First Lady of Idaho Lori Easley Otter: Chalkboard Champion, Author, and Beauty Pageant Queen

Many chalkboard champions have earned recognition for successes outside of the field of education. One such amazing educator is Lori Easley Otter, the First lady of Idaho. This former teacher and administrator is married to current Governor C. L. "Butch" Otter.

Lori was born in Pensacola, Florida, in 1967, the youngest of four children in a military family. In the 1970's, her family moved to Idaho when her father retired from the U.S. Navy. Lori graduated from Kimberly High School, and then enrolled in Boise State University, where she earned her teaching degree in education and physical education, with minors in health and English. She earned her master's degree in curriculum and instruction, and educational administration from Northwest Nazarene University in 2004. She spent two years as an administrator.

Lori taught physical education, health, and English at both the elementary and secondary levels for the Meridian School District in Meridian, Idaho. She also coached girls basketball and volleyball at the junior high and high school levels for thirteen years. This athletic educator also runs marathons, plays tennis, and is an accomplished equestrienne.

In 1991, Lori entered the Miss Idaho USA Pageant, winning the title and representing Idaho in the Miss USA 1991 pageant the same year. During her reign as Miss Idaho USA, Lori was introduced to Butch Otter, who was then serving as lieutenant governor of Idaho. After some time teaching and coaching in Arizona, Lori returned to Idaho in 1995. In 2006, Lori and Butch were married, and later that year, Butch was elected governor of Idaho.

Combining her love of Idaho and her passion for education and literacy, this gifted educator has written three children's books. She penned "Little Clyde – Horsing Around in Sun Valley," and two history books, "Ida Visits the Capitol" and "Ida Tours the 44: A Book of Idaho Counties." Lori's character Ida Jones is a young barnstorming pilot who seeks adventure and teaches Idaho history to fourth graders as she flies her airplane through the state.

Barbara Ann Goleman: Educational Innovator and Chalkboard Champion of the 1960's

The 1960's were a politically turbulent time in American history, a time when many chalkboard champions made significant contributions toward our social evolution. One such amazing educator was Barbara Ann Goleman.

Barbara was born and raised in Florida. She attended Florida State University, where she earned her bachelor's degree in 1952 and her master's degree in 1954.
She began her teaching career as an English literature instructor at Miami Jackson High school in 1954.

At the beginning of her career, the school's student body was 90% white middle-class students. In 1963, in response to the 1954 Supreme Court ruling Brown vs. Board of Education which prohibited segregation in schools, Florida began to admit black students to white schools. By 1966, the student body at Miami Jackson High was 85% African American, predominantly from impoverished families. To respond to the needs of this new student population, Barbara helped develop innovative instructional programs and demonstrated a nurturing attitude toward students. For her efforts, she was recognized with the National Teacher of the Year Award in 1969. She was the first Southerner in eighteen years to be so honored. President Richard Nixon presented the award to Barbara in a White House ceremony.

In 1975, Barbara transferred to North Miami Beach Senior High School as a teacher and staff development specialist for internship programs. Ten years later, she became an administrator for Language Arts at the District Office.

This remarkable educator retired in 1990. Barbara Goleman High School, opened in 1995, was named in her honor. It was the first school in Miami-Dade County to be named after one of its teachers.

 

Chalkboard Champion LouAnne Johnson: She Wrote the Story Dangerous Minds

Sometimes we teachers feel like running our classroom is a lot like being in the military. We have to organize our time like clockwork, plan our lessons in meticulous detail, and often instill some regimental discipline on highly-energized recruits. One chalkboard champion who has done all this very successfully is LouAnne Johnson, an educator, author, journalist, and former servicewoman in the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marines.

LouAnne is best known for her book My Posse Don't Do Homework, which was adapted as the film Dangerous Minds  starring Michelle Pfeiffer in 1995, and a television series starring Annie Potts in 1996.

LouAnne was raised in Youngsville, Pennsylvania. After her graduation from high school, she enrolled at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, but dropped out after a few weeks and enlisted in the Navy in 1971, serving at Clark Air Base in the Philippines. She served nine years on active duty, achieving the rank of Petty Officer First Class. She wrote about her experiences during these years in her 1986 book Making Waves: A Woman in This Man's Navy. She later transferred to the U.S. Marine Corps, where she rose to the rank of Second Lieutenant. Throughout her military service, LouAnne earned the Navy Commendation Medal and the Air Force Achievement Award for her work as a journalist and ​radio-television broadcaster.
When her stint in the Marine Corps was completed, LouAnne earned her bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of LaVerne in LaVerne, California, and her master's degree in teaching English from Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California, and her doctorate in educational leadership from Sage Colleges in Albany, New York.

In 1989 she garnered her first position as an educator at Carlmont High School in Belmont, California, where she began teaching reading and writing to non-English speakers as an intern. Two years later, she was appointed department chair of a special program for at-risk teens. During the government evaluation of ten similar pilot programs, LouAnne's group was rated first in academic achievement, increased self-esteem, and student retention. Since then, LouAnne has taught English, adult basic education, developmental reading, and writing at high schools and colleges.

Veteran and Chalkboard Champion Wendell Earl Dunn

America cherishes its veterans, many of whom are also champions in the classroom. One such veteran was Wendell Earl Dunn, a distinguished educator, principal, and college president.

Wendell was born near Summit, South Dakota, in 1894. His father was a farmer, optometrist, and inventor. Wendell spent his boyhood on a prairie homestead. He earned a degree in transportation from the University of Wisconsin in 1916. During his college years, he played professional baseball in the Three-I League in order to help pay his way through college. He was also a gifted musician, playing the cornet and the violin in various musical ensembles. During World War I, Wendell served in the U.S. Army, during which time he attended officer candidate school.

Wendell began his career as an educator when he accepted his first job as a high school science teacher in Pierre in South Dakota. There he taught from 1918 to 1919. During that time he supplemented his income by writing speeches for state legislators. He also served as the school superintendent for Blunt, South Dakota, a position he occupied for four years. Next, Wendell became the principal of Aberdeen Senior High School in Aberdeen, South Dakota, where he served for seven years. From 1924 to 1930 he was a professor of economics and American history at the Black Hills Teachers College in Spearfish, South Dakota.

In 1927, Wendell earned his master's degree in education from the University of Wisconsin, and then he moved to Baltimore in 1931. Wendell then served a long tenure in Baltimore city schools. He worked as the vice principal of Baltimore City College, the principal of Patterson Senior High, and the principal of Forest Park High School, while also serving as the president of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.

This chalkboard champion passed away in 1965 after a long illness. He was 70 years old. He is buried in Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore.

Janie Porter Barrett: The Chalkboard Champion of Wayward Girls

Throughout the history of our country, many gifted educators have worked tirelessly on behalf of disenfranchised populations. One such educator was Janie Porter Barrett, who worked as a teacher, welfare worker, and social reformer in Virginia during the first half of the twentieth century.

Janie Porter was born in 1865 in Athens, Georgia. Her mother, Julia, was a former slave, and her father is unknown. Julia supported herself as a live-in housekeeper and seamstress. Her employers, a progressive white family, educated little Janie along with their own children, providing her with excellent basic education.

When she came of age, Janie enrolled in courses at the Hampton Institute, a private black college in Virginia, to train as an elementary school teacher. While at Hampton, the young student became involved in volunteer work, completing many community service projects. Janie graduated from the Hampton Institute in 1885.

Following her college graduation, Janie accepted her first teaching assignment in a rural school in Dawson, Georgia, and then transferred to Lucy Craft Laney's Haines Normal and Industrial Institute in Augusta,  Georgia. In addition, she taught night school classes in the Hampton Institute from 1896 to 1899.

In 1899, the young teacher married Harris Barrett, the bookkeeper and cashier employed by the Hampton Institute, and together they had four children. Soon after she married, Janie began holding a informal  day care and sewing classes in her home. Attendance at her classes grew rapidly. Eventually these classes transformed into a club that worked to improve both home and community life for its members. This club, known as the Locust Street Social Settlement, was the first settlement house established specifically for African Americans in the country.

In 1908, Janie expanded her efforts in service to her community. She was instrumental in the organization of the Virginia State Federation of Colored Women's Clubs. She also served as the organization's first president. The Federation launched itself into a wide range of social services, including providing children alternatives to placements in orphanages, poorhouses, or jails. The Federation raised money to establish a residential industrial school for the large number of young African American girls that were being sent to jail. They also founded a rehabilitation center, the Industrial Home for Wayward Girls, for African American female juvenile delinquents. Under Janie's direction, the school offered academic and vocational instruction, and developed a program that emphasized self-reliance and self-discipline. Also notable was the school's visible rewards, counseling services, close attention to individual needs, and follow-up ministerial guidance. In the 1920s, the school was rated as one of the five best schools of its kind in the country, becoming a model for its type. For this remarkable work, Janie received the William E. Harmon Award for Distinguished Achievement Among Negroes in 1929.

This amazing chalkboard champion retired from public service in 1940. She died in Hampton, Virginia, in 1948. In 1950, Janie's training school was renamed the Janie Porter Barrett School for Girls, which today is known as the Barrett Learning Center.

What We Can Learn From Successful Teachers

One of the most recent blog posts I shared talked about the characteristics of great teachers. This post generated a great deal of interest. Many teachers enjoy reading stories about remarkable teachers, but more than anything they are looking for ways to improve their own practice. For this reason, I thought I would share another article that I came across on the internet which talks about the characteristics of great teachers. This one was written by Beth Lewis, a graduate of UCLA, and fellow educator. I hope you find the thoughts she expresses in this essay valuable.

 

What We Can Learn From Successful Teachers

by Beth Lewis

The teachers I admire most are those who remain intellectually curious and professionally vital both inside and outside the classroom for decades. They avoid stagnation at all costs and maintain an enviable passion for children and the learning process. They remain vivid in the students' memories forever because of their creativity, sense of fun, and compassion.Here are the qualities I feel contribute most to a successful, durable, and happy teaching career:

1. Successful teachers hold high expectations:

The most effective teachers expect great accomplishments from their students, and they don't accept anything less. In education, expectations form a self-fulfilling prophecy. When teachers believe each and every student can soar beyond any imagined limits, the children will sense that confidence and work with the teacher to make it happen.
 

2. They think creatively:

The best teachers think outside the box, outside the classroom, and outside the norm. They leap outside of the classroom walls and take their students with them! As much as possible, top teachers try to make classroom experiences exciting and memorable for the students. They seek ways to give their students a real world application for knowledge, taking learning to the next action-packed level. Think tactile, unexpected, movement-oriented, and a little bit crazy... then you'll be on the right track.
 

3. Top teachers are versatile and sensitive:

The best teachers live outside of their own needs and remain sensitive to the needs of others, including students, parents, colleagues, and the community. It's challenging because each individual needs something different, but the most successful teachers are a special breed who play a multitude of different roles in a given day with fluidity and grace, while remaining true to themselves.
 

4. They are curious, confident, and evolving:

We're all familiar with the stagnant, cynical, low-energy teachers who seem to be biding their time until retirement and watching the clock even more intently than their students. That's what NOT to do. In contrast, the teachers I most admire renew their energy by learning new ideas from younger teachers, and they aren't threatened by new ways of doing things on campus. They have strong core principles, but somehow still evolve with changing times. They embrace new technologies and confidently move forward into the future.
 

5. They are imperfectly human:

The most effective educators bring their entire selves to the job. They celebrate student successes, show compassion for struggling parents, tell stories from their own lives, laugh at their mistakes, share their unique quirks, and aren't afraid to be imperfectly human in front of their students. They understand that teachers don't just deliver curriculum, but rather the best teachers are inspiring leaders that show students how should behave in all areas of life and in all types of situations. Top teachers admit it when they don't know the answer. They apologize when necessary and treat students with respect.
 

6. Successful teachers emphasize the fun in learning and in life:

The teachers I admire most create lighthearted fun out of serious learning. They aren't afraid to be silly because they can snap the students back into attention at will - with just a stern look or a change in tone of voice. I often think of Disney Teacher of the Year Ron Clark who made one of his Essential 55 rules be "Do not bring Doritos into the school building" simply because he hated Doritos himself! This irreverent rule (sneaked in amongst the more important class rules) shows a silly, human side of the teacher while modeling for the students that we can have fun while we get work done.
 

Next Steps:

For those of us aiming to increase these qualities in our professional lives, it can be intimidating to think that we have to do everything all at once. Instead, I recommend choosing one of these qualities to focus on each school year and expand your repertoire slowly but surely. Even the most successful teachers have to start somewhere!

Chalkboard Champion Gwynneth Hardesty Coogan Is Also An Olympic Competitor

Many talented educators distinguish themselves in fields other than education, and a perfect example of this is Gwynneth Hardesty Coogan, a talented educator who also happens to be an Olympic athlete.

Gwynneth was born on August 21, 1965, in Trenton, New Jersey. As a youngster, Gwynneth attended Phillips Exeter Academy for two years, where she graduated in 1983. There she played both field hockey and squash. After her graduation from high school, she enrolled in Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, earning her bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1987, and her doctorate in math from the University of Colorado in 1999, working primarily in number theory. She did post-doctorate work with at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Gwynneth's first teaching experience was at Hood College, but she  currently teaches math at Phillips Exeter Academy. At Phillips Exeter, Gwynneth is the director of the Exeter Mathematics Institute, and serves as the head coach of the girls varsity cross country team, in addition to her roles as dormitory adviser and mathematics instructor. She was the first Smith Family Instructor of Mathematics from 2007 to 2013, and she received a Brown Award for her teaching in 2011.

During her years at Smith, Gwynneth took up running, and won the NCAA Division III title in the 3,000 meters two times. She qualified for the 1992 Summer Olympics held in Barcelona, Spain, where she competed in the 10,000 meter race.Four years later, she was an alternate for the women's marathon for the 1996 Summer Olympics held in Atlanta, Georgia.