Her Story
Kristen Record grew up around teaching. Her parents taught school for more than 70 years between them, and her father was a national leader in education, so she saw early that being an excellent teacher means being a multifaceted, lifelong learner. She earned a bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from Fairfield University in 1999 and a master’s degree in learning and teaching, with a focus on science education, from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2000. At Harvard’s Project Zero she studied the effect of causal model instruction on science learning, and she has kept running small research studies in her own classroom.
She began teaching at Bunnell High School in 2000 and was Connecticut’s Teacher of the Year in 2011. She has attended College Board summer institutes for AP Physics 1, 2 and Mechanics and the NGSX science education seminars, which she used to help guide her district’s science curriculum writing team as it created five new courses. She has grown what was once a small AP physics enrollment into a full program with three courses, all dual enrollment with the University of Connecticut, including a two-year sequence for juniors. Her principal notes that this is a rarity in an Alliance District, one of the state’s lowest-scoring districts.
Her classroom has pods of desks rather than rows, which she says are antithetical to digging deep into questions. She never posts a “do now.” Instead she asks how the day is going, and her students decide as a group when quizzes and tests will be, based on what is happening in their lives outside class. Her students say her class feels “chill” but is demanding. She tells them that physics is hard and that learning is a process, not a product, and that they can do hard things. One student told a reporter, “I am by no means an ‘A-student,’ but she makes me feel like I am.”
Beyond the Classroom
For 21 years Record has been Bunnell’s Senior Class Advisor, planning prom and graduation, coordinating fundraising and service for each graduating class, and helping students who could not otherwise afford a prom ticket or yearbook. In June 2020, when school shut down suddenly, she organized 278 alphabetized grad bags for a drive-through pick-up and, with the administration, planned 18 small outdoor graduation ceremonies over three days, so that every senior could have four guests. She takes teams to the Yale Physics Olympics, helps with the school’s theater program and marching band trips, and inducted the inaugural cohort of students into Bunnell’s Science National Honor Society.
She has served on her district’s Teacher Education and Mentoring (TEAM) committee since 2010, and she has supervised five student teachers and four interns, mentored dozens of beginning teachers, and taught a science methods class at a local university. Her recognition includes an NEA Foundation Global Learning Fellowship in Peru (2015) and the MIT/George Washington University National STEM Policy Institute fellowship (2014). In 2022 she contributed to National Network of State Teachers of the Year publications on STEM career engagement. Her students see her in the news talking about school funding, teacher pay and school safety.
Philosophy Into Practice
Before the year begins, Record reviews students’ historical grades and PSAT scores to find students with AP potential and encourages them to move into her AP classes. She assigns online summer work with staggered due dates, uses Quest Learning and Assessment and AP Classroom for immediate feedback, and shares whole-class averages so students can see how their scores compare. Students score each other’s free-response answers using AP rubrics and debate which points were earned. She coordinates with the AP Calculus teacher so that their students support each other, and both have seen higher AP pass rates and more UConn dual-enrollment credits.
She defines success broadly, including students who work hard for a B, who fail the first marking period but pass the AP exam, or who start the year wanting to drop her course and return for a second year. When the pandemic closed schools, she moved her classes to Zoom within days, rewrote labs to use online simulations, and helped her district understand video conferencing after it was banned, to the loud protest of her students and their families.
“We talk about how learning is a process, not a product.”Kristen Record
In Her Own Words
“I believe there is a place for every student in a physics class.”Kristen Record
“I want students to experience the beauty of science.”Kristen Record
“Nothing makes my teacher’s heart happier than sitting and listening to my students debate, struggle, and figure things out together.”Kristen Record
What Others Said
“Kristen Record is an exemplary educator and leader, and is respected throughout our state and nation.”Christopher Poulos, nominator and colleague on the Connecticut Teacher of the Year Council
“Ms. Record was born to teach, and the joy she breathes into her classroom and instruction every day is palpable and inspiring.”Nancy C. Dowling, Ed.D., retired principal, Bunnell High School
“Her passion for teaching, coupled with her tremendous work ethic and strong intellect, has earned her the reputation of one of the strongest teacher leaders and advocates in the State of Connecticut.”Katie Graf, Ed.D., principal, Bunnell High School
“Simply put, Ms. Record is a “rock star” among teachers.”Don and Britta Feliciano, parents of current and former students