Dorchester educator named National Teacher of the Year

A Codman Academy humanities teacher has become the first Bay State teacher and first charter school educator to be selected National Teacher of the Year.

Sydney Chaffee, 34, of Dorchester will spend the next year traveling the country and world to share her insights with other teachers — a platform she plans to use to highlight ways educators can help students succeed in the classroom and how kids can be given a voice.

A celebration will be held this morning at the Boston University Theatre.

Chaffee, a ninth-grade humanities teacher, has taught English language arts and social studies at Codman Academy Charter Public School in Dorchester since 2007. In addition to her teaching, Chaffee also mentors student teachers, serves as humanities department chair, coordinates a weekly, student-led, all-school assembly and coordinates the school’s partnership with the Huntington Theatre Company, which is in residence at the BU Theatre. Chaffee was also the first charter school teacher to win Massachusetts teacher of the year.

“It’s super humbling,” Chaffee told the Herald. “There are so many amazing teachers I look up to.”

Chaffee, who grew up in upstate New York, was inspired to pursue education as a career because of the teachers she had.

“I had great teachers,” Chaffee said. “They inspired me to try to give the experience they gave to me to other people — that sense of wonder and curiosity I felt with really good teachers.”

School, city and state leaders, including Gov. Charlie Baker and Mayor Martin J. Walsh praised Chaffee’s commitment to her students.

“Sydney is a poised and courageous speaker, but she is remarkably humble about her work,” Codman Academy Head of School Thabiti Brown said in a statement. “Her colleagues and students know her value, and now the nation does, too.”

In her recommendation letter, 10th-grader Hayley Horton said: “Sydney deserves to be the National Teacher of the Year. If you don’t want to do it for Sydney, do it for the Codman students and staff ... When Sydney is at home, she’s a mother — and I know she’s an amazing mom. But when she’s with us at school, she’s so much more than a teacher.”

The National Teacher of the Year program is run by the Council of Chief State School Officers and presented by Voya Financial Inc.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MASS. DEPT. OF EDUCATION RECOGNITION: Sydney Chaffee, left, of the Codman Academy Charter Public School became the 2017 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year and is the first National Teacher of the Year from Massachusetts in the award’s 65 years of existence.