Kelly Finlaw

Yonkers Public Schools celebrates Ms. Kelly Finlaw, art teacher at Yonkers Middle High School, for her impact on students and school culture. Principal Dr. Sandy Hattar nominated Ms. Finlaw for the New York State Senate’s Inspiring a Generation Award, given by Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins through the New York State Senate to honor educators who inspire students and communities. At tonight’s Board of Education stated meeting, Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, joined by the Board of Education Trustees and Superintendent Aníbal Soler Jr., presented Ms. Finlaw with this distinguished award. Ms. Finlaw shared heartfelt remarks about her love for teaching and appreciation for working with students every day.

An exciting evening for the YMHS family! Congratulations to Mr. Ortiz on earning his well-deserved tenure — a reflection of his dedication, professionalism, and commitment to our students. We also proudly celebrate Ms. Finlaw for being recognized by NYS Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins for her outstanding contributions and impact. 💙🧡

Dr Hattar hostess with mostest @YonkersSchools @AnibalSolerJr @DrS_Hattar @YonkersMHS

Where’s Wilbur at YMH? Bulldogs 🧡💙Dr Hattar! @YonkersSchools @YonkersMHS @AnibalSolerJr @DrS_Hattar

🎨 As School Board Recognition Week comes to a close, Ms. Kelly Finlaw’s art class at Yonkers Middle High School led by Principal, Dr. Sandy Hattar presented student inspired artwork to the Yonkers Board of Education Trustees. Their pieces were inspired by the trustees commitment to fully funding Arts. #SchoolBoardRecognitionWeek

@ScottRossRt93 Thankful for your support!!! Truly.

Proud of my former student! The Values Game is worth the read...

Here’s my blog. It’s some thoughts on life and how those thoughts impact my classroom. It’s also a catalog of my travels over the past decade or so. Enjoy. open.substack.com/pub/kayoureff/…

Some thoughts on education as we start a new calendar year. open.substack.com/pub/kayoureff/…

Applying IB Command Terms across all content areas - research readiness ⁦@YonkersMHS⁩ ⁦@YonkersSchools⁩ ⁦@DrS_Hattar⁩ ⁦@AnibalSolerJr⁩

Daniela - “I saw our artworks by the gym. The ones we did before, the ones with our names.” Me - “I put them up last week. I’ll put these ones up when we are done, too.” Daniela - “They let you do that? Put art up in the school wherever you want?” Me - “Yeah. They do.”

Went to post office this morning and looked up to see Ronald waiting for a hug. I can’t tell you how proud I am of this kid. His heart is pure gold. He’s breaking cycles and setting an example for kids in the neighborhood. Made my whole day, even if I was looking R-O-U-G-H.

Getting ready to run the Yonkers marathon for the first time… training for @nycmarathon #yonkersmarathon @CityofYonkers

First day project - Learn why it’s important to sketch, then sketch the given image. This 8th grader understood the assignment. Her image is the first photo, the given image is the second photo. Hard to tell the difference.

My one wild and precious life. Day 1 of year 19.

Decided to share some thoughts that I have on education and my classroom. Added all of my blogs from traveling to one Substack account. Read or don’t, either way. Only love. open.substack.com/pub/kayoureff

@KristyDeLaCru15 😬

Today I lost my wedding band in Bermuda —either while jumping off cliffs, snorkeling, or paddle boarding… Guess I will always remember Bermuda… 🌀

Here’s a list of remaining supplies that I need to stock my classroom this year. I’ve had so much support thus far and I’m extremely thankful. Any contribution is HIGHLY appreciated. amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls…

I started blogging when I traveled for my grad school program. I never shared my writing outside of that context, but recently I wanted to share my classroom in the same format. So, I moved everything to Substack & posted on teaching for the 1st time. open.substack.com/pub/kayoureff/…

Summer break started for these two high schoolers already, but they came back to YMHS for a final hug before the official end of the year. These are the moments that feel like magic.