It’s a calm first day of school in Lori Shroka’s class. The wind blows outside, rustling the green of the bushes, which causes them to brush back and forth against the large windows of the classroom. Inside, Ms. Shroka stands atop a yoga mat rolled in front of the whiteboard, introducing herself to the class and talking about class expectations, but also mental health and how she is able to support the mental well-being of her students. Does this surprise you? Most teachers don’t cover topics like these before even breaking down the syllabus. But Ms. Shroka does. Because Ms. Shroka does things a little differently than most teachers.
Shroka has always been inclined towards teaching. It was ingrained in her throughout her youth.
“I started babysitting at a very young age, you know, and I have three younger siblings,” Shroka said. “When I was a little girl, I would make worksheets for my younger siblings and make them do homework, and I just really enjoy that role of teaching.”
It didn’t take long before Shroka took up a teaching position at Sandwich Middle School, where she gained firsthand experience teaching as well as coaching the cheerleaders. While out with her cheerleaders for an away game against Kaneland, she discovered our school district.
“I was a cheerleading coach for Sandwich Middle School, and we had a game here,” recalled Shroka. “I came all the way out here, and I wondered, ‘Why are we out in the middle of nowhere?’”
A few years later, in the early 2000s, Shroka moved on and joined us here at Kaneland as a middle school teacher, where kids were exposed to her unique teaching style firsthand. Her method focuses heavily on life skills that you will use outside of a classroom environment, frequently breaking systemic norms for American public education. Her method, while unorthodox, is mostly appreciated by her students.
“Ms. Shroka doesn’t read from a textbook or give one million assignments, but instead, she speaks from her heart and teaches us actual important lessons that I would actually use in real life,” sophomore Joanna Petmezas said. “She engages with us and talks to us like we are her friends, and that is really helpful and important for us as students.”
Because of the stark differences in Shroka’s method compared to a more traditional, factory modeled classroom, Shroka noticed many disparities between the goals of the public school system and the real-world problems it faces.
“I think that a lot of our system is designed with the best intentions to protect students, but I also think it disables them from some real challenges they will have to face,” Shroka said. “I believe that this is the perfect venue. We have a captive audience where we should be giving kids more of a realistic look at their future.”
She came around to teaching this way upon realizing that Kaneland, as a district, was using mandatory general education subjects for college preparation despite the fact that Kaneland has a large number of students who don’t choose the path of a four-year university, instead choosing to go into the trades.
“A large percentage of our students, in particular in Kaneland, don’t go on to a four-year university,” Shroka said. “It would be much more beneficial for them to take more life skills types of classes. Like learning how to write good emails, learning how to communicate with authority, accounting classes, how do you do your taxes, what does credit card debt do to your credit score, practical things like that.”
This philosophy is felt by her students, as it creates quite a contrast between her unique teaching style and the rest of their classes.
“Ms. Shroka stands out because she doesn’t waste time on things that don’t matter,” sophomore Corrine Faivre said. “Her lessons are usually practical and focused on skills or ideas you can actually use in real life, not just for a test. Compared to other teachers, there’s less busywork and more purpose behind what she assigns.”
However, in doing so, she rubbed certain administrative figures the wrong way, who were focused more on implementing policies that Shroka considered counterproductive to student growth and learning. Eventually, she was elected as the president of the Kaneland teachers union, where she could make her voice heard much better.
She was present at board meetings, acting as a voice for the collective instructional staff here at Kaneland, not just at the high school but for middle and elementary levels as well. It was an immense effort on her part working as both teacher and union president.
“It was grueling,” Shroka said. “I learned an awful lot. At times it was very victorious, and at other times I felt very defeated. It’s quite a rollercoaster ride. But ultimately it was a great learning experience.”
After many years in the role, Shroka took a step back as her now-grown kids began having kids of their own, and she became a grandmother. She redoubled into her personal life, spending time with family and exploring her hobbies. A lifelong hobby for her has been taking care of cars as a self described “car chick.”
“My dad was a car person,” Shroka recalled. “I used to love to just hang out with my dad, so he’d, you know, let me hang around while he was fixing things. I just wanted to impress him, so I just learned more and more from him.”
Incidentally, the stereotype that being interested in cars is a guy’s hobby has led to some frustrating encounters with salespeople for Shroka.
“A couple times when I’ve gone to buy a car, people don’t think that you know anything about cars, saying things like, ‘Oh, you can’t drive stick, you’re just a girl’, and that kind of thing, so I’ve had some pretty negative experiences with car salesmen,” Shroka said. “But that was when I was younger. Now, I kind of just put them in their place right away.”
Aside from cars, Shroka is a frequent volunteer at the TAILS animal shelter in DeKalb, having taken care of all creatures great and small while there. Just broadly, she’s always had a knack for animals and nature. She owns several pets, including a pet snake. Part of her love for animals came from her youth.
“I grew up with always having multiple dogs and multiple cats,” Shroka said. This upbringing has given her a great sympathy for animals, saying, “I would take all the animals in if I had to.”
But now, after 23 years at Kaneland, she’s retiring at the end of this year to spend more time with her grandchildren. After many years of hard work, she’s more than earned it. Before she goes, she’s leaving some advice for other teachers.
“Get a shoebox,” Shroka says. “Every single time somebody puts a positive note on your desk or sends you a good email or whatever, you’re going to print it off and you’re going to put it in this box. And on your really bad days, you’re going to pull one out and go, ‘This is why I do this.’ There are a lot of struggles in education, not just inside the classroom, but because you are in education. Sometimes you struggle financially, sometimes you struggle to balance your time, sometimes your family suffers because of that. You can’t always find that balance, and so you have to remind yourself, ‘Why am I doing this sometimes?’ And when you look back on those positive notes or those really nice emails, then you’re like, ‘This is why.’”
