July 31, 2023 • 17 mins
The FLAG Award For Teaching Excellence, founded by Glenn and Amanda Fuhrman, recognizes and celebrates extraordinary public school teachers who inspire learning through creativity, passion, and commitment. 2023 Grand Prize Winners Zachary Rosch from Tottenville High School in Staten Island, and Sarah Slack from I.S. 223 in Brooklyn, talk about their unique STEM programs and bringing real world experiences to students. For more details, including information about 2024 entries, visit flagaward.org.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
Welcome to Get Connected with Nina delRio, a weekly conversation about fitness,
health and happenings in our community onone oh six point seven Light FM.
Good morning, and thanks for listeningto Get Connected. The Flag Award for
Teaching Excellence recognizes and celebrates extraordinary NewYork City public school teachers educators who inspire
(00:24):
learning through creativity, passion, andcommitment. Two of the winners of this
year's Flag Awards join us to downand Get Connected. Teachers Zachary Rosch and
Sarah Slack, two of this year'ssix Grand Prize winners. Congratulations Zachary and
Sarah, and thank you and welcometo the show. Thank you, happy
to be here, Thank you somuch. So. This is the fourth
(00:44):
year of the Flag Awards, andjust to clarify, we've spoken to winners
every year. Usually there are fiveof the Grand Prize winners, but there
was a tie in Brooklyn, soaBrooklyn has a little extra this year.
So Zachary Rosch is a STEM andaviation teacher at Tottenville High School in Staten
Island, and Sarah is a scienceand STEM teacher at ISS two twenty three.
The Brooklyn Co Grand Prize winner.It is at the Montauk School,
(01:07):
I believe the middle school there.You can find out more about the awards
at Flag Award dot org. Thisis an award funded by the Furman Family
Foundation, founded by New Yorkers Glenand Amanda Furman. Over thirteen hundred nominations
came in this year from students andparents and principals and colleagues, which is
the most jets of congratulations for beingat the top of that list. So,
(01:27):
Zachary and Sarah each I guess we'llstart with Let's start with Zachary on
this. How did you find outabout the nomination process and how closely did
you follow the process? To behonest with you, I was a little
bit blindsided by it. I hadno clue. I didn't expect it,
And honestly, my mom was ateacher for thirty five years and when I
(01:49):
asked her about the award, shesaid to me, oh, my gosh,
that's the Plague Award. That's anincredible honor. And from that moment
on, I was like, Okay, So I started doing my research on
it. I started doing a littlebit of homework and up until the day
that they came to present me withthe award. I had no clue who
(02:10):
nominated me. I had absolutely noidea that my administration was talking to them.
It was one of the only timesin my life that I've truly been
genuinely, genuinely surprised. It meansa lot. It's an incredible honor,
and I'm just blessed to have beena part of it. It's such a
huge thing. Each Grand Prize winnerfrom the five boroughs receives a twenty five
(02:32):
thousand dollars cash prize, and eachof your schools receives a ten thousand dollars
grand Sarah about you as well?How did you find out about the awards?
Did you follow the process? Yeah? I actually had a friend and
colleague nominated me, and he confessedto doing it almost right away, so
I knew and I did my researchright away to find out. Was just
(02:53):
overwhelmed by the generosity of what theydo each here for teachers in New York
City, so was super impressed.And the process was long. We had
to write a lot of essays,answer a lot of questions, trying not
to be redundant and repeat ourselves whenwe talked about the work that we do
in the students and our colleagues andin our community. So it was a
(03:19):
long process with a lot of waitingand wondering. But really, I think
they make such an effort to findout everything they can about a teacher as
a person in the classroom and outsideof the classroom. So I really appreciated
that about the process. Well,let's talk about what got you here.
So, Zachary Ross, You're astem and aviation teacher at Tottenville High School
in Staten Island, and yes,it is an aviation class at a public
(03:40):
high school, a class you developed. What are you teaching? What is
the curriculum? My background is science, obviously, and you know, my
interest has always been in stem andsteam. So when I came here to
Tottenville High School, I sat downwith my administration and we just started talking
about all of these wonderful ideas thatwe could possibly have. With that,
(04:02):
my students here really took on therole of what to do. And just
prior to COVID, I had asmall robotics club that was going off in
this school, and I had acouple of freshmen and say to me,
hey, would it be cool?You know, I saw that there was
stem aviation out there, and wejust kind of took that ball and started
rolling with it. And so throughCOVID we did a lot of research,
(04:26):
a lot of research. We foundoutfits that actually will bring in flight simulators,
and I started looking into the differentcurriculums, what flight schools are actually
doing, what students would need toreally take this into a career. And
through the help of the AOPA,through the help of Redbird, which is
(04:47):
our simulation software specialists down in Texas, we were able to put together a
curriculum where students will learn basic maneuversof flight, learn about how planes actually
work, learn how eradynamics work.And it's basically an applications class. So
(05:09):
students are learning the learning tidbits ofthis, whether it be in their Earth
science classes or physics classes, ortheir chemistry classes, and we're just kind
of taking all of that and we'remaking it applicable. Especially with the job
market supposedly about to boom with aviationand the pilot shortages, this is just
(05:30):
an opportunity for students to see whatthe possibilities are. You also have a
role in assisting other teachers who wouldlike to incorporate more steam elements into their
courses. Can you talk about theideas maybe you've collaborated with and that have
come up with something unique. Yeah. So this year I took on a
role as the steam Operations director herein the building and what that allowed me
(05:51):
to do was create an ambassador programfor my students. And these are the
students who are helping me facilitate forother teachers here in the building, whether
it be working on roller coasters forphysics, or whether we're bringing in a
class to three D print, orwhether we're bringing fifth grade classes into our
(06:11):
building and giving them days of flight. We are trying to disseminate as much
steam information as we can to whoeverwe can, and you know, we
take this role on. We've workedwith the Environmental Science Club here at the
school where we actually hosted their environmentto Science day that we had outside in
(06:34):
our steam yard where we actually havea plane. We have several electric vehicles
that we've retrofitted to become solar batteries. We have a game truck where students
are utilizing that solar power to actuallyplay video games. We also configured a
car that was donated to be adriving simulator and that is also solar powered
(06:59):
outside. So we hosted this eventwhere students were doing their own exploration of
green energy, and you know,my ambassadors were out there taking pictures old
school polaroids nonetheless, and you know, they were the ones that were kind
of showing everybody what goes on outhere. I was speaking with Zachary raw
she's the STEM and aviation teacher atTottenville High School in Staten Island, and
(07:23):
Sarah Slack, the science and STEMteacher at ISS two twenty three. They
are co grand prize winners of theFlag Awards. This is the fourth year
of the Flag Award for Teaching Excellence. You can find out more at Flag
Award dot org. You're listening toget connected on one oh six point seven
Light FM. I'mina del Rio.Sarah I gather you also work with other
(07:43):
teachers, but let's talk about whatyou do first. You're also involved in
STEM and your focus is on theenvironment and climate change. Yeah. A
few years ago I was part ofNASA's Climate Change Research Initiative, which is
a program that partners NASA researchers withteacher and a graduate student, and then
over the summer the team expands evenfurther to include undergrad and a high school
(08:05):
student. And so we were focusedon examining the urban heat island and looking
at satellite data and ground based datato evaluate how much temperatures vary not from
an urban environment to surrounding suburban environments, but within an urban environment between neighborhoods
or even blocks in Brooklyn and otherparts of New York City. So,
(08:28):
as a result of that research,I developed a curriculum, a unit plan
that I used in my STEM class, and then thanks to the support of
Office of Sustainability for the Department ofEducation, I was able to share that
unit plan with other teachers through someteacher training sessions. So we had workshops
(08:48):
for Middleland high school teachers and thenanother series of workshops for elementary school teachers
this past school year. So fromyour bio, I gather Sarah, you've
worked your wolves across North America.You've traveled to Antarctica to study glaciers.
You've spent a year working on aresearch team with NASA's climate change research initiatives.
Are all big things beyond the signSo what about those experiences do you
(09:11):
try to bring back to middle schoolstudents. Well, I think the most
important thing is for students to feellike the work that they're doing in STEM
classes real, much like the aviationwork that you're doing, Zach. For
students to really feel empowered and engaged. It is so meaningful for them to
have authentic science experiences. And that'sone of the things I love about the
Urban Heat Island work is that thedata my students collect has meaning to researchers
(09:37):
in the field and meaning for mystudents as well. The first time we
went out and collected data, wego out for recess and what we call
our school yard, but it's justasphalt, it's just pavement, and the
temperatures of that pavement were thirty degreeshotter than the adjacent cement parking lot where
our administrators park. And the kidswere indignant. And this was before they
(10:01):
realize that grass is even cooler thancement. You know, why are they
out there playing on the hottest surfacethat exists in their environment. And so
they take that knowledge, this datathat they've collected, and they start thinking
about ways that they can improve theircommunity. So it doesn't just make a
difference to researchers. That made adifference to them and it made them think
(10:22):
differently about what we could do inour community to improve it for themselves,
for their families, for their neighbors. So each of the six Flag Award
Grand Prize winners receives a twenty fivethousand dollars cash prize, and each of
your schools receives a ten thousand dollarsgrant. The prize money so many teachers
(10:43):
often use their own resources to helpfurther a child's education. Can you talk
a little bit about that and howthe prize money might impact your life and
work as a teacher, And Sarahwill start with you, Wow, it's
wonderful to have that money. Ifeel very fortunate that I'm part of an
organization called Math for America or inNew York City that also provides support for
(11:03):
teachers through a fellowship and then througha grant to help us buy school supplies.
But I am constantly purchasing things formy classroom that come out of my
own pocket. It's things that I'mexcited about, things that I think the
kids can get excited about. Andit is so nice to have the financial
support to really think about making purchasesthat can make their education more meaningful.
(11:26):
My ability to share ideas with themeasier. I mean, it's just amazing
to have those additional resources that wecan use to make our lives better because
it makes our teaching easier. AndZach, it's an incredible thing. And
I'm still speechless when, you know, somebody brings it up to me.
(11:48):
But one thing that I've always doneis I've never taken this job with the
thought of my wallet. You know, I want my students to really enjoy
being in school because I know thatthey've gone through turmoil over the last five
years. So you know, they'vebeen trying to figure it out as we
go. And you know, we'recoming into the aid a digital age of
(12:09):
technology where we thought that it wasright at their fingertips before, but now
we're really finding out that any informationis right there. And you know what
this is going to do for meon a professional level is my students.
They come up with great ideas,and when they have an idea, I
(12:31):
like for them to budget. Ilike for them to come up with lists
of what they would want, whyis it important for us to get and
if they make a compelling enough argumentfor it, I'm inclined to go out
and get it. So this isjust something, especially the grant money for
the school. This is something thatI'm really really just excited for kids about,
(12:54):
Like this was their winnings. Thisisn't my winnings one because I wouldn't
have been in this position without them. And as far as my own personal
game, I have a fifteen monthold at home and you know, I'm
looking to just have a lot offun with her over the summer and you
(13:16):
know, family time and whatnot,and basically anything she wants, anything she
needs, she gets. So that'sgood. I'd also like to mention your
co grand Prize winners. And bythe way, just for the audience,
you guys are just meeting for thefirst time during this interview, so I'm
not sure if you've met the otherwinners, but let me tell you a
little bit about them. So.Brian Sweeney is an English teacher at Townsend
Harris High School in Queens. Heoversees the school newspaper, which has over
(13:39):
one hundred and fifty contributors and publishesdaily. William Greene is the winner from
Manhattan, a chemistry teacher at aPhilip Randolph Campus high school. In his
classroom, he'll often have student teamsteach specific lessons to one another, finding
students often have new ways of conveyingcontent that is more relatable to their peers.
Another winner is Jessica Abrams. She'sa STEM teacher at Liberty Avenue Middle
(14:01):
School in Brooklyn. She's a licensedspecial education teacher in an integrated co talk
classroom and also teaches two dual languagescience courses and a science and Richmond class
for gifted students. And Talia Jamieis a theater teacher at Renaissance High School
for musical theater and Arts and theBronx. She also founded the Renaissance Players,
(14:22):
which is performing arts troop outside theclassroom. They do monthly showcases performing
important topical subjects, including topics suchas bullying. The Flag Awards also honor
a number of finalists and semifinalists.As we wrap up, what has struck
you about your fellow nominees and winners. There are a lot of amazing educators
(14:45):
here in the city, and justto hear what everybody else is doing,
it's inspiring itself. Just to seea lot of similarities that a lot of
us have, and the drive andthe love and the passion, and you
know, those are those are thingsthat it makes you feel good. You
see what's happening here in the city, and you know I'm I'm an educator
(15:09):
that wears their emotions on my sleeves, and I bleed for this because I
want to see everybody do well.And to just to be a part of
this conglomertive teachers is just it's absolutelyamazing. Yeah, it's it's been amazing
to look over the accomplishments of theother Flag Award winners and it makes me
(15:30):
feel a little like, yikes.I think I feel fortunate to have been
included in this group, and especiallythe other award winner from Brooklyn has just
an amazing resume. And the similarityI noticed is that we all do more
than just being in our classroom eachday. We are pulling in real world
(15:52):
resources, expanding our own knowledge,trying to do as much as we can
to enrich the lives of the kidsthat we work with and make school enjoyable
for them, to make it meaningfulfor them, to find ways to connect
with every student that we see inthe classroom. And it takes energy,
it takes money, it takes effort, but I see that in the accomplishments
(16:15):
of every person that has received thisaward that we enjoy what we do.
We enjoy the students that we workwith, then we do whatever it takes
to make their experience in our classroomsmeaningful and memorable. The nomination process for
the twenty twenty four Flag Award willlaunch in September. Students, parents,
(16:37):
principles, fellow teachers, and othercolleagues can nominate teachers and you can find
out more at Flag Award dot org. Our guests have been twenty twenty three
winners Zachary Rosh teaching in Staten Islandand Sarah Slack, teaching in Brooklyn.
Thank you for being on Get Connectedin congratulations again, Thank you very thank
you for having me. This hasbeen Get Connected with Nina del Rio on
(17:00):
one oh six point seven Lightfm.The views and opinions of our guests do
not necessarily reflect the views of thestation. If you missed any part of
our show or want to share it, visit our website for downloads and podcasts
at one oh six seven lightfm dotcom. Thanks for listening.
Welcome to Get Connected with Nina delRio, a weekly conversation about fitness,
health and happenings in our community onone oh six point seven Light FM.
Good morning, and thanks for listeningto Get Connected. The Flag Award for
Teaching Excellence recognizes and celebrates extraordinary NewYork City public school teachers educators who inspire
(00:24):
learning through creativity, passion, andcommitment. Two of the winners of this
year's Flag Awards join us to downand Get Connected. Teachers Zachary Rosch and
Sarah Slack, two of this year'ssix Grand Prize winners. Congratulations Zachary and
Sarah, and thank you and welcometo the show. Thank you, happy
to be here, Thank you somuch. So. This is the fourth
(00:44):
year of the Flag Awards, andjust to clarify, we've spoken to winners
every year. Usually there are fiveof the Grand Prize winners, but there
was a tie in Brooklyn, soaBrooklyn has a little extra this year.
So Zachary Rosch is a STEM andaviation teacher at Tottenville High School in Staten
Island, and Sarah is a scienceand STEM teacher at ISS two twenty three.
The Brooklyn Co Grand Prize winner.It is at the Montauk School,
(01:07):
I believe the middle school there.You can find out more about the awards
at Flag Award dot org. Thisis an award funded by the Furman Family
Foundation, founded by New Yorkers Glenand Amanda Furman. Over thirteen hundred nominations
came in this year from students andparents and principals and colleagues, which is
the most jets of congratulations for beingat the top of that list. So,
(01:27):
Zachary and Sarah each I guess we'llstart with Let's start with Zachary on
this. How did you find outabout the nomination process and how closely did
you follow the process? To behonest with you, I was a little
bit blindsided by it. I hadno clue. I didn't expect it,
And honestly, my mom was ateacher for thirty five years and when I
(01:49):
asked her about the award, shesaid to me, oh, my gosh,
that's the Plague Award. That's anincredible honor. And from that moment
on, I was like, Okay, So I started doing my research on
it. I started doing a littlebit of homework and up until the day
that they came to present me withthe award. I had no clue who
(02:10):
nominated me. I had absolutely noidea that my administration was talking to them.
It was one of the only timesin my life that I've truly been
genuinely, genuinely surprised. It meansa lot. It's an incredible honor,
and I'm just blessed to have beena part of it. It's such a
huge thing. Each Grand Prize winnerfrom the five boroughs receives a twenty five
(02:32):
thousand dollars cash prize, and eachof your schools receives a ten thousand dollars
grand Sarah about you as well?How did you find out about the awards?
Did you follow the process? Yeah? I actually had a friend and
colleague nominated me, and he confessedto doing it almost right away, so
I knew and I did my researchright away to find out. Was just
(02:53):
overwhelmed by the generosity of what theydo each here for teachers in New York
City, so was super impressed.And the process was long. We had
to write a lot of essays,answer a lot of questions, trying not
to be redundant and repeat ourselves whenwe talked about the work that we do
in the students and our colleagues andin our community. So it was a
(03:19):
long process with a lot of waitingand wondering. But really, I think
they make such an effort to findout everything they can about a teacher as
a person in the classroom and outsideof the classroom. So I really appreciated
that about the process. Well,let's talk about what got you here.
So, Zachary Ross, You're astem and aviation teacher at Tottenville High School
in Staten Island, and yes,it is an aviation class at a public
(03:40):
high school, a class you developed. What are you teaching? What is
the curriculum? My background is science, obviously, and you know, my
interest has always been in stem andsteam. So when I came here to
Tottenville High School, I sat downwith my administration and we just started talking
about all of these wonderful ideas thatwe could possibly have. With that,
(04:02):
my students here really took on therole of what to do. And just
prior to COVID, I had asmall robotics club that was going off in
this school, and I had acouple of freshmen and say to me,
hey, would it be cool?You know, I saw that there was
stem aviation out there, and wejust kind of took that ball and started
rolling with it. And so throughCOVID we did a lot of research,
(04:26):
a lot of research. We foundoutfits that actually will bring in flight simulators,
and I started looking into the differentcurriculums, what flight schools are actually
doing, what students would need toreally take this into a career. And
through the help of the AOPA,through the help of Redbird, which is
(04:47):
our simulation software specialists down in Texas, we were able to put together a
curriculum where students will learn basic maneuversof flight, learn about how planes actually
work, learn how eradynamics work.And it's basically an applications class. So
(05:09):
students are learning the learning tidbits ofthis, whether it be in their Earth
science classes or physics classes, ortheir chemistry classes, and we're just kind
of taking all of that and we'remaking it applicable. Especially with the job
market supposedly about to boom with aviationand the pilot shortages, this is just
(05:30):
an opportunity for students to see whatthe possibilities are. You also have a
role in assisting other teachers who wouldlike to incorporate more steam elements into their
courses. Can you talk about theideas maybe you've collaborated with and that have
come up with something unique. Yeah. So this year I took on a
role as the steam Operations director herein the building and what that allowed me
(05:51):
to do was create an ambassador programfor my students. And these are the
students who are helping me facilitate forother teachers here in the building, whether
it be working on roller coasters forphysics, or whether we're bringing in a
class to three D print, orwhether we're bringing fifth grade classes into our
(06:11):
building and giving them days of flight. We are trying to disseminate as much
steam information as we can to whoeverwe can, and you know, we
take this role on. We've workedwith the Environmental Science Club here at the
school where we actually hosted their environmentto Science day that we had outside in
(06:34):
our steam yard where we actually havea plane. We have several electric vehicles
that we've retrofitted to become solar batteries. We have a game truck where students
are utilizing that solar power to actuallyplay video games. We also configured a
car that was donated to be adriving simulator and that is also solar powered
(06:59):
outside. So we hosted this eventwhere students were doing their own exploration of
green energy, and you know,my ambassadors were out there taking pictures old
school polaroids nonetheless, and you know, they were the ones that were kind
of showing everybody what goes on outhere. I was speaking with Zachary raw
she's the STEM and aviation teacher atTottenville High School in Staten Island, and
(07:23):
Sarah Slack, the science and STEMteacher at ISS two twenty three. They
are co grand prize winners of theFlag Awards. This is the fourth year
of the Flag Award for Teaching Excellence. You can find out more at Flag
Award dot org. You're listening toget connected on one oh six point seven
Light FM. I'mina del Rio.Sarah I gather you also work with other
(07:43):
teachers, but let's talk about whatyou do first. You're also involved in
STEM and your focus is on theenvironment and climate change. Yeah. A
few years ago I was part ofNASA's Climate Change Research Initiative, which is
a program that partners NASA researchers withteacher and a graduate student, and then
over the summer the team expands evenfurther to include undergrad and a high school
(08:05):
student. And so we were focusedon examining the urban heat island and looking
at satellite data and ground based datato evaluate how much temperatures vary not from
an urban environment to surrounding suburban environments, but within an urban environment between neighborhoods
or even blocks in Brooklyn and otherparts of New York City. So,
(08:28):
as a result of that research,I developed a curriculum, a unit plan
that I used in my STEM class, and then thanks to the support of
Office of Sustainability for the Department ofEducation, I was able to share that
unit plan with other teachers through someteacher training sessions. So we had workshops
(08:48):
for Middleland high school teachers and thenanother series of workshops for elementary school teachers
this past school year. So fromyour bio, I gather Sarah, you've
worked your wolves across North America.You've traveled to Antarctica to study glaciers.
You've spent a year working on aresearch team with NASA's climate change research initiatives.
Are all big things beyond the signSo what about those experiences do you
(09:11):
try to bring back to middle schoolstudents. Well, I think the most
important thing is for students to feellike the work that they're doing in STEM
classes real, much like the aviationwork that you're doing, Zach. For
students to really feel empowered and engaged. It is so meaningful for them to
have authentic science experiences. And that'sone of the things I love about the
Urban Heat Island work is that thedata my students collect has meaning to researchers
(09:37):
in the field and meaning for mystudents as well. The first time we
went out and collected data, wego out for recess and what we call
our school yard, but it's justasphalt, it's just pavement, and the
temperatures of that pavement were thirty degreeshotter than the adjacent cement parking lot where
our administrators park. And the kidswere indignant. And this was before they
(10:01):
realize that grass is even cooler thancement. You know, why are they
out there playing on the hottest surfacethat exists in their environment. And so
they take that knowledge, this datathat they've collected, and they start thinking
about ways that they can improve theircommunity. So it doesn't just make a
difference to researchers. That made adifference to them and it made them think
(10:22):
differently about what we could do inour community to improve it for themselves,
for their families, for their neighbors. So each of the six Flag Award
Grand Prize winners receives a twenty fivethousand dollars cash prize, and each of
your schools receives a ten thousand dollarsgrant. The prize money so many teachers
(10:43):
often use their own resources to helpfurther a child's education. Can you talk
a little bit about that and howthe prize money might impact your life and
work as a teacher, And Sarahwill start with you, Wow, it's
wonderful to have that money. Ifeel very fortunate that I'm part of an
organization called Math for America or inNew York City that also provides support for
(11:03):
teachers through a fellowship and then througha grant to help us buy school supplies.
But I am constantly purchasing things formy classroom that come out of my
own pocket. It's things that I'mexcited about, things that I think the
kids can get excited about. Andit is so nice to have the financial
support to really think about making purchasesthat can make their education more meaningful.
(11:26):
My ability to share ideas with themeasier. I mean, it's just amazing
to have those additional resources that wecan use to make our lives better because
it makes our teaching easier. AndZach, it's an incredible thing. And
I'm still speechless when, you know, somebody brings it up to me.
(11:48):
But one thing that I've always doneis I've never taken this job with the
thought of my wallet. You know, I want my students to really enjoy
being in school because I know thatthey've gone through turmoil over the last five
years. So you know, they'vebeen trying to figure it out as we
go. And you know, we'recoming into the aid a digital age of
(12:09):
technology where we thought that it wasright at their fingertips before, but now
we're really finding out that any informationis right there. And you know what
this is going to do for meon a professional level is my students.
They come up with great ideas,and when they have an idea, I
(12:31):
like for them to budget. Ilike for them to come up with lists
of what they would want, whyis it important for us to get and
if they make a compelling enough argumentfor it, I'm inclined to go out
and get it. So this isjust something, especially the grant money for
the school. This is something thatI'm really really just excited for kids about,
(12:54):
Like this was their winnings. Thisisn't my winnings one because I wouldn't
have been in this position without them. And as far as my own personal
game, I have a fifteen monthold at home and you know, I'm
looking to just have a lot offun with her over the summer and you
(13:16):
know, family time and whatnot,and basically anything she wants, anything she
needs, she gets. So that'sgood. I'd also like to mention your
co grand Prize winners. And bythe way, just for the audience,
you guys are just meeting for thefirst time during this interview, so I'm
not sure if you've met the otherwinners, but let me tell you a
little bit about them. So.Brian Sweeney is an English teacher at Townsend
Harris High School in Queens. Heoversees the school newspaper, which has over
(13:39):
one hundred and fifty contributors and publishesdaily. William Greene is the winner from
Manhattan, a chemistry teacher at aPhilip Randolph Campus high school. In his
classroom, he'll often have student teamsteach specific lessons to one another, finding
students often have new ways of conveyingcontent that is more relatable to their peers.
Another winner is Jessica Abrams. She'sa STEM teacher at Liberty Avenue Middle
(14:01):
School in Brooklyn. She's a licensedspecial education teacher in an integrated co talk
classroom and also teaches two dual languagescience courses and a science and Richmond class
for gifted students. And Talia Jamieis a theater teacher at Renaissance High School
for musical theater and Arts and theBronx. She also founded the Renaissance Players,
(14:22):
which is performing arts troop outside theclassroom. They do monthly showcases performing
important topical subjects, including topics suchas bullying. The Flag Awards also honor
a number of finalists and semifinalists.As we wrap up, what has struck
you about your fellow nominees and winners. There are a lot of amazing educators
(14:45):
here in the city, and justto hear what everybody else is doing,
it's inspiring itself. Just to seea lot of similarities that a lot of
us have, and the drive andthe love and the passion, and you
know, those are those are thingsthat it makes you feel good. You
see what's happening here in the city, and you know I'm I'm an educator
(15:09):
that wears their emotions on my sleeves, and I bleed for this because I
want to see everybody do well.And to just to be a part of
this conglomertive teachers is just it's absolutelyamazing. Yeah, it's it's been amazing
to look over the accomplishments of theother Flag Award winners and it makes me
(15:30):
feel a little like, yikes.I think I feel fortunate to have been
included in this group, and especiallythe other award winner from Brooklyn has just
an amazing resume. And the similarityI noticed is that we all do more
than just being in our classroom eachday. We are pulling in real world
(15:52):
resources, expanding our own knowledge,trying to do as much as we can
to enrich the lives of the kidsthat we work with and make school enjoyable
for them, to make it meaningfulfor them, to find ways to connect
with every student that we see inthe classroom. And it takes energy,
it takes money, it takes effort, but I see that in the accomplishments
(16:15):
of every person that has received thisaward that we enjoy what we do.
We enjoy the students that we workwith, then we do whatever it takes
to make their experience in our classroomsmeaningful and memorable. The nomination process for
the twenty twenty four Flag Award willlaunch in September. Students, parents,
(16:37):
principles, fellow teachers, and othercolleagues can nominate teachers and you can find
out more at Flag Award dot org. Our guests have been twenty twenty three
winners Zachary Rosh teaching in Staten Islandand Sarah Slack, teaching in Brooklyn.
Thank you for being on Get Connectedin congratulations again, Thank you very thank
you for having me. This hasbeen Get Connected with Nina del Rio on
(17:00):
one oh six point seven Lightfm.The views and opinions of our guests do
not necessarily reflect the views of thestation. If you missed any part of
our show or want to share it, visit our website for downloads and podcasts
at one oh six seven lightfm dotcom. Thanks for listening.
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