WHAT'S GOING ON NOW:

Outstanding Public Elementary School Teacher-Inna Kofman

A Gifted Teacher for Gifted Students
Engaging community resources, Kofman connects students to the world

In an L-shaped classroom on the Upper East Side, verdant cloth covers the ceiling. Young students play games surrounded by vibrant plants and crushed paper posters of jungle animals. This is the classroom of Inna Kofman, first grade teacher at Hunter College Elementary School, and it’s decorated to look like a rain forest. “I like the interdependence in the rain forest of people, plants and animals,” Kofman said. “I thought it would be a nice way for the kids to realize the interdependence of the school.”

Kofman and her students at the Hunter College Elementary School have raised money to protect more than 30 acres of African rain forest. They’ve also written plays that adapt popular fables to the rain forest environment, visited the Bronx Zoo, American Museum of Natural History and the New York Botanical Garden, and set up a cafe. “She is very interested in the environment and she thinks the rain forest is a major issue both now and in the future,” said Randy Collins, the principal at Hunter College Elementary School.

Kofman, 34, is a gifted teacher at a school for gifted students. She goes out of her way to engage parents and other community resources, while employing a creative approach that challenges her students. “She gets into her curriculum 100 percent,” said parent Lisa Feller, whose daughter, Julia, has Kofman as a teacher. “She just loves to get involved and teach the kids.”

Education is long-running passion for Kofman. Her father was a college professor (her mother was a pediatrician) in the former-Soviet republic of Tajikistan where she grew up, and she still keeps in touch with three of her former teachers. “Those are the three women that owe the most to,” Kofman said.

The education Kofman grew up with varies greatly from the one she practices now, a point not lost on her. “I grew up in the Soviet Union where you did what you were told,” Kofman said. “The teacher was God.”

Fifteen years ago, she moved to the United States and earned both baccalaureate and graduate degrees from Hunter College. In her adopted culture, Kofman is eager to include as many commuity reources as possible. Her goal is to diversify her influence, in the pursuit of giving her students the best possible education. “This teaching style is just learning how to do it better,” she said.

Kofman, now in her ninth year at Hunter College Elementary School and fifth as a full-time first grade teacher, extends her philosophy beyond her classroom to the school at large. She serves on a school-wide committee rewriting the math curriculum, and helps run the after-school program where she teaches cooking.

An extremely dedicated teacher, Kofman is adored by both students and parents alike. “She is just a great teacher,” Feller said. “I wish every student could have her.”

— Dakin Campbell