His Story
Chris Albrecht has taught fourth grade at Fred W. Hill School in the Brockport Central School District in New York, where his principal says he has worked in an inclusive classroom with a team that includes a special educator and an aide. His teaching is shaped by his own fifth-grade teacher, who went above and beyond for his students, and he builds his classroom on six student-centered ideas: confidence is a key to learning, creativity expands ideas, taking risks means learning from mistakes, students need faith in themselves when others doubt them, work ethic increases success, and students should serve others.
He says that he avoids a set lesson delivery. He watches how students respond and adjusts each lesson, and he says that as a result he rarely has unfocused children and misbehavior is “nearly unheard of.” One parent describes what her family calls an “Albrecht moment,” when he goes off the planned lesson because a student raised an interesting fact and turns it into a lesson of its own. His students have sent messages in bottles as far as the Azores, written time capsules in fourth grade that they open at their high school graduation, and won the National Cursive Writing Class of the Year Award.
Albrecht keeps in touch with students long after they leave his room. A former student, now a Marine sergeant, says that Albrecht still calls, writes and makes a point to see him whenever he is home, and that this past deployment his entire class wrote letters back and forth with the Marines in his platoon.
Beyond the Classroom
Albrecht was the 2018 New York State Teacher of the Year. With the $1,100 he received, he began buying children’s books and delivering them to schools. Over the year he visited 76 schools and more than 400 classrooms, giving away more than 5,400 books as others added contributions. He also serves on the New York State Education Commissioner’s Advisory Council, where he advocates for equity between schools.
For two decades he has worked with the teacher preparation program at the College at Brockport. He leads seminars, presents workshops, teaches graduate students as an adjunct professor, and received the college’s Roy Bubb Award in 2017, its highest distinction for service. For six years he has mentored a high school senior interested in teaching, and all six have completed or are enrolled in teacher preparation programs. He is a trustee of the Western Monroe Historical Society and the Clarkson Historical Society, where students help develop and present evening programs for the community. His class raises rainbow trout from eggs with the Department of Fisheries and releases them into Lake Ontario, and he founded a school-wide spelling bee and an after-school running program. He edits the yearbook, advises the Chess Club and leads the grade’s curriculum writing.
Philosophy Into Practice
For the first third of the year Albrecht does not report numerical scores to his students. He gives written and oral feedback, asks students to evaluate their own understanding and set goals, and keeps a private gradebook. He introduces the numbers once students have learned to value their own growth. In writing, students keep a running log of what they did well and what to improve. His principal reports that his class, in an inclusive setting, performed above the regional average on 75 to 90 percent of the standards measured on the New York State ELA assessments over two years.
He names two major issues in education. The first is how well schools teach failure and challenge their strongest students, whom he sees leaving prestigious colleges because they are feeling failure for the first time. His school-wide spelling bee, which began 17 years ago, is meant to build resilience rather than find a champion. The second is the inequity of opportunity caused by poverty, which he addresses through his state advisory work and by making sure programs are accessible to families who lack resources.
“Every child has talent.”Christopher Albrecht
In His Own Words
“My job is to teach children, but my mission is to promote lifelong learning.”Christopher Albrecht
“What I teach tomorrow depends on where my students’ understanding is at the end of today.”Christopher Albrecht
“Success and failure are not fully controllable, but work ethic is.”Christopher Albrecht
What Others Said
“Chris is a remarkable teacher and a remarkable human being.”Richard Ognibene, nominator, colleague and friend, 2015 NTHF inductee
“Mr. Albrecht is as dedicated an educator as you will ever meet.”Brandon Broughton, principal, Fred W. Hill School
“Time and time again he finds creative and innovative ways to engage the students in their learning.”Amy Stoker, team-teaching partner
“Mr. Albrecht’s gift is to make each and every student realize what their strengths are.”Katrina Contrera, parent and colleague
“Teaching is not a job for him, it is a lifestyle.”Sergeant Benjamin M. Olson, U.S. Marine Corps, former student