His Story
When Chris Poulos was twelve, his family hosted an exchange student from Madrid for a month, and the experience sparked his curiosity about Spanish-speaking cultures. He began studying Spanish in junior high school, spent a semester in Spain during college, and after graduating joined the Peace Corps, serving 27 months as a volunteer in a small village in Honduras. It was there that he decided he would rather be a teacher than pursue the politics or business career he had planned. He did graduate work in Spanish education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and received immersion-based language training from Dartmouth College.
He has taught at Joel Barlow High School since 2000 and was named the 2007 Connecticut Teacher of the Year. Early in his career he graded the way he had been graded as a student, with a percentage at the top and the feedback that an answer was right or wrong. He now builds on the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages’ Integrated Performance Assessment approach, which moves lessons beyond memorized vocabulary and grammar toward interpreting, presenting and conversing in Spanish. A visitor might see students moving around the room interviewing each other, reading cultural meaning in artwork or reporting findings to their peers.
His students use the Mood Meter, a tool from the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, to check in on their feelings, and they learn the Spanish words to describe them. If many students are anxious before a quiz, he may postpone it and offer more review. In his Spanish Civil War unit he begins with photographs and political posters rather than lectures, and students debate their meaning in Spanish, including Picasso’s Guernica.
Beyond the Classroom
Poulos advises the SOUP (Serving Our Under-Privileged) Club, whose members prepare and deliver meals to the Dorothy Day Hospitality House in Danbury, and it kept going through the pandemic. He previously advised the student council for about a decade and helped turn it from an activity planner into a way to give students a voice. He also designed a Community Outreach Project in which seniors complete 30 hours placed with Spanish-speaking organizations, and he has taken students on community service trips to Costa Rica and to the Museo del Barrio in Spanish Harlem.
On the professional side, he has led a K-12 learning group for world language teachers for over a decade, worked with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence to bring social and emotional learning to his district, and spearheaded the school’s Seal of Biliteracy program. He has served as Teacher Leader in Residence at the Connecticut Department of Education and been active in the National Network of State Teachers of the Year, the Connecticut Teacher of the Year Council and the Aspen Institute. A colleague notes that he has helped fellow teachers travel through Fund for Teachers grants, and that he invited her to pursue National Board certification with him.
Philosophy Into Practice
Poulos uses student-friendly rubrics, repeated low-stakes assessments and the performance data they generate to decide what to teach next. For example, if a class struggles to ask follow-up questions in conversation, he teaches specific strategies for it. He reports that each year his students have met or exceeded performance targets set from fall baseline assessments.
During the pandemic he moved his classes to Google Classroom and Zoom, then spent the next year helping students recover lost ground. He wrote and mailed a letter home for every student to check in and share praise, and he created the Poulos Playlist, a weekly song with a short video about a life strategy. In fall 2020 he co-chaired the Moving Forward, Staying Strong video series for teachers, and in August 2021 he led the planning for a Summer Celebration of Teaching and Learning for Connecticut educators.
“If teachers are well, their students will also be well and more likely to succeed.”Chris Poulos
In His Own Words
“A teacher’s ability to understand how individual students learn is the essence of successful teaching and learning.”Chris Poulos
“Students are social and emotional creatures, and so are their teachers.”Chris Poulos
“If parents know you care, they support you more on the home front.”Chris Poulos
What Others Said
“Christopher Poulos is an exemplary educator and leader, and is respected throughout our state and nation.”David Bosso, nominator and colleague on the Connecticut Teacher of the Year Council
“Christopher Poulos is a teacher and a teacher leader with the utmost integrity.”Angela Staron, Humanities Department chair, Joel Barlow High School
“Señor Poulos was a fantastic teacher because of his positive attitude.”Teagan Klein, former student
“He thinks not only about imparting information to his students, but also the educational systems we inhabit.”A current student, Joel Barlow High School