Her prize: An 'Oscar of teaching'
Fogarty School's Michelle Johnson surprised with $25K award
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Michelle Johnson, a third-grade teacher at the Mary E. Fogarty School, had no inkling about the big surprise as she and her students assembled in the school’s gym Wednesday morning.
Johnson’s colleagues were in the dark, too. But someone among them had won a $25,000 award for excellence in teaching from the Milken Family Foundation.
The foundation gives out just 40 of the prizes to teachers around the country each year. They are billed as "the Oscars of teaching." The initiative aims not only to reward great teachers, but to celebrate innovators in the classroom who are guiding the next generation of leaders.
In the gym, more than 200 boys and girls sat politely on the floor with their legs crossed as dignitaries — including the state’s education commissioner, Ken Wagner — congratulated the students and teachers on their hard work to transform their school.
Johnson, a 35-year-old Warwick resident, stood along the wall at first, paying attention to her flock of students. Then she took a seat, still keeping close eye on the kids.
Johnson landed at the elementary school on Oxford Street about five years ago, the first teacher hired by the school’s newly appointed principal, Courtney Monterecy.
Monterecy had set out to improve the school, a place where children often struggled. Traditionally, the school had been low-performing, Monterecy says.
The job of changing that, she says, involves motivating teachers, improving the school’s overall culture, making the building more inviting, getting children to come to school every day.
Raising scores involves more than academics, Monterecy says.
Her new hire proved to be quite the ally.
Johnson, who is certified to teach English as a second language, had English-language learners in her classrooms. She had a detailed working knowledge, backed up by data, on the performance of each student. She also paid hawkish attention to her own performance as a teacher, setting goals for herself in everything that she did, Monterecy says.
When a student failed to advance, Johnson refused to surrender, looking for new and different ways to help the child clear the hurdle.
“... the way that she doesn’t settle,” is how Monterecy describes Johnson’s distinctive talent for finding a different path to help a child learn.
Johnson also excelled in her relationships with children’s parents. She stayed in close contact with the moms and dads. Their strong attendance at an end-of-year celebration reflected the strength of her connection. For the children, it also demonstrated a parental commitment to learning.
Invariably, Johnson’s students are quite ready for the next grade level, according to Monterecy.
“Her students have shown tremendous strength,” she says.
The word on Johnson’s successes in South Providence was in the pipeline when the Milken foundation came to Rhode Island looking for a standout mid-level teacher to award in 2018.
From there, Jane Foley, a senior vice president at the foundation who oversees the selection of the award winners, investigated further.
Not everyone in Johnson’s class spoke the same native language. Collectively, they were speaking eight different first languages. More than a few were learning English as a second language.
Foley also noticed that the learning of some students was as much as two levels below grade when they entered Johnson’s class. They were either gaining or near grade level when they left, says Foley.
Johnson’s engagement with parents and her leadership among teachers stood out. Foley says her technology to help students learn math was innovative.
So Johnson was the one who would receive the prize that Foley described, in detail, to everyone in the gymnasium Wednesday, telling the children that she had flown all the way from California to tell them a secret.
The secret was an award for excellence. And a financial award. One child boldly stood up and offered Foley a definition of excellence. Another offered a definition of “financial.”
After an exercise that emphasized the number of zeroes in $25,000 — drawing whoops and hollers — Foley hit everyone with the news. Johnson took deep breaths, moving a hand from over her heart to her mouth and then back again.
“I am so honored,” she said, adding that the Fogarty School is “the best school ever.”
“I love this school so much and I love all of you,” she said. “I wouldn’t be here right now if it wasn’t for everybody here.”
— mreynold@providencejournal.com
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