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Plays the Role of Great K Teacher to a T

Who loves Mr. Derek more, students or parents? Too close to calls

By David Gibbons

When your cute little kindergartener bounds out of bed every morning and can’t wait to go to school, when you ask her how her day went and the most common answer you get is “excellent,” you can be sure something is going very right in the classroom. For the parents of the 24 kids in Room 103 at P.S. 166 who entrust the man universally known as “Mr. Derek” to orchestrate their children’s first official year of school, this has been—overwhelmingly—the experience.
Derek Bruun receives a cavalcade of ringing endorsements: “We are completely in awe… I feel incredibly lucky,” “a real blessing,” “loving, warm and supportive… like a Mary Poppins of teachers,” “truly special and a standout,” “nurturing yet challenging,” “organized and disciplined… communicates values by example,” “has a great sense of humor… clearly enjoys the students and lets them experience his affection” and finally, “Mr. Derek is the teacher of every kindergarten parent’s dreams.”

School principal Debbie Hand sums things up succinctly: “He’s gifted.”

One parent calls Bruun “magical,” and sure enough, his bag of tricks contains a few that should serve these children a lifetime. Early in the day, to harness some of that famous 5-year-old’s kinetic energy, Bruun has them stretch silently to music, like a yoga class warming up. In his room, he stresses above all “creating a caring community with empathetic scenarios.”

“You have to be willing to be a character for the kids sometimes,” he said. “You’ve got to know when it’s OK to be a little silly and also when it’s time to get more serious.”

Often going the proverbial extra mile, he’s been known to scout out the routes for day trips in advance, right down to the subway turnstiles, on his own time. He is thoughtfully focused on each student and highly responsive to parent calls and emails.

Bruun, 34, grew up in Acton, Mass., and early on discovered a vocation for working with children.

“I was a peer mentor in junior high and high school and really enjoyed that,” he said.

He originally set out to be a pediatrician but along the way developed a passion for environmental science, his undergraduate major at University of Massachusetts Amherst. During college summers, he worked as a clinical staff coordinator at Y.O.U., Inc. (Youth Opportunities Upheld), a child health and welfare non-profit in Worcester, Mass.

“Watching the teachers there in action, seeing that moment when the light bulb goes on for these young kids who were in such a difficult state in their lives—that’s when the teaching bug bit me,” he recalled. Bruun moved to New York City in 2001 and went to work at P.S. 166 on the Upper West Side. After two years as an assistant, he enrolled at Hunter College and earned his masters degree in early childhood education, paving the way to becoming a full-fledged teacher.

Bruun leads a team of four other teachers and their assistants. The team encourages conceptual thinking and fosters independence.

“One of our main goals is that the kids become aware of the skills they have and don’t have to rely on teachers to apply them,” he said. “For example, we work with checklists from the beginning of the year and by the end they should be using those independently. We always acknowledge and celebrate when that happens.”

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Derek Bruun
P.S. 166, the Richard Rogers School of Arts and Technology
132 W. 89th St.