Boston Public Schools (BPS) has named Katharine Atkins-Pattenson, M.Ed. ’13 (former Donovan Scholar and Secondary Education) as one of eight BPS Educators of the Year. Atkins-Pattenson is a seventh grade humanities teacher at Gardner Pilot Academy in Allston.
The awardees were honored by Boston Mayor Walsh and BPS Superintendent Tommy Chang at TD Garden's center court during half time of the Boston Celtics’ final regular-season game.
According to Atkins-Pattenson, “I strive to bring the world into my classroom, grounding the seventh grade skills we practice in real-world content and dilemmas. Through engineering original solutions to challenges faced by Sudanese refugees, writing memoirs of border crossing, painting murals for our community about our hopes for immigration, and creating PSAs about the working conditions of brands that we consume, I hope that my students will leave my classroom knowing that their voices and ideas have the power to change their world.”
Atkins-Pattenson joins Carmen Davis, M.Ed. '08 (former Donovan Scholar and Secondary Education) who was a BPS Educator of Year in 2013. Davis is now principal of the Irving Middle School.