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Feature Stories

‘Lion King’ across the curriculum

If the Gallery Walk in March at K396 in Brownsville, Brooklyn, evoked thoughts of “The Lion King,” that was no accident. The hallways were transformed into a gallery of animal habitats on the African savannah after the school was one of five — and the only District 75 school — to win a grant from the Disney Musicals in Schools program.

‘Teaching is her life’

Zenzile DaBreo, a kindergarten teacher at PS/IS 109 in Brooklyn, was honored with the Sanford Teacher Award as the “most inspirational teacher” in New York State. “We only have two rules in my classroom: be respectful and be responsible,” she says.

Hydroponic harvest in Queens

What started in October with one tray of basil at PS 349 in Jamaica, Queens, has grown into a hydroponics greenhouse, now ripe with fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, basil and parsley.

How Long Island City HS got its groove back

The turnaround at Long Island City HS was the result of a set of strategies that included smaller class sizes and more individualized attention. But collaboration — between administrators and staff and among the teachers themselves — was the linchpin.

Putting a price on student voice

It’s not every day that high school students get to decide how to spend $500,000. The students at Gotham Professional Arts Community Learning School and Acorn Community School have that opportunity thans to a pilot project in participatory budgeting funded by Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.

Fresh from the farm

Vital Brooklyn, a collaboration between the UFT, the state Department of Agriculture and Grow New York City, aims to promote healthy and affordable eating through fresh produce markets at schools in central Brooklyn that are in some of the state's most disadvantaged communities.