LYNN — Lynn teachers were acknowledged by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) for their contributions to students during an annual convention in Boston last week.
Erin Sutton, a teacher at Lynn Classical for the past six years, received the 2022 Secondary Art Educator of the Year award from the Massachusetts Art Education Association (MAEA), and the founders of the Lynn Teachers Union’s Racial and Social Justice group were the recipients of the “Distinguished Service Award.”
Sutton was also part of the AFT Voices Member Spotlight Series, which aims to uplift the voices, members, staff, and educators that make up AFT Massachusetts.
“It’s been wonderful getting recognized for my work by both MAEA and AFT-MA,” Sutton said. “I work hard to advocate for the importance of art in education, as the skills it teaches are so crucial to adolescent development and preparing students for their lives post-graduation. Art challenges students to push through difficult moments, problem-solve and improvise both independently and in groups, gives students agency and voice as they create, and teaches them to defend their thoughts and intentions.”
At the AFT-MA conference last week, Sutton was a guest speaker and discussed how important art has been in rebuilding the school community and classroom dynamic after returning to in-person learning. She particularly spoke about a large-scale mosaic mural that her classes worked together on to design, assemble, and install.
“The mural is by far the most exciting thing I’ve ever done in the decade I’ve been in this profession,” Sutton said. “The students collaborated and took the lead with this from start to finish, and I couldn’t be prouder. The entire experience encapsulates what is at the core of why I do this work. It’s my goal to make sure each student is aware of my high expectations for them, to guide them through the challenging moments, and then to share in their excitement when they realize how they created something amazing.”
Also receiving recognition at the conference was the Lynn Teachers Union’s Racial and Social Justice group.
One month after the murder of George Floyd, Michael Brown, Michael Lopez, Phil O’Connor, and Kendwi Valdez spoke with Lynn Teachers Union president, Sheila O’Neil, about starting a Racial and Social Justice committee.
They worked together to organize this group and get colleagues to meet with them over Zoom on a monthly basis.
O’Neil helped get this group fully operational, as they worked together to define what their plans were moving forward.
Since its inception, the Racial and Social Justice group created a subcommittee to work on a curriculum that teaches equity, and developed a committee for grant writing, which helped provide diverse books for the libraries in all of the elementary schools in the city.
The Racial and Social Justice group also created an affinity group to include all staff of color in the district, work to improve the climate as employees in the district, and hire and retain staff of color.
Allysha Dunnigan can be reached at [email protected].
