By Jennifer Misthal
When Principal Brian O'Connell took the microphone before elementary students, their parents and teachers June 11, he had a surprise for everyone: Todes, a fifth-grade teacher, was this year's recipient of the 2003-2004 Teacher of the Year Award, sponsored by the Teachers' Insurance Plan.
The announcement came as a surprise to Todes, who did not know O'Connell had nominated her a few months earlier.
“I won't try to talk,” an emotional Todes told the crowd. “This is too much for me.”
Todes, a teacher for more than 35 years, explained that her mother had pushed her to become a teacher because she would always be able to find work.
Stephen Zerio, a teacher agent manager for the Teachers' Insurance Plan, a Connecticut-based company that sells auto insurance to teachers, presented Todes with a plaque, a $1,000 check and a copy of O'Connell's letter that secured Todes' award.
In the letter, O'Connell said Todes' commute each day from her Manhattan home takes two hours and requires her riding on two buses. Describing Todes as energetic and selfless, O'Connell wrote that the teacher always puts her students first and is more than willing to meet with them on her own time.
One of 260 nominees this year, Todes was selected unanimously by a panel of judges, comprised of public and private school teachers, administrators and union officials, Zerio said.
“Her total dedication to the field of education came out to us in the nomination,” he said.
Accepting the award in a Renaissance-era red dress, Todes admitted she sacrifices both her living room and her Saturday nights to designing lesson plans. She also buys her class pizza and gives them tours of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Saturdays, said Claudia McDade, whose daughter Jesse is in Todes' class.
“They all love her. They have so much fun in her class,” McDade said. “She's the most intelligent person I've ever met in my life. She's amazing, an absolute wealth of knowledge.”
McDade said the class has read four Shakespeare plays and even performed a mock trial for “Macbeth” with a very different outcome from the Elizabethan tragedy.
“They're really set to go into junior high school,” she said of the students in Todes' class. “They have an excellent background in literature, math, everything.”
Fellow teacher Joan Diehel, a former recipient of this award, said she was pleased with the news.
“Some people teach to live. I think she lives to teach,” Diehel said. “Everything in her room, every nook and cranny in her classroom is filled with her love for teaching and children. And I mean filled.”
The Renaissance Fair only reinforced Todes' dedication to teaching. She refused to let the limelight linger on her for too long, letting fifth-graders take center stage in their performances, which included dances, songs and even some acting by a group that looked better suited for 16th-century Italy than contemporary Queens.
“She really deserves the award she got,” McDade said. “The kids are learning in a way that's not bookwork or homework.”
Reach intern Jennifer Misthal by e-mail at news@timesledger.com.
