The FLAG Award for Teaching Excellence

12/21/2025

Last week, FLAG Co-President, Laura Twersky, visited P2E STEAM Day at A. Philip Randolph High School, co-facilitated by 2023 Grand Prize Winner Billy Green. Billy used his grant funds to launch new engineering activities and create more hands-on opportunities for students, showcased at STEAM day. The mission for this event is to expand access to engineering, design, and technology for students of color and to give them space to explore careers they may not have considered before.

11/30/2025

Last day to nominate!!! 11/30/25

The FLAG Award for Teaching Excellence recognizes and celebrates extraordinary public-school teachers who inspire learning through creativity, passion and commitment.

11/24/2025

LESS THAN ONE WEEK LEFT TO NOMINATE!!!!!

Go to flagaward.org/nominate and your favorite teacher could win $25,000!!!

Nominations are open through *November 30*.

11/21/2025

featuring our 2024 Semifinalist Katja Frazier from Future Leaders Institute Charter School

“We believe that children deserve time to think , sit with ideas, take risks, try new things, explore, and PLAY. We want our children to be prepared for a world in which they’ll need knowledge, innovation, critical thinking, and decision making skills. From this, the Play Space was born!
The Play Space at FLI is a space for our K-3rd grade students to experiment, create, balance, pretend, build, attach, scoop, watch, listen, talk, learn, and PLAY. They work at the sand table, Lego and magnetic tiles area, light table, dollhouse, art center, science area, play kitchen, reading tree, block center, game area, play dough table, or special projects area. Our young students make choices for what they want to do, then makes plans, and execute them, all while working alone or with others. They also work on weekly or monthly special projects. We built Harlem out of boxes, made Ooblek, created beaded bracelets, worked on a community weaving project, made tons of collages throughout the year, and so much more.

The Play Space is also home to hands-on phonics workshops for families. They come to share ideas and resources and spend time playing phonics games with their kids.

There aren’t many words to express the magic that takes place in the Play Space.”

11/10/2025

https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/11/10/bronx-math-teacher-angelo-imperati-wants-learning-to-feel-relevant/

Meet Angelo Imperati, one of our 2025 Grand Prize Winners, and read about the impact he is making in and out of the classroom.

Meet the teacher who turned his hatred of school into a passion for educating the next generation of Bronx students. His secret? Care, community, high expectations, and hoops.

11/07/2025

featuring our 2024 Grand Prize Winner Emilie Jones () from CIS 303 in the Bronx.

The FLAG Award has funded the Drama Department’s Spring Musical for going on TWO years now (and will continue funding the program for at least THREE more years)! At CIS 303, students take over every role in the theatre - from actors to stage managers to designers to choreographers. FLAG funding supported buying the rights and scripts for Mean Girls Jr last year, and also helped to purchase three devices that the student stage managers and tech operators used to run and design the sound and lights for the show. The cast of Mean Girls Jr. celebrated their triumphant run with a trip to see Six on Broadway and visit the Museum of Broadway. This year, the student artists at CIS 303 are hard at work on Disney’s Descendants, and the support that the FLAG Award has given is propelling them toward curtain time!

11/06/2025

Happy to announce this exciting news featuring our founder, Glenn Fuhrman, and our sister foundation, The FLAG Art Foundation.

The FLAG Art Foundation and the Parrish Art Museum will coorganize three exhibitions annually on the East End, as part of a new partnership.

10/31/2025

featuring our 2024 Grand Prize Winner Alicia Marcinkowski ( ). She used her grant to provide a wide range of art supplies for her ENL/Art classroom, including pencils, canvases, paint, brushes, easels, and clay. Many of these items are consumable and have directly supported the 350 students she serves, allowing them to actively participate and create in every lesson. She also bought items for her positive reinforcement prize box, which has been a highly effective tool for motivating students. The items include watercolor paints, plush and squishy toys, pencils, keychains, and more.

10/29/2025

From today's NY Post.
Great Teachers Change Lives. Now You Can Change Theirs.
To nominate, go to:
https://flagaward.org/nominate-your-teacher

10/24/2025

featuring our 2024 Semi-finalist winner Geoff Haas ( ) from PS 371K Lillian Rashkis School.

With his grant funds, the students at PS 371K (District 75) were able to take their student literary magazine (37th and Fourth) and podcast (Echoes From the Hall) to the next level. The magazine helps the students expand their writing skills while the podcast has steadily increased communication skills for students across the school. Since the start of the magazine and podcast the students NYS Regents scores have increased exponentially showing that this student-centered approach has laid the groundwork for success. The funds help expand the technology available to the students by providing a camcorder and better camera lenses to accompany a higher quality microphone. This led to students being featured nationally in the Most Likely To podcast created by Donor’s Choose!

10/23/2025

Wow!!! We had an amazing night celebrating all of our FLAG Award winners.
🏆Pictured here are our 2025 Grand Prize Winners.🏆

10/17/2025

featuring our 2024 Grand Prize Winner Aaron Lober from Stephen Halsey Middle School 157 () in Rego Park, Queens.

With his grant funds, he was able to construct 20 different Hydroponic Systems to be distributed throughout his school as well as donate necessary supplies for their Green Team and Cooking Club. All efforts are intertwined for beautification, sustainability, and skill development for students to learn how to garden, grow their own produce, and then even use it for cooking!