Three of Philly’s best teachers talk about what’s changed in education and what they love about their jobs

Gwendolyn Davis has 51 years of experience at the same elementary school. Cara Pokrywa is a 15-year veteran. Kendra Sloan came to teaching more recently, six years ago.

The three Philadelphia School District teachers have different styles, different experiences, and different paths to teaching, but they share one important commonality.

“I just think teaching is so crucial, such a rewarding job,” said Pokrywa, a fourth-grade teacher at Shawmont Elementary in Roxborough. “I am someone who likes change, and teaching is ever changing, every day — it keeps me on my toes.”

Davis, Pokrywa, and Sloan are three of the 60 winners of 2026 Lindback Awards for Distinguished Teaching, announced Tuesday. The award honors the city’s best educators.

» READ MORE: These 7 Philly principals won $20k for their schools. Here's what they plan to do with it.

Here’s how they’ve set themselves apart.

Over 50 years of teaching — all of them spent at Morton McMichael Elementary in West Philadelphia — Davis has worked for 13 different principals.

She’s seen curricula, colleagues, and educational trends come and go — and, she said, some “outlandish curriculum and rules” and a tolerance of certain student behavior that frankly puzzles her, said Davis, who has won an “Icon of Mantua” award.

But what grounds Davis is a profound love of the profession, a belief in students’ ability to shine, and her ability to get the best from her students. (She now teaches kindergarten, but has taught every grade, through eighth, at McMichael.)

“I’m going to do this craft for as long as I can,” she said. “Let us do our craft, and the children will succeed.”

Davis embraces creativity; under her leadership, McMichael students act in plays and participate in shows. Her Black History Month production is a can’t miss: She scripts, choreographs, designs and costumes The Kings and Queens of Africa, a community favorite.

Davis is old-school, and proud of it. She visits every single one of her students’ families at home within the first two months of a new school year. She works long hours, has very high standards, and commands respect.

Students “have to be held accountable for their actions, and know that there will be consequences,” she said. “Most of the children, I’ve taught their parents, and I know that I can really interact with the families — they know me.”

Structure doesn’t mean there aren’t warm relationships. It allows them to flourish, said Davis, whose favorite part of teaching is the ah-ha moment.

“When I find that one child who isn’t performing, and I’m going over and over a new concept, and I see a light bulb go off, a glimmer in their eyes, a look on their face,” she said. “There’s movement in their body, and they get it, and that just excites me. That’s why I keep coming back.”

Pokrywa is “the glue” that holds Shawmont Elementary in Roxborough together, her colleagues say.

When Shawmont lost its principal, eighth-grade teacher, and counselor in a short span last school year, Pokrywa, as school-based teacher leader, stepped up, wearing many hats — some of which she had never tried on before — to keep things running smoothly.

This year, Pokrywa returned to her first love, classroom teaching, stepping in as a fourth-grade teacher. The work delights her: helping students see their own self-worth, being creative, having fun in the classroom.

“As much as I care about the academics and the rigor, that comes second after they feel confident, comfortable, their self-esteem is there, they’re not afraid to ask questions,” Pokrywa said. “To see that all come together as a community in the classroom or the school, that’s where I think, ‘OK, this is the best.’ That is the enjoyment to me, not the PSSA scores.”

Building strong personal connections in the classroom is especially important now, Pokrywa said, when many students are engrossed in technology when they’re not at school.

“You’re dealing with the unknowns — what happened on FaceTime last night, what happened on Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram,” she said. “It’s a struggle of behaviors and emotions, because I feel like we’ve lost the social interaction after school. Our school starts at 7:20, and when I’m driving in, I see kids on FaceTime at 6:45, walking down Ridge Avenue already.”

The work is often challenging, but Pokrywa has fun with it. How could you not? she said.

On a recent day, one of her students spoke in a British accent all day, just because — and Pokrywa said that wasn’t the most amusing thing that happened all day.

“Every day is a different day,” she said.

Sloan’s path to the classroom was circuitous.

After graduating from West Philadelphia High, Sloan spent seven years as a special education assistant for the district. Before the school system had programs for paraprofessionals to become teachers, Sloan made her own, attending college and then graduate school.

She landed at Decatur Elementary in the Northeast, where she’s a dynamic, skilled third-grade teacher.

There’s a beautiful symmetry in her current work: Third grade was the year Sloan herself started struggling with math.

“Teachers didn’t have the resources and strategies then that we have now,” said Sloan. “So I think about what my students need, what strategies can be put in place, what I would have liked back then to build my confidence back up. I think about what I needed and what I got as a student.”

Sloan thinks, too, of the meaningful teachers she had, and the ones who never clicked with her.

“I want my students to never forget — Ms. Sloan cared,” she said. “She pushed me. She believed in me.”

Sloan, who’s been a teacher for six years, prides herself on a firm, structured classroom, with clear rules and procedures. But she’s also driven by the things she can’t control.

The toughest part of the job is “the unknown, not knowing what a student is going through in their personal life,” Sloan said. Decatur is an especially diverse school, and Sloan is careful to approach all students sensitively, she said. “You don’t know people’s backgrounds, you don’t know their living situations, what they’re going through, the trauma. For me, that’s the hardest part, because I want everyone to feel included. Sometimes, you do have students that just won’t open up for whatever reason, but those are the ones that I’m drawn to, because I want to know more.”

Marita Anderson — Moffet Elementary

Susanna Angelini — Mifflin Elementary

Maria Barnett — Northeast High School

Ardona Bunjaku — Frankford High School

Antoinette Calimag — Mastbaum High School

Nicole Campagna — Anne Frank Elementary

Nydira Clark — Bache-Martin Elementary

Susan DelRossi — H.A. Brown Elementary

Mary Ellen Stevens — Masterman

Jose Fernando Melecio — The Linc

Melissa Findlay — Crossan Elementary School

Charles Foster — Penn Alexander School

Fayiona Francis — High School of the Future

Eliezer Gottlieb — Vare-Washington Elementary

Stephen Grosso — William Bodine High School

Marianne Gruzwalski — Central High School

Gwendolyn Davis — Morton McMichael School

Kimberly Hensel — Gloria Casarez School

Jonathan Hoffmeier — Lankenau High School

Denise Jackson — Nebinger Elementary

Maya Jonsson — Kensington Health Sciences

Rebecca Kalbach — James R. Ludlow Elementary

Kendra Sloan — Stephen Decatur School

Ella Komita Moussa — Olney High School

Julie Linder — James Dobson School

Margarita Logvinov — Baldi Middle School

Noris Lugo — William Cramp School

Brittany Luroe — Ethan Allen School

Marianne Marino — Bethune Elementary

Shawn Matik — Swenson Arts/Tech High School

Trinity Middlebrooks — The U School

Heather Miller — Patterson Elementary

Julian Mocha — Ben Franklin High School

Jaime Mong — Childs Elementary

Monica Neill — Ziegler Elementary

Hinda O’Donnell — J.H. Brown Elementary

Octavia Blount — Furness High

Eliezer Ortiz — Edison High School

Heather Paliswiat — Saul High School

Kim Pham — AMY Northwest

Cara Pokrywa — Shawmont Elementary

Evelyn Pomales — Solis-Cohen Elementary

Martin Power — Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush

Tijuanda Riddick — Feltonville Arts & Sciences

Raleigh Russell — Philadelphia Juvenile Justice Services Center

Eileen Rutledge — Jenks Academy Arts & Sciences

Stephanie Ryan — Comly Elementary

Cacilie Sanchez Colon — McClure Elementary

Jennifer Smith — Castor Gardens Middle School

Rashida Stamps — Academy at Palumbo

Trecia Stokes — Catherine Elementary

David Stokes — Paul Robeson High School

Mary Sue Sears — Hancock Elementary

Casey Thomas — GAMP

Veronica Toland — Girard Elementary

Alison Walters — Clara Barton Elementary

Naomi Warren — Lea Elementary

Christina Watson — Loesche Elementary

Sharmaine Wilson — Harrington Elementary

Lisa Yuk Kuen Yau — Key Elementary