Ten outstanding educators from UFT-represented public or charter schools were among 15 who were honored at the 2015 Blackboard Awards on June 8.

Eric Messenger, the editor of Manhattan Media’s New York Family magazine, which sponsored the awards, told the honorees that they had been selected from thousands of nominees put forward by parents, teachers and students.

“If you’re here, people said really nice things about you,” Messenger said at the ceremony at the New York Institute of Technology. “We hope it will remind you why you teach.”

UFT Vice President for Middle Schools Richard Mantell presented awards to Diane DiTonno-Gilhuley, a physical education teacher at PS 107 in Park Slope, and Laurie Engle, a pre-K and kindergarten teacher at PS 363 in the East Village.

DiTonno-Gilhuley was nominated by one of her students, Erin McEvilley, whose nomination letter Mantell shared with the audience.

“Ms. Diane ... seems to do everything! She is a gym teacher, our school’s track coach and our afterschool teacher,” Erin wrote. “She handles all the crazy stuff that happens at our school … and she is also our friend. She makes every student feel special.”

DiTonno-Gilhuley said that she had never felt so grateful.

“In 17 years of teaching, this is the most precious moment,” she told the crowd of 150.

Engle was selected for her excellence in the classroom and commitment to working with teachers, families and students to sustain a school that supports “the child as an individual and as a community member.”

Kindergarten teacher Ashley Mendolia from PS 15 in the East Village was praised for infusing the arts into her students’ academic work.

“In teaching others, we teach ourselves,” Mendolia said. “I’m so lucky to have the opportunity to inspire my students because they inspire me every day.”

Awardee Yann Gaboriau, from the UFT-represented New York French American Charter School in Harlem, a French immersion school, said that his 2nd-graders’ French is second to none. Gaboriau also shared a more personal story.

“My mom gave me books. I read Frank McCourt and never thought I’d be here in Manhattan as a teacher,” he said. “I lost her a year-and-a-half ago and it’s the kids that kept me going.”

MS 224’s Kevin Miller added: “Love your kids like they’re your own. Respect them like they’re your peers. And teach them like the world depends on it — because in the end, it really does.”