Melinda Tuhus Photo
A beloved teacher inspired Zakiyyah Baker when Baker was a student at Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School. Now Baker teaches at the same school — and is inspiring students herself.
Baker (at right in photo) was selected as this year’s New Haven Teacher of the Year. She shared some of her secrets this week as as she joined top teachers from Hamden, West Haven and North Haven at a taping of N’Zinga Shani’s public-access television show. “21st Century Conversations”.
“I always knew I wanted to work with teenagers,” said Baker. She had planned to become a social worker. One day she stopped in at Co-op one day to say hi to her former teacher, Sally Kaczynski, who convinced her to co-teach a theater class at Co-op.
“She was my teacher in high school, and I may have been nominated Teacher of the Year, but that woman — I love you, Ms. K — had everything to do with it,” Baker said. “She’s retiring this year. She taught me the ropes; I was able to watch her, and I’m sure she learned from me as well.”
So instead of earning as master’s degree in social work, Baker switched to getting a master’s in education. Then she landed a full-time job at Co-op teaching language arts
“Nurture and challenge” sums up Baker’s philosophy in dealing with her students.
“It’s really important to be able to nurture the young people that walk into the classroom, and to balance that with challenging them academically,” she said. She added that she often acts as a coach “where I’m trying to teach my students that even though these obstacles may exist in their lives, that they still have to persevere.”
Larry Stein and Don Johnson.
Three out of the four educators taping Shani’s program Monday night are teaching in the school systems they graduated from. Larry Stein (pictured on left) teaches fifth grade in Hamden, after being inspired by his Hamden High physics teacher, Mr. Sweet. “It was never him giving us the answers,” Stein said. “It was all hands-on,” whether students were creating huge bubbles or test-flying paper airplanes. Rosanne Ferraro appeared on the show too; she’s the West Haven teacher of the year.
One subject got all four teachers excited and talking at once: reading. In the cacophany that resulted, these words emerged: “Read a book, every single day.” Other suggestions for parents included taking kids on nature walks, watching TV shows together and discussing them, and just having conversations with your children.
“It’s really important for parents to know that the older their children get, the more they need them in their lives,” Baker said. “I think so many times parents think, ‘This one is older so they can take care of themselves,’ and it’s just not true. I see so many of my students who are just calling out for their parents’ attention; they want to know that their parents are concerned about their education.”
Asked for specifics, she said, “Like asking them about their homework, going over their homework with them, or sitting down next to them and reading a book or the newspaper, or just asking them how their day was. A lot of my students don’t even see their parents during the course of a day — maybe [parents could] send them a text message, ‘How was your day today?’”
And, on a society-wide level, they said pre-school is critical to getting young children coming to kindergarten ready to learn.
Districts select their teacher of the year in different ways. Baker, for example, was nominated by her school administrator and chosen by a committee of top administrators district-wide. Johnson, on the other hand, was chosen by a committee that included teachers and parents as well as administrators.