Honoring 16 Outstanding Teachers: 2012 Blackboard Awards

Almost all of us can remember a teacher who took the extra time to inspire us in some way. Many can recall several, which is why every year, Manhattan Media honors outstanding teachers throughout the city with our Blackboard Awards. Sixteen teachers from New York City private, charter and traditional public schools are being honored this year with Blackboards. This year, the 11th for the Blackboards, we received about 1,000 nominations from parents, students, principals and fellow teachers, and the final selections were made by editors and executives from four Manhattan Media publications-Our Town, West Side Spirit, Our Town Downtown and New York Family. One of our honorees, the beloved Jon Goldman at The Beacon School, unfortunately died this spring, but we wanted to recognize his extraordinary work over the years. In these pages, you'll find 16 remarkable stories of teachers, including Susie Kavanaugh at Corlears Elementary School, who empties her classroom every year so her students can decide how to fill it up, and Ross Grosshart, an electrical engineer who changed jobs mid-career so he could teach college-level courses at Brooklyn Tech. Several other Blackboard winners also chose teaching after starting on a different path, and their students and our city are better off because of it. -Josh Rogers, Editor, Backboard Awards [Barbara Ciner: Life Lessons Before Kindergarten](http://nypress.com/blackboard-awards-barbara-ciner-life-lessons-before-kindergarten/) [Rose Coffield: Pre-K Teacher Uses Video to Teach Kids About Play](http://nypress.com/blackboard-awards-rose-coffield-pre-k-teacher-uses-video-to-teach-kids-about-play/) [Cara Beseda, She'll Give a Student the Socks Off Her Feet](http://nypress.com/blackboard-awards-cara-beseda-shell-give-a-student-the-socks-off-her-feet/) [Lisa Harrelson, She Cheers Students, and They Return the Favor](http://nypress.com/blackboard-awards-lisa-harrelson-she-cheers-students-and-they-return-the-favor/) [Lindsay Wener, Life Lessons from the South Side to the Upper East Side](http://nypress.com/blackboard-awards-lindsay-werner-life-lessons-from-the-south-side-to-the-upper-east-side/) [Tonia Percy, Second Graders Are Happy to See a Familiar Face](http://nypress.com/blackboard-awards-tonia-percy-second-graders-are-happy-to-see-a-familiar-face/) [Laurel Nyeboe, Opening the Doors to the World](http://nypress.com/blackboard-awards-laurel-nyeboe-opening-the-doors-to-the-world/) [Susie Kavanaugh She Empties the Classroom Before Filling Their Minds](http://nypress.com/blackboard-awards-susie-kavanaugh-she-empties-the-classroom-before-filling-their-minds/) [Jonathan Goldman, Beacon Students Remember Jon, Their Inspirational Teacher](http://nypress.com/blackboard-awards-jonathan-goldman-beacon-students-remember-jon-their-inspirational-teacher/) [Sammie Smith, A Passion for Writing, Theater and Latin](http://nypress.com/blackboard-awards-sammie-smith-a-passion-for-writing-theater-and-latin/) [Lois Eder, Special Teacher Making Strides with Students](http://nypress.com/blackboard-awards-lois-eder-special-teacher-making-strides-with-students/) [Andrew Adler, Using Computers to Teach the Three Rs](http://nypress.com/blackboard-awards-andrew-adler-using-computers-to-teach-the-three-rs/) [Marija Kero, Bringing Math Alive by Connecting it to Students' Lives](http://nypress.com/blackboard-awards-marija-kero-bringing-math-alive-by-connecting-it-to-students-lives/) [Dr. Warren Wollman, Physics Doctorate Demystifies Mathematics at Rodeph Sholom](http://nypress.com/blackboard-awards-dr-warren-wollman-physics-doctorate-demystifies-mathematics-at-rodeph-sholom/) [Bernadette Robine, From Paris to Brooklyn](http://nypress.com/blackboard-awards-bernadette-robine-from-paris-to-brooklyn/) [Ross Grosshart, Engineer Goes Back to High School Mid-Career](http://nypress.com/blackboard-awards-ross-grosshart-engineer-goes-back-to-high-school-mid-career/)