New Haven Independent

The two former recipients of a Community Foundation-administered Teacher of the Year contest are preparing to judge a new round of nominations submitted by parents and other members of the public.

Idis Trottman came to the city schools, at age 46, after a career in business, to teach third-graders science and technology. He’s the new assistant principal at Truman School.

Norine Polio teaches English to new arrivals at East Rock Global Studies Magnet School. “I look around my room,” she says, “and I have this palette of things, approaches. I try this dab of color, and then this dab, and maybe that until it works.” She came to the job from a career sewing costumes for opera, circus, and theater companies.

The annual Teacher Excellence Award has been given by the Greater New Haven Community Foundation since 1998, funded by NewAlliance Bank. This year’s past winners Trotman and Polio sit on the judging committee.

They were on hand recently at the foundation offices to talk about teaching and to drum up nominees from the public. It is hoped that at least 50 nominations will come in, from each of New Haven’s K through 12 schools.

Anyone can nominate — principals, teachers, parents, and even students. The winnowing is rigorous, with references required, and site visits to see some of those moments of luminous pedagogy in action. There will be four to six winners, each receiving $1,000, a little of the recognition long deserved, which is the raison de’etre of the program.

The deadline for receipt of nominations is Feb. 15. Click here for the form. And here for questions or more information. Read on to hear a brief interview in which two great teachers discuss their mysterious, life-affirming craft:

How were you nominated, and do you see yourself as excellent educators?

Trottman: No, you don’t see yourself as dynamic, or as this or that. No, you are down there, on your knees working with the kids. You see your failures and your repeated attempts. You don’t see the forest for the trees. And then, as in my case, when parents nominated me [in 2002] … well that is more than an honor. That really made me blush.

Polio: I take kids out of the classroom to teach them English at East Rock, and when I took two special needs kids out of a young teacher’s class, and then they started to do well, she was just appreciative, I guess. She nominated me [in 2006], and I was really surprised and touched because I really didn’t know her very well, and she is a young colleague.

Why do people go into teaching?

Trottman: Well, it’s not for money. Do you know what a pay cut I took! And it’s certainly not for prestige or respect; it’s the only profession where a mother on crack can berate you and you can’t talk back to her or even make a comment without talking to your principal! No, young people coming in today… it’s for something, as I say, hard to describe.

And why did you make the major transition?

Trottman: I wanted, as an African-American man, to help in the community. And I saw what was going on, and I realized that I could do a lot more working with 5-year-olds, showing them love of learning, then getting them at eighteen years old when a lot has already happened… . But I tell you this, when you’re in a school where people love to be with the kids, and they are warm with them and each other, and learning is happening, the atmosphere is unique, it’s electric.

Polio: The award was fine, it’s wonderful. But this I can tell you for sure. There are of course problems, but not a day goes by when I don’t feel deeply appreciated. How many jobs can you say that about?

Will you be looking for teachers in this new round who overcome some newer challenges? I mean, for example, the current atmosphere with the emphasis on testing, does it make great teaching easier or harder?

Polio: Honestly, one of the criteria we judge by is creativity. [Others include inspiration, innovation, nurturing, the fashioning of a “best practice.”] I must say creativity in the classroom is harder and harder. I believe Dr. Mayo [the schools superintendent] agrees. There are too many things that a teacher has to do, to prepare for the testing, that are scripted. I’ve seen extraordinarily talented teachers not be able to tear away, as much as they want to, from having to cover xyz today and another script tomorrow.

So, to conclude, are we any closer to defining excellence in teaching?

Trottman: Look, teachers who are real educators are always looking for that “luminous” moment when something happens with a child, when a door opens. Those very teachable moments happen to every kid, and tuning into them and knowing how, at the right time, to pour in all this knowledge and delight … well, if these moments occur when you need to be on script for testing, I hate to say it, but the moments could be lost. Reality today, with the No Child Left Behind pressures, works against those moments. There are great young teachers out there. The challenge in this new atmosphere is to find new ways to nurture them.

Polio: That extra dimension has to do with something like an ability to keep asking yourself in the case of each kid: Does this make sense? To keep trying. You need lots of strength, lots of ability to keep examining what you’re doing to reach kids.

* * * *

Paul McCraven, senior vice president for community development for NewAlliance, said in an email message that his company endows this award “because we believe that attraction and retention of high quality teachers is the most critical factor in improving our educational system.”

In addition to the Teacher Excellence Award, which is for New Haven’s public school teachers, New Alliance’s $500,000 endowment funds a needs-based scholarship assistance program that helps economically strapped families keep their kids in private or religious schools in the city.

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