Hip, Hip, Hooray!
PS8 Receives Blackboard Award!
By Tim Eldridge
The annual Blackboard Awards, sponsored by Manhattan Media, is focused on inspiring greater dialogue and positive developments throughout the city's educational community by identifying schools in which a vibrant, caring and challenging learning community thrives.
Last night, at an awards ceremony at Hunter College's 68th street campus, PS8 was among an outstanding field of 31 schools honored, including renowned private schools like nearby Packer Collegiate Institute, the United Nations International School, and St. Benards; outstanding religious schools like The Jewish Institute of Queens, St. Joseph's of Yorkville, and Heschel High School; and of course tip-top public schools like PS321 in Park Slope, MS 447 in Brooklyn, the NYC Museum School, and our very own PS8.
Principal Seth Phillips Accepts Blacklboard Award for PS8.
Photo by: Andrew Schwartz
The awards presentation was hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winner Frank McCourt, latterly an author best known for his books Angela's Ashes and Teacher Man, and formerly a teacher here in New York.
Presenting the Blackboard Award for Brooklyn's Rising Star Public Elementary School to Principal Phillips, Mr. McCourt noted PS8's "Cinderella Story" turnaround from being grossly under enrolled in 2003, when less than a third of the students were meeting test-standards in English and Math, to a place now deeply popular, expanding rapidly and with test results doing well indeed.
Your browser may not support display of this image.
"There are over 1,500 public schools in the city as well as countless private and religious schools," observed Principal Phillips, who continued "being recognized alongside 30 other outstanding schools is a great honor, a tribute to the phenomenal work of PS8's remarkable faculty, and a just reward for PS8's entire community which continues to provide tremendous support."
Mr. McCourt, an entertaining host with hands-on experience of the challenges facing educators, took the opportunity throughout the evening to acknowledge the silent heroes: teachers. "Why don't talk shows ever talk to teachers?" he asked of the audience, noting that he had asked the same question of Katie Couric and Conan O'Brien, who, he said, didn't know how to reply. "No-one ever took my photo when I was a teacher," he joked when pausing onstage for a snapshot with an award recipient. His humor resonated with an audience that knows better than most the extraordinary dedication and accomplishments of great teachers, like those at PS8, who make awards like this possible.
Manhattan Media, which organizes the Blackberry Awards, is profiling all of the award winners in forthcoming issues of its publication Our Town.
So far just the Elementary School winners have been profiled, which is fortunate for PS8. Here's the link to the article on PS8's award, entitled "A Brooklyn Heights Success Story".
To see the write up of other elementary school winners, go here.
To see the write up of Middle & High Schools, revisit forthcoming issues of Our Town.
Posted on: October 17, 2008
