Formerly Homeless Harlem Educator Is NY's State Teacher Of The Year

HARLEM, NY — Billy Green's desire to teach dates back to early childhood — and to a period he spent living in an abandoned building after he was evicted as a teenager.

"I was homeless, I was living in the streets, and as a squatter in this abandoned apartment, I started a school on 119th Street between Lexington and Park Avenue," Green said in a video released Tuesday by the New York State United Teachers union.

"I had three students and I had my own schedule," he recalled.

Green, now a chemistry teacher at Harlem's A. Philip Randolph Campus High School, has come a long way since then. On Tuesday, the New York State Board of Regents named him the state's 2023 teacher of the year.

"Student success is at the core of everything Mr. Green does, from his thoughtful and engaging lessons to helping meet the diverse needs of students and families beyond the classroom," said Lester Young Jr., the board's chancellor, in a statement.

"He understands that for young people to flourish, they need to feel involved, appreciated, and valued."

Green's classroom approach is creative and incorporates the arts — in one recent class, he had students study the periodic table of the elements while playing musical chairs, then check their classmates' work once the music stopped, according to the teacher's union.

"A lot of the times, we are so stuck into a curriculum that we’re not flexible enough to let these kids' culture come through our doors," Green explained. "That’s all I want."

Green, who knew since age three that he wanted to teach, attended the Manhattan East School for Arts middle school in East Harlem, but suffered eviction as his mother dealt with addiction.

He went on to Williams College in Massachusetts, where he entered a pre-med program before ultimately opting for teaching. Besides chemistry, Green has also created elective courses like "Hip Hop and Science Education" and "Sociocultural Perspectives of Science Education through Arts Practices," and co-facilitates the school's LGBTQ affinity group.

His new recognition likely comes as no surprise to Green's colleagues and students, who are largely Black and brown. In the teachers' union video, student Ibrahima Jalloh said Green is "not only just a chemistry teacher."

"He helped me being more creative and artistic, being more expressive and confident within myself," Jalloh said.

David Fanning, the principal at A. Philip Randolph, said Green excels at meeting students on their levels.

"You need to keep it real with kids, and Billy keeps it very real with kids," Fanning said.

Green had previously been a finalist for teacher of the year in 2019. In the new role, he will "serve as an ambassador for teachers across the state" and be New York's nominee in the National Teacher of the Year contest.

The recognition, he said, validates all those who are "very proud of where we came from."

"I lived through the crack era, I experienced when Harlem was not gentrified," he said. "And that’s what this award means to me. That my community gets to see an example of when you work hard, you stay in a community, you do for your community, the power and the privilege and the award comes back to your community."