Sometimes the best trips are round trips.

It worked out that way for Linda Smerge, a first-grade teacher at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School in Cicero. Members of the Illinois State Board of Education named Smerge, a former transactional lawyer, as Illinois Teacher of the Year.

She began working for Cicero School District 99 in 2001 after spending more than a decade as a lawyer. As a transactional lawyer, she handled the buying and selling of buildings and companies and deals for tenants of strip malls. But after some time, she was missing something.

“Academically, it was interesting, and the money was fantastic,” She said. “But I was drying up inside. I had to reflect on my life, and reflect on when I was happiest.”

She kept returning to her days as a teacher, although they started out a little rocky.

Her first teaching job was in Chicago in a second-grade classroom. In the days before the No Child Left Behind Act and when schools offered breakfasts to ensure all children could eat before classes began, Smerge said she would stay up nights making egg salad. She served the children egg salad on toast so they could concentrate better on their work.

It did not help that she worked in an unsafe area, which prompted concern about her pupils safety and that of her own.

“I really did get burnt out,” she said.

For her second year as a teacher, she moved to Arizona, lived with a friend, and taught kindergarten.

“And it was wonderful,” Smerge said. “But then this executive called me. He wanted me to work for his (Chicago) company. He was a condo developer. He was opening up condos all over.”

Spending so much time in real estate development, Smerge said she worked with many lawyers. Her grandfather and father had been lawyers, and her brother was an attorney. Her father worked as Westchester’s municipal attorney and helped the village incorporate, she said. She grew up in Westchester.

She received a law degree and practiced civil law for 13 years. But her life did not feel complete.

“At some point when you feel it’s not worth it, you have to make a decision,” Smerge said.  “But it’s hard to give up two-thirds of your salary. And then it was hard to get people to believe me.”

In 1993, she returned to teaching, landing a job as a half-day teacher’s aide in early childhood special education in Berwyn and as an early childhood education teacher in Cicero in the afternoons.

In 1995, she took a job as dean at Josephinum Academy in Chicago. More than 200 girls attended the high school, and on her first day as dean, a fight broke out. She vowed there would be no more fights, she said, and tried to help the girls open up to her and talk about their feelings.

“They used to say, ‘Oh Ms. Smerge, how are you feeling today,’” she said, mimicking their sing-songing style. “We had to fight the gangs that were moving in.”

She said she taught the students peer mediation so they could learn how to handle their differences – and disputes – without fighting. But this, too, was draining. She said she worried about them, the challenges they faced at home, the threat of gangs and drugs and their futures.

Four years later, Smerge transferred to Sacred Heart Academy in Chicago, its sister school, to work as a kindergarten teacher. She stayed for two years before taking a teaching post in Cicero. Last year, Smerge taught second-grade at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School,  2310 S. 57th Ave.

“It fills me,” Smerge said. “Don’t get me wrong. There are days it is draining. But it fills me. I want to give back. I want to make these children vital citizens of the United States. When I see happy children who love to learn and love to read when they have not had a book in the house is more rewarding to me than having a Porsche. You need to go with your passion. This is my passion.”

First-grader Christian Sanchez, 6, said he is proud of his teacher. She is tops in his book because he said he loves doing projects with her.

“She’s the best teacher,” he said shyly.

Members of the Illinois State Board of Education picked Smerge as top teacher in Illinois from a pool of nine finalists during the 34th annual Those Who Excel/Illinois Teacher of the Year banquet in Peoria last weekend.

During 2009, Smerge will be asked to serve as an education ambassador, talking with teachers about her experiences and representing the state in the National Teacher of the Year program.

With this award, Smerge receives a lifetime tuition waiver for state universities, and paid leave for one semester to work on an educational project or for more course work, the ISBE said.

“I was totally shocked (with the award),” Smerge said. “What I’m so proud of is that it is for Cicero. People don’t know how many good teachers we have here, and we have so many.”