Math teacher Kemeisha Barrett of Brooklyn, New York, has garnered a 2023-2024 Big Apple Award. Photo credit: Ebbetts Field Middle School
The city of New York is very proud of their public school teachers. In fact, city leaders regularly honor exceptional educators with their annual Big Apple Awards. For the 2023-2024 school year, one of these exceptional educators was Kemeisha Barrett, a middle school mathematics teacher at Ebbets Field Middle School in Brooklyn.
Kemeisha says her goal as an educator is to equip her seventh and eighth grade students with the tools they need to become problem-solvers and independent learners. “Math is often seen as a challenging subject, but I believe all students are capable of being successful with math,” she declares. “Students respond well when they are able to make connections between their academic encounters and cultural backgrounds. As such, I have challenged myself to establish a culturally responsive classroom environment for ALL of my students,” she continues.
The school where Kemeisha teaches is as special as the honored teacher. Ebbets Field Middle School is an education center founded in 2005 and located on the Jackie Robinson campus, the original home of the Brooklyn Dodgers. A large number of students who attend the school are immigrants or the children of immigrants. The learners who attend the school form a small community where every teacher knows every student and every student has plenty of opportunities to form and maintain strong friendships with other students.
This year, the Big Apple Awards were presented to 49 superlative New York City teachers. Each one was nominated by their principal for work in the profession that inspires students, models great teaching, and enriches school communities. The recipients were chosen through a rigorous selection process that includes community nominations, principal recommendations, classroom visits, an interview, and a review by a board of judges. To learn more about the program and this year’s recipients, click on this link to Big Apple Awards.
