BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — A fourth grade teacher at a charter school in Hyde Park won free rent for a year on the Ellen DeGeneres Show for "going above and beyond for students during COVID-19."
Faith Martin, who teaches at the Boston Renaissance Charter Public School, was featured on the Ellen DeGeneres Show on Monday, with guest host Sarah Silverman.
Martin was picked to be featured on Ellen’s "Month of Giving Thanks," a segment celebrating frontline workers, after she purchased 24 copies of the novel The Orphan of Ellis Island so her class could finish reading it when the pandemic shuttered the school last March.
Some students were struggling to finish the book online, so Martin decided to personally purchase and deliver the books to each student's home, so she could connect with them and offer a bit of normalcy to their days. Martin also purchased each student a book of their choice and delivered that along with the novel.
"Being featured on the Ellen DeGeneres show for doing something I love was the experience of a lifetime," said Martin. "Our students are so resilient and it is such a pleasure to teach them-even during this difficult time. It was amazing for teachers to be recognized for the hard work they are doing and to have my rent paid for a year!"
During the segment, fill-in host Sarah Silverman pitted Martin against a nurse from Florida, who has been serving on a COVID-19 floor during her first job, during the “Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls” bean bag contest. Both came out winners. Though Martin came in second during the contest, she won a year’s worth of rent paid by Shutterfly since she was spending so much of her own money on students. The Florida nurse won a free year’s college tuition toward her nursing degree.
"I am so proud of Faith and our entire staff for all they do every day to make sure our scholars have what they need academically, socially, and emotionally during this pandemic," said Alexandra Buckmire, Head of School of the Boston Renaissance Charter School. "Thank you to the Ellen DeGeneres show for honoring our teachers and frontline workers and the success stories that have come out of this trying time."
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(Photo: Gabe Edelman/Ellen Degeneres Show)