Surprise Award Honors ​“Life Changing” Teacher

Just like during every other day of the school year, East Rock Spanish teacher Magda Colón came to work on Thursday ready to celebrate the hard work of her students.

This time, she was in for a surprise — when her students and school staff turned that praise around, and presented her with an award recognizing the impact she’s had on their lives.

Colón was celebrated alongside her students Thursday morning at East Rock Community Magnet School at 133 Nash St. She received a ​“Life Changing Teaching” award during the school’s end-of-year recognition assembly, known as the Dream Assembly, which was hosted in East Rock’s gym. 

Colón was one of over 250 New Haven teachers nominated for the award thanks to the New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) district’s partnership with a teacher-recognition nonprofit called Honored Schools. 

The award is given to an educator to celebrate their impact and highlight the differences they have made in the lives of their students and school communities. Schools that participated for the district’s first year were High School in the Community, Hill Regional Career High School, Family Academy of Multilingual Exploration, and East Rock School. Honored Schools narrowed the candidate pool to four finalists. A panel of New Haven community leaders scored the nominees and selected a winner.

Students and staff dressed in vacation attire with pineapple-shaped sunglasses, floral shirts, colorful leis as necklaces and hair accessories, and grass skirts at the Thursday celebration. NHPS lets out for the summer in less than a week. 

To kick off the assembly students and staff recited the schools ​“Dream Pledge” as a collective, stating:

“I am dedicated to achieving my dream, I am respectful, ethical, and accepting of our diverse community. We will motivate each other to dream.” 

East Rock Principal Sabrina Breland encouraged the middle schoolers to remember and continue to be guided by the schools dream pledge throughout their summer vacation.

NHPS Assistant Supt. Viviana Conner and Director of Professional Learning and Leadership Development Edith Johnson surprised Colón with the award and prize money at the start of Thursday’s assembly. 

Before school staff went into spotlighting several students’ accomplishments and for ​“being caught doing the right thing,” which is what the Dream assembly highlights each year with student’s families, Johnson and Conner recognized Colón for doing the right things as an educator for the past nine years at East Rock. 

Staff celebrated Colón for her daily acts of kindness and for always finding a way to make students and staff ​“feel loved and accepted,” Johnson said. 

In addition to the recognition of Thursday’s award, Colón received a $5,000 check for her to use to support her family. 

Colón’s husband, mother, children and other family members surprised her at the celebration. 

Johnson said the district partnered with Honored Schools to ​“give back to teachers” through recognizing that education is a tough but rewarding career path. 

Students gave Johnson a drum roll and cheered in excited as she announced Colón the winner of the award.

She added that she hopes to continue the Honored School partnership and make awarding educators in the district an annual event. 

In an interview after receiving the award Colón described the moment as ​“spectacular” and herself as ​“little miss sunshine” as a result of not being able to stop smiling. 

Her family gifted her with an owl balloon, because owls are her favorite animal, and flowers.

When asked why she thinks she was nominated for the award, Colón said because ​“I fight for them [students] even if it may ruffle some feathers.” 

Colón previously taught in Milford and has been an educator for a total of 15 years. She has been working in New Haven for nine years. 

“I love them first, then teach them,” she said.

She often uses positive reinforcement in her classroom and during lunch periods can often be found giving up her lunch break to gather for group talks with some of her students. 

“Once what’s bothering them is out the way, education can take place,” she said. 

She described her students as an extension of her family and said she takes her role of being a ​“mom away from home” seriously by making sure her students eat breakfast, have their shoes tied, and give them her undivided attention to ​“always make them feel special and seen.”

Colón recalled growing up in the hallways of Wilbur Cross with her mother Myrta Bonilla, who retired in 2020 after 37 years of working as an administrator at the city’s largest high school. Bonilla worked for nine years with Johnson while the latter principal of Cross. 

She went from writing on her mother’s school chalkboards to getting her own at home to play ​“school” with her family, which often meant she would create classroom worksheets and grade them once complete. 

Now with four children of her own and over 100 students to teach at East Rock, Colón said she continues to live her teaching dream everyday. 

In her advice to other educators, Colón said: ​“Teach out of love and with love.” 

Don’t do it because of the money, the weekends ​“off,” and summer vacations, she said. She added that ​“when you love to learn, you’re a better teacher.” 

She said it isn’t uncommon for her to leave her workday daily ​“sweaty and drained” because to her that means she gave it her all. 

When asked if any of her children are looking to follow in her footsteps, Colón said she thinks her nine year old son Jacob would be a great teacher because he is gentle, patient, and loves to teach his younger brother about the many musical instruments he plays.