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The New York State Department of Education has  911爆料网 doctoral student William 鈥楤illy鈥� Green 鈥淓ducator of the Year.鈥� The prestigious award is considered the state鈥檚 highest honor for educators.

Green, who is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Philosophy, is a chemistry teacher at A. Philip Randolph Campus High School in Manhattan.

His passion for education and commitment to inclusion is recognized throughout the 911爆料网 community. 鈥淥ne thing that immediately stands out to me when I think about Billy is the enormous amount of passion he brings to the classroom space,鈥� shares Felicia Mensah, Professor of Science Education and Green鈥檚 academic advisor. He鈥檚 very dedicated to his craft as a teacher and it shows.鈥�

鈥淗e crafts educational lesson plans that he can relate and connect to his personal experiences,鈥� she says. 鈥淥ur students need teachers that center their unique voices. They want a teacher who models active learning and engagement in the classroom; Billy does just that.鈥�

The following article,  was originally published on Sept. 26, 2022, by , a nonprofit news organization covering public education. Sign up for their newsletters at .

On a recent Friday morning, a group of freshman students flagged down their chemistry teacher, Billy Green. Students were in pods, tasked with completing math equations related to physical chemistry and then presenting them to Green for points.

After several failed attempts, the group of students at Harlem鈥檚 A. Philip Randolph Campus High School finally felt ready and threw up their hands.

But when Green walked over, the students hadn鈥檛 decided who would present, and then they began doubting their conclusions.

鈥淪o, I鈥檓 gonna stop you 鈥攚hy do you think? Y鈥檃ll not ready to present,鈥� Green said. 鈥淓ven if it鈥檚 wrong, you gotta be confident in your work. I鈥檓 moving away because guess what, I have 30 other students, so y鈥檃ll lost your turn, so now y鈥檃ll better get it right.鈥�

Green gave them a clue about how to fix what turned out to be incorrect work. 鈥淎re you serious right now?鈥� one irritated student said as Green walked away.

Training students to work together, especially under pressure, is at the core of how Green, recently named New York State鈥檚 Teacher of the Year, teaches. He reminded his class that 鈥渟cience is about collaboration, discussion, discovery鈥� 鈥� and revealed that it was a practice activity that wouldn鈥檛 be graded that day.

Green鈥檚 pathway to teaching was rocky, a point that was highlighted when he was recently honored for the state award. He grew up living in poverty and navigating homelessness, often squatting in abandoned buildings, while his mother battled a drug addiction. Still, he fell in love with school and education at an early age, and with the nudging of his mother and help from a trusted high school teacher, Green enrolled in college.

A few years into his first teaching job at High School For Environmental Studies in Manhattan, Green, who was untenured at the time, said he was fired for showing up late on multiple occasions. (Nathaniel Styer, a spokesperson for the education department, confirmed that Green was 鈥渄iscontinued鈥� as a teacher in 2007 and began teaching full time again in 2009, but said he couldn鈥檛 provide further details about what happened.)

Green said he made those mistakes because he was not raised to know that time management was important 鈥� one of several skills he hopes to pass on to his students, hence the time restrictions on the group activity on Friday.

He鈥檚 taught at six schools over his 20-year career, including a program on Rikers Island. Asked why he鈥檚 moved around so much, he said that he intentionally leaves after a few years because he feels that other schools that predominantly serve many low-income students could benefit from his teaching methods.

Multiple former students shared glowing reviews of Green, saying that he inspired them to come out of their shell. But Green acknowledges that his teaching style and his focus on culturally responsive education are not universally loved, pointing to a recent New York Post article critical of his approach. While his former and current principal both agreed to nominate him for Teacher of the Year, he also noted that, just like any job, he didn鈥檛 always see eye-to-eye with former bosses. That earned him the nickname, 鈥淩ebel With A Cause.鈥�

Green wants his mostly Black and Latino students to feel connected to science, a field that is still dominated by white workers. That means finding links between what he鈥檚 teaching and their backgrounds, such as introducing them to prominent scientists who look like them, or batting down stereotypes.

鈥淲hat stops Black and brown people from studying mathematics,鈥� he told the class, 鈥渋s that somebody told you that you can鈥檛 make a mistake.鈥�

Chalkbeat sat down for a brief interview with Green. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You have been talking about this collaborative model. What informed that? Is this how you鈥檝e always taught, or is this an evolution of your teaching methods?

So I went to one of the most difficult schools in the country, Williams College 鈥� And you set the bar so high, that even the smartest that think they鈥檙e the smartest and the weakest that think they鈥檙e the weakest have no choice but to work together.

So one of the greatest models I learned from Williams College was that in order to succeed in corporate, in order to succeed in the world, you needed to know how to collaborate with different people and different places, things, communities. Part of that was always: Set the bar high, don鈥檛 stress too much about intelligence or smartness, and more so, who鈥檚 collaborating with who and who鈥檚 building each other up?

How do you sort of take how you grew up and bring that into the classroom? One of your former students mentioned that he knew where you came from, he knows your back story, and so do you talk about that in the classroom? And how do you let that inform your teaching?

I can鈥檛 wake up and take off my identities, right? So I was always taught by my mother [to] never to hide who I am, right? Always present my authentic self. So I鈥檓 Puerto Rican, like I said, Black, Italian, gay, [Williams]-educated 鈥� I learned a lot on how to survive in these environments. So, what I teach my kids is that survival, right?

And there are many moments in my subject, right, that I鈥檓 able to tell them a story, or things that I have been through because my subject, chemistry, relates to the world. I do a project called Chemistry in the City that a lot of the kids love, because every unit, they have to go out into their communities or their cultures, and bring something back that鈥檚 related to the content of chemistry, I then become a learner. Right? It鈥檚 the reason why I teach the way I teach it, because my teachers affirmed me and I know what that affirmation is like when you are a marginalized person or a marginalized identity. So, I want all students to feel that in these spaces.

At the end of class, you were talking about why Regents exams aren鈥檛 everything and then you specifically called out Black and brown people. (He said, 鈥淲hat stops Black and brown people from studying mathematics is that somebody told you that you can鈥檛 make a mistake.鈥�) Can you tell me more about that?

There is a stereotype that Black and brown people hate math. They鈥檒l tell you, 鈥淥h, I don鈥檛 like it.鈥� Right? They have phobias of this. There are many stereotypes that Asians perform better, or whites perform better.

I build their self esteem back up. I get them to work together to let them know that it鈥檚 okay, there鈥檚 a big misunderstanding between Black and brown people just saying, 鈥榃e鈥檙e crabs in a barrel.鈥� I know this. I live in Black and brown communities. So it is my job to let them know you are not crabs in a barrel, we will uplift each other. Don鈥檛 claw each other down.

What do you feel like are the challenges of this school year?

So, the challenge that I think that the students are facing 鈥� and is the only challenge I鈥檝e always faced in these types of schools 鈥� is the lack of knowledge of what is next. So the goal of my teaching is to teach them what they can鈥檛 get in the books, right? And that is connecting their science to their community, connecting their science to their cultures, connecting science to a career, connecting science to literacy, right, I want them to do those things. And the challenge becomes, when not everybody鈥檚 on the same page, right? Educationally, you push for certain things, and then curriculums detour you the other way.

They鈥檒l say, 鈥楴o, we鈥檙e not doing this,鈥� or, like, 鈥楧on鈥檛 do too much,鈥� like what they鈥檙e saying in the [recent New York Post] article right there. Some people just don鈥檛 get that you have to incorporate student voice, student cultures, students鈥� living into curriculum. They should not come in here and be robots and controlled, overpoliced. You know, that鈥檚 not what education is about. So the big thing for me, like I said, is just creating spaces that emancipate, liberate, and educate.

What comes next for you?

That鈥檚 the saddest part of this award. That everyone asks me, 鈥楽o now you鈥檙e going to be the superintendent, the chancellor? When are you going to leave the classroom?鈥� Are you kidding me? My love, my passion is in the classroom. My power with these youth is in this classroom. I am going to do this for the next 80 years. I hope to live to 120 so they can see what a 120-year-old teacher can come into the building and do.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.