34 THE QUEENS COURIER • BUZZ • JULY 8, 2021 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
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Howard Beach teacher wins $25k grand prize for teaching excellence
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
cmohamed@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
An English Language Arts teacher in
Howard Beach was chosen as the grand
prize winner in Queens for this year’s
FLAG Award for Teaching Excellence,
which awards $25,000 to one outstanding
New York City public school teacher
in each of the fi ve boroughs, along with
an an additional $10,000 grant for the arts
programs in each of the fi ve schools.
Cheryl Rizzo, who teaches seventh
and eighth grade ELA at P.S. 232 Th e
Lindenwood School, located at 153-23
83rd St., was speechless when she found
out she was the grand prize winner of the
FLAG Award.
“I thought I was going to have a heart
attack. I don’t really get like that, but I’ve
never had an experience like this before,”
said Rizzo, who was surprised with a special
presentation by the school principal,
her family, students and staff in the school
auditorium.
Rizzo was nominated for the award
by the school’s principal, Lisa Josephson,
who thought she embodied the values
that the foundation highlighted in terms
of being creative and innovative in the
classroom.
The FLAG Award for Teaching
Excellence award was founded by Glenn
and Amanda Fuhrman, recognizing and
celebrating extraordinary public school
teachers who inspire learning through
creativity, passion and commitment. Th e
award is funded by the FLAG Foundation
for Excellence in Education and by the
Fuhrman Family Foundation. It is administered
by Co-Presidents Risa Daniels and
Laura Twersky.
“Anyone who’s ever met a public school
teacher knows that they are always putting
their students fi rst, and this year’s
winners proved that point and so much
more. All of the teachers we’ve learned
about through this process have shown
that nothing — not even a global pandemic
that took so much from so many
— could stop them from innovating and
creating spaces where students could
learn, share, grow and thrive,” said Glenn
Fuhrman, co-founder of Th e FLAG
Award for Teaching Excellence.
The FLAG Award for Teaching
Excellence, which just completed its second
year with an expansion to the entire
city, received close to 1,000 nominations
from students, parents, principals and
colleagues. Th irty-fi ve semifi nalists were
selected from the nominees, and they
were required to complete a comprehensive
application, participate in an interview
process which included an interview
with their principal, and submit supplementary
materials.
Th e $25,000 cash prizes for the winners
are for teachers’ personal use. Th e
additional school awards of $10,000 each
are to be used for arts education initiatives
with input from the winning teachers.
(Arts education is an area that is oft en
underfunded in public schools.)
An independent jury comprising education,
From left to right: Brianna Rizzo (Cheryl’s daughter), Anthony Rizzo (Cheryl’s husband), Cheryl Rizzo, Brian Mann (Cheryl’s father), Coreen Mann (Cheryl’s
mother).
community and philanthropic
leaders, including Dr. Betty Rosa, commissioner
of education and president
of the University of the State of New
York, selected the winners based on criteria
that placed emphasis on the student
experience.
“Teachers, students, administrators and
families are completing a school year
unlike anything we have ever experienced
before, and it is important that we take
the time to honor what has been accomplished.
I am thrilled at this opportunity
to recognize and celebrate our inspirational
teachers,” Rosa said.
For Rizzo, to be able to have a celebration
at the end of a challenging school
year during the COVID-19 pandemic was
mind blowing, she said.
Th ough she is the grand prize winner for
her innovative teaching style, Rizzo added
that she couldn’t do it alone and credited
the school community for coming together
to keep their students engaged.
“I really feel very grateful that I can
work at P.S. 232. It’s just an unbelievable
community of people — you always feel
welcome. It’s a home away from home,”
Rizzo said. “Th e principal always says ‘Go
for it’ and we are allowed to think outside
of the box and generate new ideas, and the
students are just amazing – they are really
creative and innovative.”
As an ELA teacher, Rizzo takes her lessons
one step further by transforming
her classroom — real and virtual — to
enhance what a class is reading. Over the
years, her classroom has become a coff ee
shop, a yoga studio and a campsite.
While New York City public schools
had transitioned to online learning during
the pandemic, Rizzo’s students created
a virtual escape room to accompany
their reading of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”
Rizzo works to nurture her students’ creativity
and empowers them to contribute
to lesson plans. She also created a student
ELA advisory group in which the students
vote for their representatives who
then serve as liaisons between her and the
entire grade.
“I’ve done this before the pandemic, but
this year, I relied on them so much more.
Th ey are really great with technology and
really gave a fresh perspective and kept
everyone motivated,” Rizzo said.
Rizzo also founded “Cookies and
Conversations,” a book club where students,
parents and faculty members take
action alongside the texts they read.
“It’s not just an everyday regular lesson.
We try to work towards a fi nal
project,” Rizzo said.
For example, while they couldn’t meet
in person, Rizzo’s students worked on a
virtual project aft er listening to country
singer Dolly Parton’s podcast, analyzing
her song lyrics, and reading articles about
her contributions to her community.
Inspired by Parton’s “Coat of Many
Colors,” Rizzo’s students came up with the
idea to design a virtual P.S. 232 “Hoodie
of Colors” representing unity, which was
then created into actual hoodies and was
sold to raise money for the Dolly Parton
Imagination Library.
“Th e kids were so excited that they were
able to help at least 10 kids that will get
Photo Courtesy of Rizzo
a book a month,” Rizzo said. “It teaches
them how they can make a diff erence and
make an impact by paying it forward and
helping other kids in this country improve
their literacy. Th at’s the kind of thing that
kept me moving forward.”
One “Cookies and Conversations” project
was the creation of a community garden
that Rizzo would like for her school to turn
into “a source of inspiration and a place to
create” for students, she said.According to
Rizzo, she plans to use the $10,000 to renovate
the dilapidated outdoor green reading
space for the school community.
“We are looking to not just replace the
benches with recycled green benches that
won’t give the kids splinters, but make it
an inspiring creative space,” Rizzo said.
“For example, the kids were dreaming to
make directional signs saying, ‘A thousand
miles to Narnia.’”
As for herself, Rizzo says she might use the
$25,000 to take a family vacation to a historically
based landmark, such as their last visit
to F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald’s house.
“Th ose kinds of vacations renew me and
energize me and give me ideas of how to
bring education alive in the classroom,”
Rizzo said.
Overall, Rizzo says she is happy that the
school and community is being recognized,
but, even more so, she’s happy that
the foundation is shining a spotlight on
the fi eld of education and the importance
of educators.
“It’s amazing what the foundation is
doing to bring light and honor that,” Rizzo
said. “I hope it inspires other people to
join and do the same.”
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