On May 2nd, 2017 (a week in advance of National Teachers Day) The Academy for Teachers held its annual “Show Teachers the Love!” celebration. This year’s celebrity-filled program featured performances by MATTHEW BRODERICK, VANESSA WILLIAMS, JOY BEHAR, RON BLAKE, SEAN CROSS, PHIL GALDSTON, TAYLOR MALI, and BASIL TWIST. It also was The Academy’s first benefit after five years of honoring and supporting exceptional NYC teachers. A unique feature of this event is that half our audience were teachers, who came for free to feel the love. The other half was donors, who came to show it.
The Academy also presented the first Woodridge Award for Great Teachers*, an honor given annually to teachers identified by prominent New Yorkers as having made a critical difference in their lives. This year, conductor, composer, and MacArthur “genius” FRANCISCO NÚÑEZ handed the Woodridge Award to his middle school teacher, PATRICA REDD JOHNSON.
ABOUT THE ACADEMY FOR TEACHERS
The Academy for Teachers honors and supports great teachers, our city’s most valuable resource. We bring New York’s most passionate, creative, and devoted educators together with prominent experts and artists for inspiring Master Classes and other events held in partnership with New York City’s leading institutions. Our goal is to increase respect for this noble profession. www.academyforteachers.org
*The Woodridge Award is named after Mattie Woodridge, an African American teacher who taught in Arkansas during Segregation. Woodridge won her school’s outstanding teacher award four times. Because she felt that all teachers should be celebrated, she campaigned for a national day to recognize teachers. After enlisting the support of Eleanor Roosevelt, the two of them lobbied Congress until, in 1953, National Teachers Day was established.
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