Harding teacher up for state honor
Music instructor Sheena Graham among 4 finalists
BRIDGEPORT — For the second time in four years, a local educator has made the final round in the Connecticut Teacher of the Year competition.
Sheena Graham, 57, a music teacher at Harding High School, was tapped this week as one of four finalists for the 2019 honor. The others are Ryley Zawodniak, a fifth-grade teacher in Mansfield, Jennifer Freese, a Newington science teacher and Jessica Harris, a kindergarten-through-secondgrade interventionist in Wallingford.
Graham was among 15 semifinalists who were interviewed last week. The four finalists will get visits to their school next Thursday and Friday, according to Kim Wachtelhausen, an education consultant for the Connecticut State Department of Education.
The reaction to Graham being named one of the finalists was instantaneous.
“Terrific teacher ... No better person deserving of this. ... Well deserved,” came the responses from colleagues when the news broke Tuesday evening on Twitter.
Graham said she was in shock.
“To still be considered relevant as I enter what, in March, will be my 36th year is mind-blowing,” she said.
Graham has taught music in the district since 1983. She taught at Harding from 1998 to 2008 before transferring to Central High School. During that decade, she brought choirs to music competitions called Fiestaval, earning dozens of trophies. Graham has since returned to Harding, and this year teaches in a brand-new, stateof-the-art choir room in the new school building.
This is her second time as Bridgeport Teacher of the Year. She has also received the city’s Theodore and Margaret Beard Excellence in Teaching Award and has performed twice for Michelle Obama at the White House with the Turnaround Arts Program.
“I believe every child deserves the best that we as educators have to offer,” Graham said in her state Teacher of the Year application. “I believe students need to be challenged.”
She said she is often asked why she teaches at Harding. That is where she wants to be, she said.
Alicia Robinson, the
Bridgeport school district’s director of performing and visual arts, knew Graham as a mentor, colleague and now supervisor.
“She sets high expectations ... finds ways to connect ... She is kind, compassionate and truly cares about each of her learners,” Robinson wrote in a letter in support of Graham’s bid. “In a district with extremely limited resources, Sheena makes magic happen for her students.”
The Connecticut Teacher of the Year program is run by a council that works with the state Department of Education. The program looks for teachers who have inspired a love for learning in their students, and who have distinguished themselves in the profession, according to the program website.
Each spring, districts are encouraged to name a Teacher of the Year, from which semifinalists are chosen based on submitted applications. Semifinalists are interviewed and four finalists are chosen.
A committee of a dozen or more people then visit the finalists’ schools to observe the teachers in action and to interview parents, teachers, support staff, students, administrators, and Board members. They then take a vote.
The Connecticut Teacher of the Year goes on to participate in the national Teacher of the Year program.
In 2016, Shaun Mitchell, a Central High English teacher was one of four finalists for the state title. That year, Jahana Hayes, a Waterbury history teacher, went on to win the state and then national title. Hayes is now a candidate for a seat in Congress.
“I believe every child deserves the best that we as educators have to offer. I believe students need to be challenged.”
Sheena Graham, writing in her state Teacher of the Year application