Italian Immigrant Leonard Covello Was a True Chalkboard Champion

Leonard Covello was just nine years old in 1896 when he immigrated to New York City with his family from the little village of Avigliano in southern Italy. But he grew up to become one of America's greatest educators, developing and instituting progressive community-centered educational programs. These programs are characterized by close links between the school, the home, and the community, and are still a model for today's educational institutions.

 

As an immigrant student himself, Leonard understood the unique needs of this particular group of students, and, as an Italian immigrant, he recognized the specific conflicts between the home and the family experienced by most Italian immigrant children. Drawing from his personal experience, Leonard was able to develop innovative school programs that allowed Italian immigrant students to succeed in American public schools in ways they had never realized before. His observations and solutions are still applicable to certain groups of students we find in today's classrooms.

 

You can read about the life story of this remarkable educator in Teacher with a Heart: Reflections on Leonard Covello and Community by Vito Perrone. This volume is available from amazon at the following link: Teacher with a Heart. In addition to analysis by Perrone, the book contains lengthy excerpts from Leonard Covello's autobiography, now out of print. You can also find a chapter about this innovative teacher and principal in my book, Chalkboard Champions: Twelve Remarkable Teachers Who Educated America's Disenfranchised Students, available from amazon  at the following link: Chalkboard Champions.

How is a Summer Vacation Tour Guide Like a Teacher?

 

With summer vacation finally here, or almost here, for most educators, many of us begin to think about how to spend our much-longed for and richly-deserved free time. For many of us, summer offers a great opportunity for travel. I'm no different, and I just returned from a wonderful two-week sojourn in Italy. My tour included visits to such iconic cities as Rome, Pisa, Ravenna, Venice, Verona, and Milan. While there, it was my good fortune to meet a number of very knowledgeable local tour guides. It occurred to me that many of the traits that make a top-notch tour guide are the same traits that make an exceptional teacher.

First, and probably most importantly, the tour guide must be likable. It's imperative to be warm and friendly, because it's just human nature to respond more positively to someone you like. Both the tour guide and the teacher are more successful if they set a relaxed tone right away and let it be known they are approachable, they are glad to see you, they are excited to share a part of their day with you. I think sometimes we educators forget how important this quality is to success in the classroom. Tourists will generally attempt to find something of value in the tour guide's speech whether the speaker is likable or not, but students won't always make the effort to bridge that gap.

 

Secondly, it's imperative that the tour guide be well-versed in their subject matter. Like the classroom teacher, the tour guide must do their homework! Know your stuff! Furthermore, it's important to be able to communicate the information in language that's easy to comprehend, which means delivering the material clearly and distinctly, at a suitable volume, using appropriate vocabulary levels, and creating a logical sequence and progression of ideas. If your group can't hear you or can't get past your heavy Italian accent, or they don't believe what you're saying to them, before long they will meander away to take photos of what appeals to their eye, often having no idea what it is they're taking pictures of.

Thirdly, it's crucial for both the tour guide and the teacher to be flexible. Things happen! When the Vatican closes the Sistine Chapel without any notice, when laborers stage an unexpected shut-down of the metro services, or when you arrive at the funicular only to find it out of order, the tour guide can find their lesson plan for the day derailed. When that happens, the tour guide must extemporaneously construct a workable Plan B. After all, promises have been made that must be kept. Sometimes, like when you're surprised by a political protest at the piazza which blocks your path to your tour bus, you just have to wait it out. You may be half an hour behind schedule, but eventually you'll be back on track. Excellent teachers and first-rate tour guides are especially adept at reorganizing on the spot.

 

I have to say, on this vacation I had the good fortune to have really terrific tour guides everywhere in Italy that we went. I hope that your summer vacation, wherever you travel, is as fabulous as our sojourn to Italy was. Ciao!

Chalkboard Champion Barbara Morgan: Another Teacher in Space

Educator Barbara Morgan is probably best-known for being named as Christa McAuliffe's alternate for the Teacher in Space Program in 1985. Following Christa's untimely death in the space shuttle Challenger explosion, Barbara continued her training as an astronaut. She became a mission specialist, becoming a full-time astronaut in 1998, and flew into space in 2007, completing an assignment aboard the International Space Station.

Barbara was born in Fresno, California, in 1951. She graduated from Stanford University in 1973 with her degree in human biology, and earned her teaching credential in 1974 from Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California. She began her career in education as a remedial reading and math teacher at Arlee Elementary School located on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Arlee, Montana. She has also been a teacher of second, third, and fourth graders at McCall-Donnelly Elementary School in McCall, Idaho.

Barbara Morgan is truly a chalkboard champion. You can read a more about the Teacher in Space program when my new book, tentatively entitled Chalkboard Heroes, is published.

Chalkboard Champion Elsa Salazar Cade

Elsa Salazar Cade, a Mexican American educator and entomologist, was born in 1952 and raised in the Lone Star State of Texas. After earning her bachelor's degree in science education from the University of Texas, Austin, she was employed for two years as a fourth grade teacher, and for two years as a reading and remedial math teacher. When she completed her master's degree in public school administration from Niagara University, she continued her career as a junior high school science educator in the public school system in Buffalo, New York.

Elsa, who has been named one of the ten best science teachers in the United States by the National Science Teachers Association, is credited for developing an award-winning interactive science curriculum. She has also served on the staff of the Buffalo Research Institute on Teaching for Education.
 

Elsa and her husband, Dr. Bill Cade, have also been honored for their humanitarian efforts, raising money to provide shelter and life-saving equipment to benefit Haitian disaster survivors. Elsa Salazar Cade is truly one the country's most illustrious chalkboard champions.

Margaret Hamilton: A Wickedly Wonderful Chalkboard Champion

Not many people would recognize the name or photograph of actress Margaret Hamilton, but just about everyone knows the iconic movie roll she played. Bedecked in green make-up and black pointed hat, this pleasant face was the Wicked Witch of the West in MGM's version of The Wizard of Oz. It's ironic that this very sweet and loving former kindergarten teacher is best known for her her frightful disposition and her villainous behaviors, not to mention for scaring the daylights out of generations of little children. The true Margaret Hamilton was a lifelong advocate for educational causes, devoting much of her energy and money to benefit causes that improved the lives of children and animals. She passed away in 1985 at the age of 83.

Susan B. Anthony: She Championed Women's Suffrage

Many people are familiar with Susan B. Anthony, a tireless champion for women's suffrage who lived during the nineteenth century. Her political accomplishments are legendary. But did you know that this American civil rights champion was also a schoolteacher?

Beginning in 1939, Susan taught first at Eunice Kenyon's Friends' Seminary in New Rochelle, New York, and then at Canajoharie Academy in Canajoharie, New York. She left the profession in 1849 to devote her energy full-time to the women's suffrage movement.

Although she did not live to see the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote, this historical achievement would not have been possible without Susan B. Anthony's many years of devotion to the cause. You just know that someone who worked that hard for women's rights worked equally diligently in the classroom.

Recognizing Chalkboard Athlete Frank Eufemia

Recognizing the value of making a contribution to the field of education, sometimes a professional athlete will become a teacher after they leave the game. This is true of major league baseball player Frank Eufemia.

Frank was born in 1959 in the Bronx, New York. He was drafted as a relief pitcher for the Minnesota Twins during the 1985 season. Frank finished the season with a record of 4 wins, two losses, an earned run average of 3.79, and thirty strike-outs.

This chalkboard athlete currently teaches physical education and health and coaches baseball at Pascack Hills High School in Montvale, New Jersey.