DOE Honors Its ‘Apple Corps’ Whose Teaching Efforts Made a Difference

Shani Perez, a Visual Arts Teacher at P.S. 51 Elias Howe in Manhattan, was hosting a citywide professional-development session for art instructors when she got a call from an unfamiliar number. “I thought it was the delivery person asking for them to get paid for the breakfast that we ordered, and it was the Chancellor,” she said.

She was on the phone with Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña, who told her she was one of a dozen Teachers who would be honored June 15 as 2015 Big Apple Award winners. The Teachers, who gathered under the dome of Manhattan State Supreme Court with hundreds of family members and colleagues, were presented with apple-shaped trophies by Ms. Fariña, Mayor de Blasio and United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew.