It's an honor
Erie 1 Professional Education Association member Jackie Albarella, a digital media teacher at Harkness Career and Technical Center, has won a national Telly Award for her documentary, "The Hotel Lafayette: Restoring Louise Bethune's Masterpiece." The film, broadcast on WNED: PBS Buffalo/Niagara, follows the two-year process of restoring this historic landmark.
Al Chandler, Smithtown Teachers Association retiree, was honored in the spring when the Smithtown School District renamed a baseball field at the High School East in his name. Chandler coached baseball in the district for 32 years.
Christian Farley, Hoosick Falls TA, is one of 30 educators nationwide to be selected by C-SPAN to attend their annual Summer Educators' Conference in Washington, D.C. Farley will learn about resources C-SPAN offers teachers to enhance the learning environment in their classrooms and see examples of how colleagues nationwide use C-SPAN programming for education.
Marty Hoctor and Joe Baglio, former football coaches and Patchogue-Medford Congress of Teachers retirees, and the 1977 Varsity Football Team were inducted into the inaugural Patchogue-Medford High School Hall of Fame in honor of their undefeated season in league play. Former coach Ed Cinelli was also honored.
Greg Sill, Smithtown TA, was selected to travel to Germany as a participant in the Goethe-Institut Transatlantic Outreach Program.
Eight NYSUT members received $5,000 NEA Foundation grants. Recipients include: United Federation of Teachers members Christine Sugrue and co-applicant Marisa Rosenberg, to study the Orton-Gillingham approach to improving literacy; UFT School-Related Professional Judy Cruz and co-applicant Lanaya Bellamy, to improve students' financial literacy through a stock market game; UFT members Denise Leonard and co-applicant Livia Pantuliano, to improve language skills and cultural understanding of English language learners with puppetry workshops on local history and government; and Malverne TA members Shannon Kelly and co-applicant Tara Sukman, to incorporate lab activities in their science classes.
In print
Lois Shapley Bassen, Oceanside FT retiree, published Summer of the Long Knives, an alternative-history novel which raises the question of how history might have turned out if an assassination plot against Adolph Hitler had been successful. The book is available at www.amazon.com.
Jerry Blumengarten, UFT retiree, has published Connecting Your Students with The World: Tools and Projects to Make Global Collaboration Come Alive, K-8. To order a copy, visit www.amazon.com or the publisher's website at www.routledge.com/9781138902961.
Thomas M. Grace, Faculty Federation of Erie Community College, has written Kent State: Death and Dissent in the Long Sixties. Published by the University of Massachusetts Press, the book reconstructs the history of the student movement on the campus where four students were killed in an antiwar clash in May 1970. Nine were wounded, including the author. The book is available online at https://www.umass.edu/umpress, Barnes and Noble and Amazon.
Jeff Konis, Yorktown CT, published The Conversations We Never Had, a historical fiction. The author's grandparents died in the Holocaust; his father was later raised by an aunt. Konis' father never asked about his own parents. The author, unfortunately, repeated that history and never asked his "Grandma Ola" anything about his family. This book chronicles Grandma Ola's life, Konis' time with her and the stories she might have told had he simply asked the questions. Order your copy at http://outskirtspress.net/webpage?isbn=9781478767299.
"Kudos!" recognizes the accomplishments of NYSUT members. Have good news you'd like to share? Email united@nysutmail.org; include "Kudos!" in the subject line.