Tinley Park Math Teacher Surprised With Chicago Bears Classroom Legend Award

Mike Doody does not mind having been fibbed to. The sixth grade math teacher at Hilda Walker Intermediate School in Tinley Park was named a Chicago Bears Classroom Legend, and the people around him went to great lengths to keep it secret.

Summit Hill Elementary District 161 officials dubbed the effort Operation Bear Down and carried it out on Sept. 24. The plan began while Doody was in a planning period, when fellow teacher Leah Fischer asked for his help with a computer program. Meanwhile, sixth graders were quietly brought into the lunchroom.

"I was teaching her about a program that I use," Doody said. "That was a total lie because she already knew how to use it. She lied to me."

Then the phone rang. According to Doody, the office said there was a problem with some students in the gym and asked him to come watch the children still in the lunchroom. He assumed a fight had broken out. In the hallway he ran into principal Maura Carroll. "I saw the look on her face and said, 'oh, boy, this is serious,'" he said. The lunchroom windows had been covered with cardboard.

When he opened the door, Doody found Staley, the Bears mascot, school officials, hundreds of screaming sixth graders, his wife, his daughter and former Bears player Christian Jones. "It felt like an eternity, but it took me 20 or 30 seconds to realize what was going on," he said. "They got me big time because I had no idea what was going on."

The award came with a $1,000 grant for his classroom, a personalized Bears jersey and a commemorative football. Doody also received tickets to the Oct. 4 Bears home game at Soldier Field, where he stood on the field before kickoff and was recognized on the videoboard.

Students praised their teacher. Cash Cholly, a sixth grader in the video club that Doody moderates, called him "Mr. Awesome." Mario Norbury-Montalto, who has Doody for math, said, "He makes math fun by adding jokes into it and he lets us have breaks."

Doody described his approach as a balance. "My philosophy is there is work time and play time," he said. "A lot of kids at this age are still trying to figure themselves out. I try to get them excited about math and try to tell them how much math is involved in the world."

Beyond teaching and moderating the math, video and chess clubs, the Tinley Park native and Andrew High School alum has volunteered with Honor Flight for four years. He also volunteers for Autism on the Seas, which provides cruise vacation services for adults and families living with children with special needs. He plays drums in the band at The Stone Church in Orland Park and in the Tinley Park Community Band, has held Bears season tickets for 20 years, and works at Brookfield Zoo as a tram driver and tour guide. "I like keeping busy," he said.

Fellow teacher Steve Radostits nominated him. "Michael Doody is the kind of teacher I wish I had, and that every child hopes to have at least once in their life," Radostits wrote. He added that Doody "refuses to let any student believe that they can't learn" and gives patience and time to students who are struggling.