Non-Profit Awards 2 New York City Teachers $20K

FINANCIAL DISTRICT, NY — Two teachers got an award for $20,000 from non-profit organization of math and science teachers Wednesday.

Math for America awarded Gary Rubinstein, a math teacher at Stuyvesant High School for the past 17 years, as well as Lynn Shon, a science teacher at M.S. 88 in Brooklyn, with the non-profit's Muller Award for Professional Influence in Education.

The two master teachers at the non-profit have led the way for impactful work in the teaching profession, the non-profit says.

Rubinstein has mentored hundreds of math teachers and runs a YouTube channel about mathematics. The noted Teach for America critic doesn't hold back from weighing in on the politics of education either. He has been blogging on education policy for a decade.

Through those efforts, he hopes his teaching "could influence more than just my 200 students a year, but potentially millions of people," he said.

"You can be a great teacher, you can impact your students. But if you are able to also impact other teachers, then you impact their students also," he said.

At M.S. 88 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, Shon has been teaching science for nine years.

But beyond her own classroom, she has helped to create a curriculum at six schools in Brooklyn focused on teaching kids about climate change. The curriculum, called the Resilient Schools Consortium and backed by a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, helps students connect and understand how climate change impacts their own backyards.

"It's a big honor [to win the award] because it's my privilege to be a part of a community that has made me stronger and given me the courage to do what I do," Shon said.

She's also a member of the city's Department of Education Science Leadership Team — and said she incorporates climate action into as much of her teaching as possible.

Shon says it's critical to make "sure that students are actually addressing issues that will empower their own lives," she said. In her middle-school science classes, she incorporates climate action into her curriculum by connecting students with their local ecosystems — like at Jamaica Bay or the Gowanus Canal.

"When you teach around local issues [and] real world issues, your classroom transcends disciplines and it really becomes just a space to problem solve," she said.

The Math for America award gives New York City public school teachers a $20,000 award, as well as $5,000 to Stuy and the National Wildlife Federation — the two places that nominated Rubinstein and Shon, respectively.

"These teachers perfectly represent [Math for America's] goals," said the non-profit's president John Ewing. "They are masters of both their subject and their craft, and they use that mastery to influence the teaching profession in profound ways."

The non-profit also announced two runner-ups for the award: math teacher Kate Belin from Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School and chemistry teacher Michael Holmes from the High School of American Studies at Lehman College in the Bronx.

Rubinstein and Shon were awarded at a ceremony Wednesday evening in the Flatiron District.