Teachers may be called “unsung heroes,” but their praises were sung and their accomplishments celebrated at the annual Blackboard Awards ceremony held at the New York Institute for Technology on June 4. In accepting his award, English language arts teacher Michael Veve of MS 243, the Center School, spoke of the art of teaching. “Teaching,” he said, “is a craft woven of faith in the possibility of a better world, a career built of hope in the potential of humanity and a vision of love of a future that imagines a better world moving forward.” Veve was nominated for the award by the PTA of his Upper West Side school. Nominations for the annual teaching awards, sponsored by Manhattan Media, are made by school colleagues, parents and students. After 31 years as an ELA teacher, award winner Hope Friend of Isaac Newton MS for Math and Science in East Harlem is still excited to return to the classroom each September. “After being a teacher for so many years, I still can’t imagine being or doing anything else,” she said. The other five public school teachers honored at the event were Ronie Mataquel of John Bowne HS, Queens; Michael Mulien of East Side MS on the Upper East Side of Manhattan; Kristen Parness of Bronx HS of Science; Brian Pew of Stephen T. Mather Building Arts and Craftsmanship HS in Manhattan; and Perri Lawrie Tyson of the Urban Academy of Arts and Letters in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.