to give me a sixtieth of a minute so my mathliciousness can rub off on them and rotate those negative parabolas into positive parabolas.” Thomas said.  “I say mathlicious because if you say math you’ll want to run away, but mathlicious I make it engaging and fun where they just want to comeback.”

She also does the same method with projects and activities that students are assigned.

“I name and create all these names for activities for projects that they want to do and they’re learning and they don’t even know it.” Thomas said.

Thomas said in the school she currently teaches, she wants the students to stay and learn in class.

“I’m going to have kids love math class, where they want to come and that they want to learn.” Thomas said.

Thomas also gives advice to other teachers on living it up in their classroom and getting closer with their students.

She said when a teacher loves their students then the students will notice it.

“I give advice to teachers you go to, like I said, live plus laugh plus love equals learn, you got to live it up in your classroom.” Thomas said. “You got to make kids laugh, you got to love what you do.”

Thomas said she always wants school to be a great experience for children. She wants her students to know that she is there for them.

“I wanted school to be an awesome experience for kids, because I love kids and have a heart for kids,” Thomas said. “A math teacher can go teach wherever they want and I let them know I chose to be here with them.”

Thomas’s teacher personality is always with her even outside of the classroom.

“You can take out the classroom, but at heart I’m always a teacher.”

Janet Pernell can be reached at 581-2812 or jopernell@eiu.edu