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She Keeps Her Students Looking Up

Furman’s pupils at still remember her bird lessons years later

By Ellen Keohane

Parents of children in Theresa Furman’s second grade class at P.S. 87 often think she provides their kids with extra attention—until they start talking to the other moms and dads.

“Every parent feels that their kid is super special to her,” said Linda Hahn, whose daughter was in Furman’s class two years ago. “She takes real time to get to know each kid.”

It’s no wonder that a number of P.S. 87 parents initiated a campaign to nominate Furman in the general excellence category for this year’s Blackboard Awards. The campaign’s success appears to have surprised no one—except Furman herself.

“It’s very well deserved. She teaches kids how to be curious about the world around them,” Monica Berry, principal of P.S. 87, said about the award. “Just walking into her classroom, it’s impossible not to feel the warmth and excitement she generates.”

A Washington Heights resident, Furman, 56, didn’t always want to be a teacher. She started out as a pre-med major in college. However, a work-study  program at a school made her re-think her plans. After graduation, she attended Bank Street College of Education.

“I’d been in high school near the end of the ’60s and I had that kind of political/social vision that I would work with kids who were in the inner city,” Furman said.

Furman taught in East Harlem for 17 years before coming to P.S. 87 on the Upper West Side about 10 years ago.

“I had a son and he was entering kindergarten on the West Side and I wanted to be closer to him,” she explained. “P.S. 87 has really great kids, great teachers, great families. It’s a nice place to be.”

The school also provides her freedom—within the parameters of course requirements—to develop her own curriculum. Every fall, Furman engages her students in a long-term study of birds, which incorporates lessons on social studies and science, as well as other subjects.

“We do poetry about birds,” she said.

During the unit, the class goes birdwatching and meets people whose jobs involve interacting with birds, she said. The unit has inspired many of her students (she has about 26 in her class this year) to become avid birdwatchers.

“My son is still talking about Peregrine falcons—that was his bird that he studied,” said Danielle Gates, whose son was in Furman’s class two years ago.

“That particular unit really made my daughter interested in birds,” Hahn said. “Now this kid is probably going to be into birds for her whole life.”

Furman said a parent once asked her, “What’s the deal about birds?” She admitted the unit could cover any topic and achieve the same educational objectives.

“It’s just that birds are very intriguing,” she said.

The overall goal is to encourage students to think and share information with one another and to ask questions, she said. Occasionally, the children’s enthusiasm extends beyond school. “Sometimes they even get their parents involved and go birdwatching on the weekends,” she said.

Birds also tend to appeal to the wide range of interests found within a 2nd-grade classroom. “Some children think the birds are cute and some children think the raptors are cool,” she explained.

Furman said that getting to know her students’ interests and preferences is the best part of her job.

“They’re endlessly interesting and charming and thought-provoking,” she said of her students. “Each child is unique, and so a really fun part of teaching for me is getting to know them as individuals.”

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Theresa Furman
P.S. 87
160 W. 78th St.