Teacher from Seaford Honored for Excellence in Education

Unqua Elementary School teacher Amy Kanavy-Curry was named recipient of the Margaret Simon Award for Excellence in Elementary Social Studies Education by the Long Island Council for the Social Studies. Kanavy-Curry is the first elementary teacher in Massapequa to be recognized for this award and will receive it during a ceremony at the Upsky Hotel in Hauppauge, May 28.

As an educator at Unqua for 16 years, and the designated sixth-grade social studies teacher there, Kanavy-Curry said she feels very lucky to be honored in this manner.

“As educators, we are often rewarded by the reaction of the children we teach, but it is far less common to be honored or recognized by people in the same profession,” she said. “I like to think I share this award with all the people I work with and have worked with in Massapequa. We are a family and a lot of people have supported and inspired me along the way.”

Kanavy-Curry was nominated for the award by Brian Dowd, the district’s curriculum associate for social studies, K-12, who called her the “go-to” teacher for social studies teachers in the district’s five other elementary schools.

“Amy willingly offers her advice and expertise and is a lifeline for them,” he said.

In describing her classroom, he said, “One of the instructional shifts fostered by the new social studies frameworks, adopted in 2014, is that students should ‘do’ social studies not just be told about it. Amy’s students have been ‘doing’ social studies since Amy became the designated social studies teacher at Unqua. It is rare that the students aren’t engaged in some activity making social studies come alive for them and making the lessons memorable.”

Kanavy-Curry said she keeps her students engaged by making teaching “fun.”

“I try to get the children to draw conclusions, make inferences and read as much, and as often as possible,” she explained. “When teaching Ancient History, students act out plays, do yoga, meditate, examine artifacts, simulate archaeological digs, perform court cases, pretend to be monks, eat Greek food, dress up like gods and goddesses and try to convince the class who should be the next patron god.”

Because of her efforts, she experienced many proud moments where past students have reached out to her to express how much they loved her social studies class.

“Two years ago, a former student, Morgan Daly, who is currently studying at The Juilliard School of Music, sent me a letter. During superstorm Sandy her house had been flooded and while rummaging through the family’s belongings, she had come across a huge mosaic that the sixth-grade students had made together,” she said. “I had raffled it off at the end of the year and she won the art project. She mailed it to me with a letter about how much the project meant to her, thanking me for being her teacher. It was so heartwarming to hear from her after so much time and know that she still remembered what we did so long ago.”

Kanavy-Curry, who earned a B.S. in Elementary Education and a M.S. in Reading from Long Island University at C.W. Post, is a LICSS member as well as a certified yoga instructor. She also can relate to her student’s experience with superstorm Sandy as her home in Seaford was destroyed, then finally sold at the end of 2014. She is currently in the process of finding a new home.

Courtesy Massapequa Schools

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