Suzanne Gray, Old Bethpage Elementary School

We view engagement as both a process for and an outcome of learning. Forging relationships and nurturing a culture where students develop ideas and share them with staff members are key to student engagement. Our teachers work hard to make connections so that engagement happens well beyond the walls of our school.

For example, a teacher met members of her class at one of their houses and walked the neighborhood in the rain, picking up trash. From this experience a recycling unit of study was born, and the children created artwork using the trash, which was displayed in our hallways.

Second-grade students approached me for a meeting where we discussed how they can be more active in cleaning up our community. They researched different nonprofit organizations and named themselves "Empathy for Earth." They displayed posters in our hallways, sold bracelets and spoke during the morning announcements.

Our culture for learning is built around these kinds of relationships, trust, curiosity and personal connections.

If our goal is to cultivate schools where students are engaged in their learning, then we must also give them ownership. Asking students about their learning goals and providing strategies to meet those goals are important, but so is teaching them how they learn. Learning is experience, not the delivery of information. Teachers are responsible for providing feedback. Students are responsible for knowing what they need to better focus and apply that feedback.

We incorporate movement into our daily activities so that students learn how to learn. Students independently apply movement breaks throughout the day.

Donald Gately, Jericho Middle School

The staff at our school knows that there are three factors critical in ensuring that students are engaged in learning: relationships, student voice and passion. We embrace growth mindset thinking, the powerful idea that we learn more from failure than from success. Students make hundreds of errors every day. It's through mistakes that kids learn.

It's been said, "Students will not care how much you know until they know how much you care." Relationships in a school are everything. Our students trust that their teachers have high expectations for them, believe in them and love them. This trust allows kids to persevere despite challenges -- this is what learning is all about.

Activating student voice is essential. Students can communicate to you more about how they learn best, than any test or homework assignment can reveal. We recognize that students need multiple ways to both develop their understandings and skills and to demonstrate their learning. As a standards-based grading school, we care about learning. Grades are simply a reflection of that learning. Our kids are engaged because they know that, at our school, FAIL means: First Attempts at Learning.

Passion is contagious. When teachers love what they do, they show kids that they are learners, too. Students see this and are engaged. Passion is irresistible. Our teachers are passionate because we have broken down the silos that often characterize schools and created teams that make sure no student falls through the cracks!

We can't wait for the school year to begin.

Richard Loeschner, Brentwood High School

The recipe for student success is really quite simple, but properly mixing the ingredients together is the real challenge. The first two ingredients, staff and school culture, are the most critical.

In order to ensure that students are actively engaged in school, you must have a passionate, devoted, intelligent and enthusiastic staff that is committed to creating an academically rigorous yet accepting, caring school environment.

Brentwood's students come from dozens of different countries, with varied cultural, social and economic backgrounds. The staff at Brentwood treats newly arrived and long-term students with kindness, respect and a fervent desire to see each student flourish.

A successful school must also appeal to and foster students' diverse talents. We not only have a great sports program but we have over 60 clubs, activities and events that cater to students' social, academic and community service interests. Connecting to the school through an extracurricular activity is an important component to students' academic, social and emotional growth.

The final ingredients are trust, confidence and love. Today's world is filled with so much conflict, turmoil and uncertainty. Teenagers are neither immune nor unaware of the effects outside events will have on their future. Students must know and trust that the adults in their lives -- parents, teachers, coaches, administrators -- are selfless in their love and only want to help them find happiness and success.

ADV

This year, principals from three Long Island school districts have been named statewide "Principals of the Year." They are, from left, Suzanne Gray of Old Bethpage Elementary School, Richard Loeschner of Brentwood High School and Donald Gately of Jericho Middle School, They were photographed at the Newsday photo studio in Melville on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016.