Teacher of the year
English teacher Perez receives city honor
Shakira Perez, an English teacher at Classical Magnet School, was named Hartford’s 2020 teacher of the year. Perez said she works to “give back what was given to me” — a solid base for college, the ability to read and think critically, to solve problems and to communicate effectively.
Shakira Perez, Hartford’s 2020 teacher of the year, remembers what she learned as a student in Hartford’s classical magnet program, with its rigorous college preparatory program focused on the classics and liberal arts, and how it prepared her for college.
Now an English teacher at Hartford’s
Classical Magnet
School, Perez said she works to “give back what was given to me” — a solid base for college, the ability to read and think critically, to solve problems and to communicate effectively.
When Perez graduated in 1995, the classical magnet school program was based at Quirk Middle School and Hartford Public High School.
In the mid-2000s, Classical Magnet School was established on Woodland Street, and that’s where Perez, 42, teaches eighth graders about Greek drama and seniors about British literature.
“Teaching at Classical is pretty amazing to me,” she said. “It’s one of the things I take the most pride in.”
Bethany Sullivan, the principal of Classical Magnet School, called Perez an “exemplary” teacher who goes above and beyond.
“She challenges students to dig deep, to engage in the exciting, and sometimes confusing journey of self-discovery, and as they formulate their identity and develop a stronger sense of self, she is there to embrace and celebrate [them],” Sullivan said.
Hartford schools Superintendent Leslie Torres-Rodriguez said Perez “does whatever it takes to ensure her students succeed.”
Perez has been a teacher 17 years, 14 at Classical. But that wasn’t the plan at first. Perez studied nursing at Capital Community College and the University of Saint Joseph before making an important discovery.
“I do not like body fluids,” she said. “This is not going to work.”
She decided she wanted to be a teacher, and the change in majors required an additional year of college.
“It was what I was supposed to do,”
she said. As so many parents are discovering during the COVID-19 pandemic, teaching is hard work. But there are also tremendous rewards, Perez said.
“Every teacher probably talks about having ‘aha moments,’ ” she said. “For me it’s those moments … when you make a connection with a student, or when a student gets a really good grade after they’ve been struggling. I helped do that. It wasn’t all me, but I helped them get to that place. That definitely lets me know this is what I’m supposed to be doing.”
Being a Classical alumna also helps Perez relate to her students. When they complain about studying Latin or another part of the school’s curriculum, she can explain how it paid off for her.
She can also relate to the difficulties some students face because she grew up in the Rice Heights housing project, experienced the trauma some students experience on the streets and at home, and provides an example of what one can achieve.
“I feel like I bring the struggle with me,” Perez said. “I saw things. I saw drug dealers. One summer I was sitting in front of my friend’s house and all of a sudden there’s a drive-by shooting. I’ve seen a dead body. I’ve seen these things. I know these things.”
She also knows, and can convey to her students, that those things they have seen and experienced do not define them.
“You can be so much more,” she tells them. “I know that from personal experience.”
In a speech to colleagues Thursday when she was named teacher of the year, Perez recalled second grade and a teacher who placed students in two groups: the ants and the grasshoppers. The ants were the hard workers and were rewarded with an additional five minutes of recess. The grasshoppers were the lazy students, and were seated around the edges of the classroom because they were talkative and did not do much work.
At first, Perez said, she was placed with the grasshoppers, much to her mother’s dismay. The experience ignited a fire inside her, she said. She worked hard and soon found herself with the ants. And she worked hard through the rest of elementary school, middle school and most of high school. By her senior year, the fire had died out.
So instead of walking across the stage at the Bushnell with the rest of her graduating class, she watched graduation on television as she prepared for summer school.
“And even 25 years later, I think about that moment and the way it made me feel, so devastated and defeated,” Perez told her colleagues. She also felt the fire reignite in her belly.
She promised her mother that she would see her graduate, cross a stage. And her mother was in the audience when Perez received her degree from the University of Saint Joseph a few years later.
Perez, like so many high school students before and since, overcame difficulties at home and other distractions to achieve.
“I carry it as a reminder, not as a burden” she said of her experiences. “The kids have their own stories, their own backgrounds, and I get that.”
She challenges students and asks them what they are going to do to make it better for themselves.
“How are you going to change your narrative?” she asks. “Because I changed mine.”
David Owens can be reached at dowens@ courant.com.