“There is no music like live music. It’s a transcendent experience,” says Thomas Wright, the new music teacher at Edward R. Murrow HS in Midwood, Brooklyn. 
Wright, who previously taught elsewhere in the country, took the job in September, attracted by Murrow’s robust music department. 


Louis Pichardo brings his twin passions for teaching and electrical work to his job teaching electrical installation to career and technical education students at Queens Technical HS in Sunnyside. Pichardo, a third-year teacher, asks his students to be active participants and investigators.


Jennifer Figueroa believes that anyone can be an artist. And the Bronx native, now in her third year of teaching art at PS 178 in Co-op City, knows that an expansive definition of "artist" helps kids take pride in all kinds of creativity.

Stephen T. Mather Building Arts and Craftsmanship HS's commitment to student well-being is why Sylwia Nosowicz, a first-year teacher whose first career was as a clinical mental health counselor, feels comfortable calling the school “a perfect match” for her.

Jenna Marrazzo, a second-year teacher at PS 42 on Staten Island, stepped up in her first year on the job to support and advise the school's newly invigorated student council, which had gone dormant during the pandemic.

Fourth-year teacher and sustainability coordinator Amanda Cleary launched a garden club at P 37, a District 75 school on Staten Island, and along with vegetables and flowers, pride and a sense of responsibility are nurtured there.