In Laurel Nyeboe’s classroom, second- and third-grade children discuss stories in The New York Times, jump in place to solve math problems and earn certificates for good behavior.

It’s a way of following the curriculum and having fun at the same time, and parents at P.S. 40, Augustus Saint-Gaudens School, have taken notice—so much so that they wouldn’t mind reliving their elementary school days themselves.

“I wish I was 7 again and in her class,” said Carla Massey, a parent at the school.

Nyeboe, 58, has been an educator for 23 years and has taught at P.S. 40 for the last five. Her goal in teaching is to make sure the students learn math, reading, writing and all the fundamentals, but she doesn’t stop there; she works through the curriculum and the children’s passions to help them develop critical thinking skills and social consciousness.

“My premise is opening up the world to the children and exposing them to it as much as possible,” Nyeboe said. “I want them to live in a bigger world.”

Nyeboe starts off every year reading books by Roald Dahl and Robert Munsch, whose zany stories help children see “outside a formula.” She encourages the children to discuss stories in the newspaper in a way that’s age-appropriate and uses terms they understand to keep them engaged. One parent remembered her third-grader coming home and saying, “Mom, are you aware of the tax problems in Paris?”
It’s that sort of experience that makes Nyeboe popular with parents.

“Ms. Nyeboe infuses her students with her enthusiasm for learning. Her curiosity is contagious. She has a direct pipeline to the imaginations of her students. She knows what makes children tick. She sees the world in a grain of sand,” Massey wrote, nominating Nyeboe for a Blackboard Award.

“She opens doors to the world and inspires students to cross their threshold. Each of her students feels loved.”

Nyeboe got her start in education at P.S. 183 under then-principal Tanya Kaufman, who transformed the struggling school to a success story. At P.S. 183, Nyeboe worked on a “looping” schedule, where teachers spend time with the same kids year after year. That experience allowed her to develop deep relationships with the families.

“One mother I’m still friends with claims I helped her raise her child,” Nyeboe recalled fondly.

After 15 years at P.S. 183, she moved on to the New Teacher Mentor Program, where she stayed for the next three years. She missed spending time with students in classroom, though, so she took a position at P.S. 40.

Nyeboe recently took the LSAT and plans to go into school law. This fall, she’ll also move on to a new school where she will reconnect with a former colleague as her new principal. “It’s like coming home,” she said.

By Gavin Aronsen

“It’s a magical place,” said P.S. 40 Principal Susan Felder, settling on the proper words to define her school. “There’s something really special about our kids.”

Felder has been at the elementary school for the past seven years, during which time she has helped mold it into one of the best in Manhattan’s high-performing second district.

A teacher helps one of her students at P.S. 40. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

The key, she said, is the theme of community, evident in the class curriculum, school staff and active relationships with parents and others in the vicinity of the school on E. 20th St. The theme, she added, is “also how we live our lives in the building.”

As an example, during a tour of the school, Felder pointed out two 1st graders who held a door open for her on their way back to class.

“How many kids do you know who would do that for us?” she asked.

P.S. 40, also called Augustus Saint-Gaudens, is home to 589 students from pre-kindergarten through the 5th grade, with an average class size of about 25 students.

In addition to the standard reading, writing and arithmetic, children in each grade enjoy an outside arts program. Some students visit local restaurants and apply what they learn to open a restaurant of their own at the school. Others put on stage performances with help from the National Dance Institute or start a circus.

Over the lunch hour, while walking down the kindergarten hallway—grades are divided physically by corridors—Felder made it sound as though some teachers might wish the students’ restaurants were open in their rooms at that moment.

One teacher stood near her classroom door eating a small fruit cup. Another, 40-year veteran Roni Morris, sat on the ground—fruit cup-less—designing a chart for an afternoon class.

Said Felder, “When you talk about our school, it’s basically based upon three fundamental concepts: academic excellence, our curriculum and the way we live together as a community.”

Another mission statement, penned last year by the student council, simplifies it: “At P.S. 40 children are learning, safe, and happy.”

In a 5th-grade classroom, students spoke about a recent activity involving a mock newsletter designed to give them a sense of how British American colonists might have felt about the Stamp Act of 1765.

“We expressed our feelings of how we felt about five cents for a piece of paper,” a boy in the class explained. “We found that we were trying to relate to the colonists.”

In a computer lab, students worked on computer diagrams that described their classmates. A sign on the door outside read “Media Literacy”—a recent name change that came with a full-time lab instructor.

“Which is really what elementary school’s all about: literacy,” Felder said.

It comes as no surprise, then, that after teaching for 12 years on the Upper West Side and before serving as principal of an Upper East Side school, Felder spent time as a literacy staff developer.

The school’s focus on literacy is evident from the moment one enters. An easel just inside the front entrance, signed with a heart and the name “Ms. Felder,” greets people with the word of the week. At the beginning of November, that word was “elect.”

“Today we elected a new governor, Andrew Cuomo,” the easel read. “What would you do if you became governor of New York State?”

Felder said teachers would “always celebrate” when students begin using a word of the week on their own.

“We want to create independent learners,” Felder said. “Upper grades have electives once a week on Thursday afternoons where they get to go off, almost like middle schoolers, to that class.”

As an example, one of the school’s science teachers leads a class where students get to learn about outer space. Other options include continuing Spanish education—mandatory in early grades—and music.

Lukas Yurasits, a 5th grader who recently helped give a tour of his own for prospective parents of new children to the school, said he enjoyed all the opportunities for independent learning.

“I really like that all of the special activities are really fun,” he said.

Lukas, who has spent more than five years at the school now, said that although he was excited to continue touring middle schools he will potentially attend, he would miss his elementary.

“I’ve been in this community and I love it so much,” he said. “I’m kind of sad that I have to go middle school now.”

Third-grade teacher Laurel Nyeboe said the school had a real “spirit of camaraderie,” which lingered among many students who have graduated to middle school and their parents.

Nyeboe has spent the past seven years at P.S. 40—three years as a mentor for new teachers and then four more as a classroom teacher. That bucked the trend of her colleagues, she said, who found work as school principals after mentoring.

She said she has no intentions of leaving, and she credited Felder for her dedication to her job.

By Linnea Covington

With a cheerful “Good morning!” Will Owen greets each student in his 4th-grade class as they sit down. As soon as they are settled, he does something he calls “stretching,” which entails lessons like pre-reading and observation, to ready their minds for learning. Then they are off, delving into worlds of history, science and—Owen’s personal favorite—math.

Will Owen launched his career in education at a Bronx middle school through the Teach for America program.

“Will is a great teacher because he’s always so happy and ready to teach us,” said 9-year-old Sydney Ambers, one of his students. “He also makes us feel proud of ourselves for working hard.”

But teaching wasn’t always on Owen’s mind. After a friend explained the difference it made in his life, Owen, who had just finished college, couldn’t get the notion out of his head.

“I would go to bed at night and I couldn’t sleep because I was thinking about all these great things I could do teaching,” he said. “It was a career choice that fit my personality.”

In 2004, Owen left his home state of Michigan and joined the non-
profit Teach for America, which focuses on getting teachers into underserved schools. His first day in a classroom, at the School of Leadership Development, C.I.S 313, in the Bronx, coincidently fell on his 23rd birthday. Owen stayed there for three years, teaching 6th-grade math before he transferred to P.S. 40 to run a 3rd-grade class. Now, he teachers 4th grade, “an amazing grade,” he said. Students and parents think so too—especially with Owen at the helm.

“His genuine love and concern really shines through all aspects of his teaching,” said parent Jill Hing. “I see my son blossoming in ways I don’t even think he is aware of.”

Although Owen says teaching didn’t come naturally at first, he studied other educators and read books until he gained the confidence to run a classroom.

“I think we [his class] have a really good relationship,” he said. “It’s about making it exciting and digging into the subjects. Also, I make sure the content of the lesson can be related to their lives and their worlds.”

One program that pushes students to succeed is his “Top Dog” theme, which started at the beginning of the year and entailed studying famous people, like Louis Braille, Harriet Tubman and the Wright Brothers. Inspired by these historical accomplishments, students would work hard to be named “Top Dog of the Week.” The chosen student was highlighted and received praise from classmates about his or her achievements.

“Featuring one student as a Top Dog each week keeps our focus on working hard and treating each other respectfully,” he said. “It’s amazing how the kids search for and find genuine reasons for their classmate being featured.”

This motivational tactic seems to reflect Owen’s approach to teaching as a whole.

“He respects his students’ intellect, but also remembers that they are children and they need positive reinforcement to thrive,” said Sydney’s mother, Jesse Ambers. “But, most importantly, I think that the students know that he is on their side.”

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Will Owen
4th grade, P.S. 40