Big Apple Awards: How to nominate your favorite teacher in NYC

New York’s Staten Island. The Big Apple Awards are a citywide recognition program that honors full-time teachers in public schools in New York City. If you have a favorite teacher, you can nominate them.

Teachers that exhibit excellent practices and provide their school community with challenging instruction are honored and celebrated with these honors. A variety of grade levels, subject areas, and each of the five boroughs of New York City were represented among the 46 winners from the previous year.

The deadline for nominations is January 21.

By filling out an online form, anybody is urged to nominate a teacher.

Candidates must be active, full-time public school teachers who excel in the classroom at a New York City district school, charter school, or early childhood education facility.

Because the Big Apple Awards honor and reward educators who positively impact every student they educate, the city Department of Education (DOE) urges people to consider nominees who have gone above and beyond to serve their students and school community.

The selection process consists of community nominations, applicant essays, interviews, and classroom visits in addition to recommendations.

The Big Apple Awards honor and commend teachers who:

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  Inspire students to be their best selves, dream and advocate for their future
  
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  Model equitable learning with high expectations for the diverse and dynamic needs of all students
  
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  Affirm students identities, unique gifts, and genius
  
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  Enrich their school communities by partnering with families, community members, and community-based organizations
  

In the spring, the chancellor or another school official surprises the winners with a visit to inform them of their honor.

This enables the city to recognize and celebrate these outstanding educators in their classrooms, perhaps even alongside their students and coworkers.

Recipients of the Big Apple Awards participate in a special professional development program. Throughout the academic year, 15 awardees will be given the chance to apply for the Big Apple Fellowship, which entails participation in professional learning communities, leadership development workshops, and discussions with the chancellor.

For the 2024–2025 academic year, Zachary Lombardi, an arts teacher at PS 29 in Castleton Corners, was selected as a New York City winner in the esteemed Big Apple Awards program.

Lombardi was recognized as the recipient of the Community School District 31 Award. All of the public schools on Staten Island are included in District 31.

Students of all grade levels are taught visual arts by Lombardi, one of PS 29’s three arts instructors. The elementary school offers a comprehensive arts education with a focus on sustainability and STREAM (science, technology, robotics, engineering, arts, and math).

As the coordinator of sustainability and a pioneer in arts education for the entire city, Lombardi brings together visual arts educators from all over Staten Island. In the Division of Teaching and Learning, he also oversees the city’s DOE arts department’s professional development for artists.

Vicky Stuto, his collaborator in visual and digital arts, is in charge of the technical facets of the arts. The two support the school’s afternoon English as a New Language class and manage a busy after-school program.

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