Many teachers rely on her while most students have never heard of her. One could call her an invisible woman. She goes undetected by the masses, making sure everyone knows how to use their tech, not seeking fame, glory, or mass popularity, but merely finds enjoyment in the act of helping those in need.

That invisible woman is Alice Schmitz, instructional technology coach. After six years of working for District 95, she will be retiring at the end of the school year.

“I love technology. I just enjoy seeing what it can do and how it changes the classroom,” Schmitz said. “It was fun to watch things change, because it changes so fast, but I think the best part was to help a teacher use their tech, write a good lesson plan, and then watch students enjoy and learn from that lesson plan.”

With her caring heart and love of technology, according to Michael Kaufman, social studies teacher, Schmitz has the perfect traits to do her job well. He says her patience and level-headedness is important when dealing with panicked or frustrated teachers and confused students.

“She has the demeanor to help. She’s very calm, very collected, and very patient with, not only the teachers who might be in times where technology doesn’t work and you have this lesson plan and you’re going crazy because it doesn’t work,” Kaufman said. “Alice just walks in, nice and calm, calms everybody down, calms the teacher down, calms me down, and she just sits there and goes, ‘alright, what’s the problem, let’s handle it,’ and then she does.”

Schmitz is always there to help anyone, teacher or student. According to Libby Reimann, social studies teacher, whatever the issue, whether it be an in-class emergency, or a planned teacher meeting, Schmitz is always ready to help, and does it calmly and patiently. 


“She’s really good at holding your hand through these new types of tech and she is infinitely patient,” Reimann said. “The thing that’s so wonderful about working with her is that she spent many years as a teacher, so when you go talk to her, you’re not just talking to a tech person, you’re talking to a teacher, so she will give you tech ideas and then help implement those tech ideas into your lesson plan.”

Schmitz was a business education teacher outside of District 95 for 20 years before developing an interest in technology and computers, taking it upon herself to learn more and more about them.

“I had been a teacher in another school district already, for a long time, so I’m getting old,” Schmitz said. “After typewriters, we started using computers. I wanted to be able to control the computer because a typewriter was easy to use, so I wanted to know everything there was to know about the computer. Since we weren’t so technology-based, I had to learn more about technology by taking classes in the summer and things like that. I spent 10 years at Hoffman Estates High School as an instructional technology coach, then I retired and came here, part time.”


From her 20 years as a business teacher, to her 16 as a technology coach throughout different districts, Schmitz has helped a lot of people learn over the years. But Schmitz said that there were many things she had to learn, as well.

“I’ve definitely improved a lot through this job. Something could always happen and you can never be sure that everything is going to work perfectly for every student, so I think I learned a lot more about flexibility, patience, and dealing with people who are a little bit apprehensive about their technology,” Schmitz said. “I think I have learned to rely on a lot of resources for answers, and I think I’m more cautious because a whole class might be depending on some of those kinds of things.”


Schmitz said that after she retires, she still has a lot planned. From downsizing her house, to traveling to new destinations,  she does not expect to be slowing down any time soon.


“My husband and I would like to have a little more free time to do more traveling. We’re going to move to a smaller house because our son is gone, so that’s going to be a lot of work,” Schmitz said. “My thing is to probably find some kind of volunteer work that I can do because I don’t just sit around very well. I don’t really know what I want to do. I can think of something with technology, but maybe something very different would be kind of fun. There are some things I could do through church, or maybe a treasurer for an organization or something. I really don’t know, we’ll have to see what’s out there.”

As Schmitz continues to plan for this new chapter in her life, others do not want to see her go just yet.


“It was amazing having Alice here,” Kaufman said. “She’s really just the sweetest thing, she really cares about helping the students, and it’s going to be unfortunate we’re going to lose a great person in the district.”