Colin Dabkowski
I teach English, multimedia production, creative writing and acting at Alden High School, where I advise the student media program WACS and the school’s Gender-Sexuality Alliance, PRISM, and direct the school’s theater productions.
Before I taught, I spent 15 years in journalism, nearly 13 of them at The Buffalo News as an arts critic, Sunday columnist and digital editor. The way I see it, teaching is just journalism for a smaller audience.
In 2025, I received WNYNET’s Early Career Teacher Award at the Center for English Teaching’s spring banquet, where I also gave the keynote. I advocate frequently for PBL and student agency in my own district and throughout my region. I truly believe that students who learn to pursue their own interests and curiosities in school will continue to do so for the rest of their lives, to the betterment of our entire society.
- College English 12
- Multimedia Production
- Creative Writing
- Introduction to Acting
- Freshman Seminar
Alden High School · Adviser, WACS student media · Co-adviser, PRISM · Theater director
- B.A., Syracuse University, 2004: dual major in magazine journalism (Newhouse School) and Spanish
- M.S.Ed., English education (grades 7–12), Buffalo State, 2022, after its postbaccalaureate teacher certification program
- Early Career Teacher Award, Western New York Network of English Teachers, 2025
- First place, arts and entertainment writing, New York State Associated Press Association, for “Creative Healing” (2008)
- PASS Award, National Council on Crime and Delinquency, 2005, for Surviving Justice (managing editor)
In the media
Curriculum vitae
Experience, education, awards, publications and books on two pages.