As Brad Henry once said, a good teacher inspires hope, ignites imagination, and instills a love for learning. Teachers are the light of faith in a student’s potential to succeed in society, imparting essential life skills like compassion, communication, and curiosity. Joan Gillman, a passionate Browning School teacher, exemplifies these qualities, making complex concepts simpler through hands-on experiences.

Inclination Right from the Beginning

Joan’s fascination with teaching began in high school, where she volunteered for a community service program by tutoring young children in math, teaching a recorder, and organizing games in the playground. Her natural curiosity, particularly in science and engineering, was evident early on. As a child, she analyzed weather patterns during snowfall and appreciated nature’s beauty. Joan’s dedication to environmental education extends beyond the classroom, inspiring students to engage in community-based projects like clean-up drives and conservation efforts.

Never-Ending List of Accolades

Joan received the Urhy Teacher of the Year Award in 2017, a moment she cherishes as a highlight of her career. She has also earned numerous Marquis Who’s Who awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award and recognition as a humanitarian. In 2024, she was featured in National Digest Magazine, World Leaders Magazine, and Forbes, among others.

Uplifting Voyage

Joan’s “Straw Rocket” unit gained national attention, leading to workshops and inclusion in a book titled Bringing STEM to the Elementary Classroom. Recently, she was honored with several prestigious accolades, including the CXO Time Awards’ Most Inspiring Educator in Science Education Award 2024 and CIO Views Magazine’s Top 10 Empowering Women Leaders of the Year, 2024.

Charging up the Future Leaders

As a science teacher and Green Team leader, Joan nurtures her students’ natural curiosity and empowers them to create positive change. She emphasizes that knowledge is a tool to shape a better future.

Educating for Sustainability

Joan addresses climate change in her teaching by encouraging students to adopt simple, impactful actions like recycling and conserving energy. Through weekly “Green Actions” and school-wide initiatives, she fosters a culture of responsibility and environmental awareness among students and staff alike.

Imbibing Curiosity

In the straw rocket project, Joan loves the fact that students use their math and measurement skills with their science knowledge. Students measure the flight length of each launch and then analyze the results to determine the ideal launch angle, rocket length, nose cone size, and fin design. With this knowledge, students redesign and test their rockets, applying their insights to improve their designs—a memorable learning experience. Teaching science across multiple age groups is both challenging and rewarding. In Grade 2, the fall engineering unit lets students design and build skyscrapers and bridges, learning about structures worldwide and celebrating their cultures.

Instead of testing, she uses “The Elephant Project,” where students build a bridge that can support two adult elephants and a baby. Using recycled materials and art supplies, students apply science, math, and creativity, making it a fun and memorable learning experience.

Sheer Passion

While educators can be overwhelmed by administrative tasks, nothing diminishes the joy and excitement they feel when seeing students become engaged in learning and achieving their goals. Teaching remains a unique profession that can profoundly change children’s lives for the better. The aim of educators is to help students become lifelong learners, fostering a curiosity that extends beyond the classroom.

Educators model this lifelong learning by continuously pursuing professional development. Over the years, she has taken numerous workshops to enhance her skills and stay current in her field.

Showcasing Student Ingenuity

Throughout the year, the Browning School hosts special events to showcase student work. These include “STEAM Expos” for middle school students and the “Invention Convention” for third and fourth-grade students. For the Invention Convention, students identify a problem they wish to solve and then design and build an invention to address it. The ingenuity of the students consistently impresses, and parents show strong support by attending the events in large numbers.

One of the highlights of her teaching career has been the opportunity to attend numerous professional conferences and share strategies and techniques with fellow educators. Her first experience teaching at conferences was at the ATIS (Association of Independent Schools) Conferences. She fondly recalls leading workshops such as “Fish, Snails, and Whale Tails” and “The Wonderful World of Weather.”

Empowering Students

Teaching science across various age groups is both challenging and rewarding. Her ability to engage students of all ages is one of her greatest strengths. A creative individual, she develops lessons that cover the scientific curriculum while allowing students to solve real-world challenges. She ensures lessons are hands-on and interdisciplinary, integrating academic skills for comprehensive learning.

Later in her career, she began presenting workshops at conferences such as NSTA, NSTA STEM, STANYS, SCONYC, and the NYSAIS Diversity Symposium. Topics she presented include Equity and Diversity in the STEM Classroom, Mars Here I Come, Let’s Put the Fun Back in Fungi, Straw Rockets are Out of This World, and others. She enjoys sharing her passion for education and providing educators with new materials and strategies to enhance their teaching. She aims to inspire educators to stay in the field and impact their students’ lives. This past spring, she helped organize the SCONYC Conference, her first experience in conference planning. Though it was a lot of work, it was rewarding to see her efforts come to fruition. Teachers left with positive experiences, and she hopes future conferences will attract more NYC teachers.

Engaging Education

Joan is a strong believer in hands-on learning and interdisciplinary curricula. Young students have a natural curiosity about the world around them, and as an educator, she taps into this sense of wonder to create lessons that align with their interests while helping them gain proficiency in various scientific topics. Her Fourth Grade Straw Rocket unit exemplifies how she achieves these goals. In this unit, students are challenged to design a rocket capable of flying the maximum distance. They work with various variables, including the length of the straw, the number and style of fins, the size of the clay nose cone, and the angles used for launching the rockets.

Student-centric Approach

Joan has often observed that schools tend to adopt a “one size fits all” approach to teaching. This method is ineffective for both clothing and education. Each student enters the classroom with unique needs, and it is the teacher’s responsibility to identify the best approach to help each student achieve their academic goals. She is deeply committed to ensuring that every student under her care feels comfortable and confident in their ability to learn the material being taught.

Empowering Future Changemakers

One of the challenges facing science education today in K-12 settings is ensuring that students have the opportunity to learn about all branches of science. This past summer, The Browning School decided to implement the NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards) across all of their Middle School Science courses. She worked closely with her colleagues to bring about the necessary changes in the curriculum.

One of the biggest challenges in education today is addressing climate change issues without causing fear among students. Children need to understand how the world works so they can make informed decisions as adults and contribute to positive changes in society. Without adequate knowledge, students will be unprepared for the challenges they will face as adults. As a leader of The Green Team, she aims to empower her students to engage with the community and demonstrate how even small actions can make a significant difference.

Equity in Education

Joan greatly admires teaching at The Browning School, particularly for the way the students are engaged with and exposed to equity work through its integration into the curriculum. Due to the school’s commitment to equity and diversity, she was able to develop and teach a unit on “Hurricane Relief and Environmental Racism” to her sixth-grade science students. The unit focused on the mission statements of three relief organizations. The students evaluated whether these organizations followed their missions when providing relief after major hurricanes. Based on their findings, the students were tasked with developing solutions to eliminate the biases they discovered. Although this could be a challenging concept, she found that with the right approach, the students were eager to gain insights and develop relevant ideas to address the injustices they uncovered.

Given the success of the curriculum with her sixth graders, she decided to present a workshop at the NYSAIS Diversity Symposium based on the course. She used some of her students’ slideshows and presentations and prepared materials for participants to use with their own students.

The Browning School’s mission is to “create men of intellect and integrity to contribute meaningfully to our world.” The four guiding values—Curiosity, Honesty, Dignity, and Purpose—are emphasized throughout the year. The school’s commitment to equitable practices and social impact is woven throughout all aspects of its curriculum. The Browning School celebrates boys’ unique strengths with research-based strategies tailored to meet their developmental needs at every stage.

A Noble Career

Teaching is a highly rewarding career. Over the span of 43 years, much has changed, and this longevity is attributed to the continuous embrace of new techniques and ideas acquired through workshops, courses, and science conferences. This commitment to professional development has not only helped maintain enthusiasm for the profession but also provided opportunities to interact with other educators, gaining new perspectives and ideas to bring into the classroom.

One important piece of advice is to maintain a sense of humor. While there are days when students may present challenges, keeping a sense of humor and not losing patience allows educators to overcome obstacles while continuing to enjoy teaching. Additionally, it is essential to seek help when needed. Schools are filled with professional educators who can offer valuable advice and strategies.

Teaching is a demanding and exhausting career, but it remains one of the most rewarding professions. With perseverance, the best days are always ahead.