Five-time Institute Fellow Named Connecticut's Teacher of the Year

The 2002 seminar on "War and Peace in the Twentieth Century and Beyond." (Left to right: Fellows Pedro Mendia-Landa and Burton R. Saxon.)

Burt Saxon, a five-time Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute Fellow who teaches Advanced Placement (AP) history and AP psychology at New Haven's Hillhouse High School, has been named the State of Connecticut's Teacher of the Year for 2004-05. Earlier in the fall, he had received recognition as the New Haven Public Schools' Teacher of the Year for 2004-05, the second consecutive year that a longtime Institute Fellow has earned this local honor--following Waltrina Kirkland-Mullins, who has completed six years as a Fellow.

As Connecticut's Teacher of the Year, Saxon was honored for his classroom work and for his influence on colleagues as well as students during his 34 years in the New Haven Public Schools. In a November 5, 2004 New Haven Register article citing his "Success Story," two of his former students who went on to become educators in the district praised Saxon.

One, Marcella Flake, is herself a six-time Institute Fellow who continues to teach in New Haven. Having grown up in a low-income family, none of whose members had previously attended college, she attributes her subsequent achievements in part to Saxon's inspiration, encouragement and high expectations as her teacher. "Without people like him, my life could have been very different," she said. "He certainly played a major role."

Another of Saxon's former students, Gary Highsmith, is now principal of New Haven's Beecher Elementary School. Highsmith, who was an Institute Fellow in four different years before becoming a school administrator, said that he "knew [Saxon] was going to win" statewide recognition as teacher of the year. "We all knew it," after a presentation to a review committee in October that included impassioned testimonials from Highsmith, Flake, and numerous other current and former students, parents, and colleagues.

Burt Saxon has called his experiences in Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute seminars among his "best ten courses ever." He submitted two of his Institute-developed curriculum units, " Teaching Ethnicity and Race through Films" (1998) and " African Americans and the Military" (2002), for consideration by the panel reviewing the finalists for the statewide award.

Saxon enjoys the distinction of having been a Fellow in the Institute's very first year (1978), when he participated in the seminar on "Twentieth Century American History and Literature," and in the Institute's twenty-fifth year (2002), when he was a member of the seminar on "War and Peace in the Twentieth Century and Beyond." He continues to serve as an Institute Contact for his school, a capacity in which he has encouraged colleagues to become Institute Fellows.

The Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute is a member of the League of Teachers Institutes within the Yale National Initiative to strengthen teaching in public schools. From 1997 to 2002, the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute conducted a National Demonstration Project to show how the approach developed in New Haven could be implemented in other cities with different educational needs and resources. Building on the success of the Demonstration Project, the Initiative seeks to establish Teachers Institutes in states around the country.


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Teachers Institute Fellow Named Teacher of the Year
Six-time Institute Fellow and Coordinator of her school's Institute Center for Curriculum and Professional Development Waltrina Kirkland-Mullins is honored for her teaching.