117. The 2022 EL Education Educator Awardees, Annie Smith and Tom Rochowicz

EL Education (https://eleducation.org) was born out of a collaboration between The Harvard Graduate School of Education and Outward Bound USA. What started as a concept has grown into a movement. Its mission is to create classrooms where teachers can fulfill their highest aspirations and students achieve more than they think possible, becoming active contributors to building a better world. In its core DNA, EL Education is all about this one question: What if school served a higher purpose? Over the last ten years EL Education has received hundreds of nominations for its EL Education Educator Awards. I am thrilled to have as my guests today the two winners of the 2022 EL Education, Educator Award: Annie Smith and Tom Rochowicz. Annie Smith was a kindergarten teacher at Polaris Charter School (https://www.polarischarterschool.org) in Chicago, Illinois and the recipient of the 2022 Klingenstein Teacher Award. She is now the primary instructional coach at Polaris. In 2022 Tom Rochowicz was the Principal at WHEELS, a New York City Outward Bound School, the recipient of the 2022 Silverberg Leadership Award and the 2014 Teach For America National Teaching Award. Tom is now the NYC Public Schools - Consortium, Internationals, and Outward Bound District Deputy Superintendent. Our editor is the talented Evan Kurohara (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iJH7SOmQx4). Theme music is provided by the master pianist, Michael Sloan. You can find Michael's music on Spotify, Apple and all the major music platforms.