Camp Point teacher wins Golden Apple

CAMP POINT, Il (WGEM) - Camp Point Junior High School teacher Amy Hildebrand was awarded the WGEM Golden Apple Award for March.

Hildebrand has spent her entire nearly 29 year teaching career in the district she herself graduated from. She says there is nowhere else she would rather be.

“I don’t see myself doing another job,” Hildebrand said. “I really enjoy being around the kids and trying to be a role model to them.”

More than 100 students, co-workers, and staff in the Camp Point school district sent in nomination letters explaining why Hildebrand should win a WGEM Golden Apple Award.

They say there’s no one more dedicated to teaching.

“I went into her room and her face was a little red one day and I’m like what are you doing. She’s like I just did a cartwheel in class. She’s like I thought it woudl help it stick in the students’ mind what I was teaching,” district technology director Shelly Cramer explained.

Along with junior high math, Hildebrand also teachers girls pe teacher and coaches softball, but it’s not all fun and games. She says she aims to teach a strong work ethic to her students.

“I expect them to meet my expectations, and thankfully it usually goes very well. And, I hope if they don’t appreciate it now I hope they do down the road,” Hildebrand said.

“She has the highest expectations in her students, and the students thrive on that. Everyone wants to be a good person and they want to succeed, and she teaches them how to do that,” Cramer said.

“Make you do your best. You don’t, you can’t not do good in her class,” seventh grade student Rebekkah Waterkotte said.

Hildebrand says she also strives to teach her students good character.

“I tell them that be safe to most people probably means to physically be safe. Walk in, you know enter and leave the classroom by walking out. But, to me be safe in the classroom is emotionally and mentally,” Hildebrand explained.

Hildebrand’s daughter Brianna is now in her first year teaching alongside her mother at Camp Point Junior High School. She says she’s learning a lot from her mom now as a co-worker.

“She feels very strongly about teaching not only life lessons, but also the curriculum. And, every since I was young I have always watched her and watched the way that she taught others as well as how she taught me, and now it’s kind of odd because I have a different perspective. I not only see her as a mother and as a coach but also as a teacher, and so she has taught me so much just as being her daughter but also being able to teach especially in my first year she has given me a lot of advice and a lot of insight,” Brianna Hildebrand said.

Students say she’s not just a math teacher, but a life teacher.

“She really drives you to be the best potential, and have you be the best version of yourself,” eighth grader Addie Clampitt said.

“Amy has taught my daughter and had her in sports for years, and I was talking to her about it and I said what is it about Coach Hildebrand? And she’s like she makes you feel like you can do anything,” Cramer said.

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