Excerpts of Dr.
Pola Rosen’s Speech
Many of you have given up your lunch periods and prep periods to work with and encourage students; others have had special gifts in making learning fun and engaging; yet others have been able to help students think outside the box. One of you decorated your classroom as an Egyptian temple and had students write letters using hieroglyphics. Many of your students who were at risk are now performing well above their peers. Your students work diligently and with fervor; they win prizes in math, science and technology; they research, edit and publish their work on laptop computers. They become extraordinary learners overcoming challenging personal conditions that often include poverty and homelessness.
Speculation and discovery are your mantras. You are the outstanding teachers of NYC whose voices will always be remembered by your students. Your unique and successful ways of transmitting knowledge have been recognized by your principals and superintendents.
Our guest speakers all share one thing in common: they were all students in the public schools of NYC. CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein attended PS 71 in Manhattan, Abraham Lincoln HS and City College. Schools Chancellor Joel Klein attended Bryant HS in Queens. President Augusta Kappner attended PS 23 in the Bronx and Hunter Junior High and HS.
The influences that have shaped our speakers’ lives are continuing to shape the lives of students in all parts of NYC through the work of the Outstanding Teachers here today.#
About the Publisher: Dr. Pola Rosen
earned a BA in English at Barnard College and a doctorate
in special education at Teachers College, Columbia University.
She has been a classroom teacher, special education supervisor,
and college professor and for the past eight years, the
publisher and editor-in-chief of the award-winning newspaper Education
Update, which she founded. A New York
City public school student herself, her vision has always
been to enrich and ennoble people’s lives through
education.
