“If I want to do 50, let’s put in the numbers, so how do I build my equation?” Vito Palmeri asked his class.

He teaches sixth grade math at J.H.S. 218 in East New York. But his career didn’t start out in the classroom. He worked for Verizon, and then as the I.T. manager for Pace University.

“I heard about the Teaching Fellows Program, I liked what I saw - it was always a dream of mine to be a teacher,” he said.

He went for it: Diving into the program for people who’d like to change careers and enter teaching. After some initial classroom training, fellows get to teach full-time, while working toward their master’s degree.

“It's a very intensive program - that first summer is really, really tough. The courses, you know, the coursework is tough, too, but it's manageable,” Palmeri said.

The Teaching Fellows program was one of several teacher recruitment efforts that saw massive budget cuts last year, due to the pandemic. But thanks to an influx of stimulus cash, the city is now restoring the funding. There will be 900 new teaching fellows this fall - up from just 75 from last year.

For Palmeri, the program was a gateway to not just becoming a certified teacher, but to giving back to the borough he grew up in.

“I had teachers that were really good, and I had some teachers that were so bad that they made me say, I don't ever want a child in a room with a person like that,” Palmeri said. “So I really wanted to, you know, bring whatever I could to the classroom. And I want to also want to help the community because, you know, Brooklyn did so good to me. It made me what I am today and if it wasn't for Brooklyn, I wouldn't be who I am.”

He started his teaching journey in 2017. When the pandemic hit in 2020, his background in technology made him well-suited to teach remotely - something he still does every day, in addition to teaching in person.

But even at the height of the pandemic, he wanted to be in schools. So he volunteered to run a Regional Enrichment Center for children of essential workers.

“I volunteered immediately because kids need to be in school, you know, and I just never thought twice about coming in,” he said.

For others considering making the leap he did, Palmieri has a little advice.

“You can't do it if you're in it for anything other than passion, because if you don't love teaching, you're not going to be a good teacher,” he said.