Chicago (December 12, 2005) Mrs. Gloria Tomaino a third-grade teacher at Immaculate Conception School on West Talcott in Chicago, is one of 12 teachers nationwide to receive the Distinguished Teacher Award from the Department of Elementary Schools of the National Catholic Education Association, (NCEA).

Tomaino was chosen from a group of over 113,000 teachers. The recipients of this award, which honors distinguished teaching, come from the twelve geographic regions that compose the NCEA Department of Elementary Schools.

Tomaino will be honored at special ceremonies and a banquet on the opening evening of the annual NCEA convention to be held in Atlanta, April 17-20, 2006, and given special recognition by the Office of Catholic Schools during its annual Heart of the Schools Awards ceremony on January 19, 2006.

“Gloria Tomaino represents the highest level of creative effort exercised to provide a positive learning environment that helps promote the success of each student,” notes Dr. Nicholas Wolsonovich, superintendent of Catholic schools in the Archdiocese. “She’s a terrific role model who gives and receives the respect of her students, parents and colleagues.”

Fellow teachers and parents say she shows by example that learning is fun and shares her own newly acquired learning with her students in creative projects such as the individual scrapbooks she created for each of her students using digital photos from a camera she recently

learned to operate. “Mrs. Tomaino’s enthusiasm for learning is contagious,” notes a parent whose child was in her class last year. She added, “Students leave Mrs. Tomaino’s class curious, confident, and more than capable.”

Immaculate Conception principal Bernadette Felicione says, “Gloria works hard to make her lessons challenging, meaningful, appropriate, and most of all, an enjoyable adventure for her students.” Ms. Felicione adds that Tomaino broadens children’s learning beyond the curriculum and so builds opportunities for a larger foundation of knowledge and skill development.

When asked what her most rewarding teaching experience was Tomaino responded by saying it was seeing a child who had great difficulty in reading become an enthusiastic reader. “As a teacher in a Catholic school I teach to the spiritual, moral and intellectual growth of each child,” Tomaino says. “I feel that there should be a great deal of modeling, demonstrating, and encouraging going on in the classroom. The creative side of each child should be nurtured.”

Parents and fellow teachers agree Tomaino has a distinct ability to encourage higher-level thinking and organization of time in her students. She has taught her students how to make note cards and take notes as well as manage their time by recording upcoming assignments and projects in daily planners

A graduate of Northern Illinois University, Tomaino received a bachelor degree in education. She has been teaching for 34 years, 29 of them at Immaculate Conception School. Tomaino has been nominated for the Golden Apple Award twice and was a nominee for the Disney Creative Teaching Award. She recently received a nomination for the Heart of the School Award for Innovation and Creativity given annually by the Archdiocese’s Office of Catholic Schools, and is on the Who’s’ Who Among American Teachers list.

NCEA is the largest, private, professional educational association in the world. Founded in 1904, the association’s membership represents more than 163,000 educators serving 2,553,000 students in Catholic education at all levels.

The Catholic schools of the Archdiocese of Chicago play a critical role in the life of the community by providing academic excellence and faith formation for students of many races, faiths and backgrounds in elementary and secondary schools in Cook and Lake counties. There are 218 elementary and 40 secondary schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago. To locate a Catholic school in your area and learn more about Catholic education in Cook and Lake counties, visit the Office of Catholic Schools web page on the Archdiocese of Chicago web site at www.archchicago.org