Engrossed in preparing her fourth-graders to read a Pocahontas story, Kristin Covaleskie didn?t even notice the school principal walk into the classroom.
Principal Edward English had to tap her on the shoulder to break the news Tuesday that she had been named Baltimore City?s 2008 Teacher of the Year.
“I?m in shock,” said Covaleskie outside her classroom at Northwood Elementary School in Northeast Baltimore.
An Upstate New York native who has taught in city schools for 12 years, Covaleskie, 32, said she was inspired to teach by her father, a former grade school teacher and now an education professor at the University of Oklahoma.
“His passion, his commitment ? I try to emulate him every day,” she said.
John Covaleskie recalled a time when he visited his daughter?s classroom and found the students engaged in a serious discussion about Martin Luther King Jr. and race.
“In this age of testing, she obviously prepares them for the test but does so in a classroom that maintains an intellectually rich environment,” he said.
As a student teacher at Goucher College, Covaleskie interned in Baltimore schools and “fell in love” with the kids.
Any time the pressures of teaching get to her, Covaleskie looks at a photograph of a boy attached to her car?s visor.
In third grade, Sharrieff Graham couldn?t read. But after having Covaleskie, Sharrieff grew confident and now thrives as a seventh-
grader.
After the barrage of media left her school Tuesday, Covaleskie returned to her classroom, where her smiling students burst into applause.
What do they like about their teacher?
“Do you have all day?” asked Sharrieff?s sister, Taylor Thompson, 10.
“You can hear her laugh down the hall,” added Arlette Graham, 9, another student.
Covaleskie founded Girls on the Run, a group that trains third- and fourth-graders to run 5Ks.
“She?s the most unselfish person I know,” said Tyrese Rice, another teacher who views Covaleskie as her mentor.
English nominated Covaleskie and beamed about having the second Northwood teacher in three years to earn Teacher of the Year.
“I?ve never seen her have an off day,” English said. “She has classes where you just want to sit down and stay.”
