MOTT HAVEN — International Community High School math teacher Aristides Uy understands the struggles of his recent immigrant students, because he's lived them himself.
Uy, a 2014 winner of the prestigious Sloan Award for science and math teaching, found that the formal English he had learned in the Philippines didn't always translate well to casual conversation when he moved to the United States in 2005 to begin teaching.
"I tell them stories about how I often struggled a little bit when I was new myself in the United States," he said. "So it’s nice because you’re able to make a stronger connection with anecdotes like that."
The award bestowed on Uy, 37, by the Fund for the City of New York, which carries a $5,000 prize, honors that connection.
"I was just in my second year in the country when I joined them here," he said. "So in terms of culture and the weather and the new education system and just a lot of adjustments in and out of the building, I was able to relate a lot with their experiences. I enjoyed that a lot."
Uy is one of seven high school instructors to receive the prize for excellence in teaching math and science and said he was humbled by the distinction.
"This is an inspiration to teachers to reflect on our practice," he said. "I appreciate that."
The job still has its challenges for Uy, who referred to language barriers as one of the toughest challenges of working at ICHS, where virtually all students are still learning English.
He has found that hands-on projects and visuals are effective ways to overcome this, particularly when students can relate these projects to where they emigrated from, such as measuring a piece of land in the units of their home country and comparing it to units used in the United States.
Uy has also had his students use blowtorches to design and build a plumbing system and is currently using cans of drinks to help teach them about cylinders.
"They are to find out what is the best measurement of height and radius that could contain the same volume of whatever it is — soda, juice," he said. "And we intend to maybe send out a letter, write a letter to the companies and share our thoughts about that."
Mahedi Hassan, a 17-year-old student of Uy's from Bangladesh, praised his teacher's abilities to relate math to the real world and to encourage students to figure out answers to problems themselves.
"I think he's phenomenal the way he teaches," said Hassan. "It's really easy to understand his teaching style."
In addition to the a $5,000 prize for the teacher, the Sloan Awards carry a $2,500 prize for the school's math and science program. The seven winners will be honored on Dec. 3 at 5:30 p.m. in the Great Hall at Cooper Union.
Most teachers at ICHS only last for about three years, according to the school's founding principal Berena Cabarcas.
She described Uy as a rock and leader of the school and said she was impressed and grateful that he had embraced the challenges inherent in teaching a population of recent immigrants.
“Lots of teachers don’t stick around to try to figure out, 'How do you teach students with low literacy in their native languages?'” she said.
Arisbeth Pavia, an 18-year-old student at ICHS from Mexico, was emphatic about Uy’s qualifications for the honor.
“He’s just amazing. One of the best teachers ever, seriously,” she said. “I’m really glad he got this award. He really deserves it.”
