feature stories

A night with the stars

by Jim Callaghan

Mar 16, 2006 5:59 PM

Any proof needed that teaching is not limited to the classroom came last month at the UFT’s annual Career and Technical Education Recognition Week Awards Ceremony at union headquarters.

The evening’s speakers included teachers who received the awards, presented by current and former students and colleagues. One by one, the students spoke in heartfelt tones about how their teachers turned their lives around, encouraged them to dream big dreams, consoled them in times of anguish and understood how fragile young minds can be.

The speakers held the audience in rapt attention with their tales of success, as if to say: “Can you top this? Let me tell you about my teacher!”
And that they did.

If they were in attendance, the mayor and the chancellor would have been given an education about education: the lessons, the homework and the discipline but, more importantly, the deep commitment that teachers have toward their students’ well-being beyond the classroom.
Most attendees didn’t want the evening to end. Wave after wave of former and current students strode to the podium, some with prepared texts and others speaking off the cuff, to heap praise on their teachers.

Michael Mulgrew, UFT vice president for career and technical education, bemoaned the lack of positive media stories about students and their teachers.
“Why can’t we get coverage for nights like this? Where is John Stossel now?” he asked.

Jan Scott, the chapter leader at Chelsea Vocational HS, introduced honoree Judi Feldman by saying: “She has given her students skills beyond the classroom.” Then, turning to Feldman, she smiled and asked: “What would I do without you?”

One of Feldman’s students remembered how she went to great lengths to “help me get into a good college. She should get the teacher of the year award.”
A student at Van Arsdale HS said, “God has blessed us with Mr. [Angel] Texidor. He gives us time to play and time to work. We have learned valuable lessons from him.”

The self-effacing Texidor gave credit to his colleagues. “It feels good to be with people tonight who I am with every day,” he said. “We should all be congratulating each other.”

Texidor recalled a friend who said, “I could never do what you do every day.” Texidor said he told him: “You’re right. You couldn’t.”
His parents told him “to be careful of who I hang out with,” Texidor added. “Well, I hang out with the UFT now! My students are my inspiration.”
From Staten Island’s McKee HS came shop teacher Ralph DeSantis, who praised honoree Jim Leary as his hero. “He is what the ‘career’ in career tech is all about,” he said.

Leary, for his part, was modest in accepting the award and said his mentor was his wife.

A student at William Grady HS said about his teacher Stenrick Adams, “I argue with Mr. Adams about a lot of things but he is a great teacher.”
In accepting his award, Adams said, “I thought I would never teach again after leaving Trinidad many years ago. Now, I look through the eyes of parents, which is a good yardstick.

“Students are our future. Education is a lifestyle, not just something you do,” he added.

M.L.J. Johnson from the Career Education Center was described by a colleague as being “resilient and creative and open to professional development. He is a showing artist and what he brings to the classroom is extraordinary. He has quiet dignity and he can get his way without raising his voice.”
Johnson said his quest was “not just to educate but to take it a step further, to make sure my students can survive on the right side of the law.”
Honoree Linda Gehshan thanked the principal of Fort Hamilton HS for “creating a climate where business can flourish.”

The honoree from Queens Vocational HS, Robert Vega, was described by a fellow teacher as “the most student-centered teacher I know. He is always reminding us that we are here for the kids.” A former student thanked Vega for being his role model.

Automotive HS teacher Mike Danza said he needed “tough love” when he was a student there and had honoree Mark Manas as a teacher. Manas now teaches at Thomas A. Edison HS.

School of Cooperative Technical Education honoree Jim Shea was called a dedicated teacher by a colleague; a man “who never forgot he was a blue-collar worker.” Shea said teaching pays “one-third of what I got as a steamfitter,” but the rewards are greater.

Christopher Leggio, the honoree from John Bowne HS, had sage advice for the audience members. “I love going to my job every day,” he said. “You should find a career where you love going to your job.”

A former student described honoree Elisa King, from Fiorello LaGuardia HS, as “radiant, full of warmth and joy. I was in awe of her. She has given me confidence and she never forgets her students. She also becomes your mentor.”

As she concluded her remarks, the student said to her former teacher: “I love you.”

For her part, King said, “I have learned more from my students than they have learned from me.”

A student said of Donna Lewis, from the High School of Art and Design, “She is like one of my own relatives.” Lewis said, “I’m an architect and educator. Students make me laugh and teach me a whole lot every day.”

Mulgrew had some advice for the Department of Education.

“As we’re trying to expand,” he said, “the DOE needs to come to the realization that we need to attract new teachers.”
Wherever CTE is implemented, he said, it works.

“However, to expand for the sake of expansion without proper planning, support and collaboration would ruin all the good work we’ve done in the past six years,” he added.

Mulgrew made a pitch for getting “more technology programs in the middle schools, and not wait until high school.”

Mulgrew also said that President George W. Bush’s budget “is not very kind to us. He wants to take every dime out of CTE.”
UFT President Randi Weingarten reminisced about her youth and her mother, who was a teacher.

“When I was growing up, there was a huge value put on teaching,” she said. “How do we get Klein in a room like this to listen for just a minute or two? You are the entrenched that Klein talks about and CTE is the only place where graduation rates have risen.”

Weingarten told the teachers that they create a promise of a good middle-class job in a changing economy.

“And,” she added, “you do it with so little support.”

Also honored, in memoriam, was Beverly Trauring, who taught business courses at Norman Thomas HS for 42 years and died last September just after the school year started. Her daughter spoke about how she refused to transfer out of the school to one near her home in Staten Island — continuing to make a four-hour round trip on mass transit.

But the best summary of the night came from honoree Sandra Manning, who said: “I can’t believe this is a job.”

2006 Outstanding Career
and Tech/Teacher Award Winners
Alice Everett, William H. Maxwell HS; James Shea, School of Cooperative Technical Education; Judi Feldman, Chelsea HS; Lauren Stewart, Jane Addams HS; James Leary, Ralph McKee HS; Stenrick B. Adams, William E. Grady HS; M.L.J. Johnson, Career Education Center; Mark Manas, Thomas A. Edison HS; Linda Gehshan, Fort Hamilton HS; Robert Vega, Queens Vocational HS; Neil Forde, HS of Graphic Communication Arts; Angel Texidor, Harry Van Arsdale HS; Jaivelle Reed, Samuel Gompers HS; Miguel Ramirez Jr., Aviation HS; Terrance Holder, ENY Transit Tech HS; Kissoonlall Ramkaran, NYC Vocational Training Center; Grace Pallotta, Edward R. Murrow HS; Guillermo Hernandez, G. Westinghouse HS; Christopher Leggio, John Bowne HS; Elisa King, Fiorello LaGuardia HS; Donna Lewis, HS of Art and Design; Rosa Rodriguez, Grace Dodge HS; Andrew Gilmore, Alfred E. Smith HS; Harry Brandle, Automotive HS; Sandra Manning, HS of Fashion Industries; AnnaMarie DiDonato, Clara Barton HS.

Special presentation to Melissa Silberman, principal of Automotive HS, and Godfrey Nwoke, chairman of the Department of Career and Technology Teacher Education at New York City College of Technology.