Author and Screenwriter David Benioff: A Former High School English Teacher

Many avid readers may be familiar with the blockbuster book City of Thieves by David Benioff. But did you know the author was a former English teacher? This talented educator has made his mark as a consummate novelist, screenwriter, and television producer. He is perhaps best known as the co-creator of the HBO series Game of Thrones.

David was born on September 25, 1970, in New York City. He is the youngest of three children of Barbara (Benioff) and Stephen Friedman, who was the senior partner and chairman of Goldman Sachs investment firm, an advisor to President George W. Bush, and the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. As a young boy, David gravitated to all things literary, fancying comic books and classic far-flung fantasy such as Homer's Iliad and J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. His imagination was supplemented by an affinity for playing the video game Dungeons & Dragons.

David, who changed his surname to his mother's maiden name of Benioff while in his teens, graduated from the exclusive New York City secondary school called The Collegiate School. He then enrolled at Dartmouth College, where he graduated in 1992. David earned his a master's degree at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, writing his thesis on Samual Beckett.

After he graduated form college, David worked at various jobs, including a stint as a club bouncer, a radio disc jockey, and a high school English teacher at Poly Prep in Brooklyn, New York, where he also served as the school's wrestling coach.  In 1999, David returned to school, completing the requirements for a second master's degree in creative writing from the University of California, Irvine, in 1999.

While working as a high school English teacher, David wrote his first book called The 25th Hour, which earned him many accolades. He later adapted the book into a screenplay, which was made into a film directed by Spike Lee and starring Edward Norton. In 2004, David then wrote a collection of short stories titled When the Nines Roll Over (And Other Stories) and a screenplay about the Greek myth Troy which earned him $2.5 million from Warner Brothers pictures. That same year, he was hired to write the screenplay for the X-Men spin-off   X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The following year, David wrote the script for the psychological thriller Stay, which was adapted into a film directed by Marc Forster and starred Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts. His 2007 screenplay for The Kite Runner, adapted from the novel of the same name, marked his second collaboration with director Marc Forster. In 2008, David's second novel, City of Thieves, was published. He is currently working on an adapted screenplay of the Charles R. Cross biography of Kurt Cobain. He is also working with D.B. Weiss as the executive producer of Game of Thrones, HBO's adaptation of George R.R. Martine's A Song of Ice and Fire novels, which David read and enjoyed as a teen.

David's work in Hollywood has earned several awards. He has won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, and the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.

Carol Comeau: The Noon Duty Supervisor Who Became a Teacher, Then a District Superintendent

Ever since Alaska became part of the United States, so many outstanding teachers have gravitated to the vast territory. One of these amazing educators is Carol Comeau, who once worked as a noon duty supervisor in an Anchorage school, became a teacher there, and eventually retired as the district superintendent 38 years later.

Carol was born in Berkeley, California, in 1941, although she was raised in Iowa. When she was young, she wanted to be an investigative reporter, so after her high school graduation she enrolled at the University of Oregon to persue a bachelor's degree in journalism. In her sophomore year, however, she discovered her passion for teaching and changed her major to elementary education.

In 1960, Carol met her future husband, Denny Comeau. The pair married in 1962. His father owned a grocery store in Anchorage, so the couple decided to spend the summer following their marriage in Alaska. Although they returned to Oregon in the fall so her husband could complete his degree, a love for the state sprang from her summer experience there. For the first year the couple spent in Oregon, Carol taught elementray school in Spokane. In 1974, the Comeaus returned to Alaska permanently. By then, Carol and Denny had three children, and Carol had been a stay-at-home-mom for ten years. Once her children were all of school age, and enrolled at Ocean View Elementary School in Anchorage, Carol took a job at their school as a part-time noon duty supervisor.

Carol earned her master's degree in public administration and education from the University of Alaska, Anchorage. She resumed her teaching career in 1975 when she was hired to teach second grade at the Ocean View School. In 1984, she was named president of the Anchorage Education Association, and by 1993, she was promoted to superintendent for the Anchorage School District. She became Head Superintendent in 2000. “I laugh because I think if my sixth grade teacher could know that I was a superintendent, she would turn over in her grave,” Carol once said of her favorite teacher. She recalled the sixth-grade teacher was always telling her to work harder and stop being so chatty.

As an administrator, Carol worked to get Jewish and Islamic holidays added to the school calendar, and to include sexual orientation as part of her district's anti-harassment policy. At 48,200 students, Anchorage is the state’s largest and most diverse district.

Carol was named Alaska Superintendent of the Year in 2004. In 2007, she was awarded an honorary doctorate at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. In 2012, she was named an Alumnus of Distinction and given the Alumni of Achievement Award by the University of Alaska, Anchorage. Also, an endowment specifially for education at the Alaska Community Foundation is named after this remarkable educator. Carol was inaugurated to the Alaska Women's Hall of Fame in 2009. She retired on June 30, 2012, and today makes her home in Bellingham, Washington.

Helena Devereux: The Chalkboard Champion of Special Needs Children

Special education teachers are no doubt aware of a very remarkable teacher who has contributed much to their field of endeavor. That teacher is Helena Devereux.

Helena was born on February 2, 1885, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Like many young American women of her generation, she became a schoolteacher. She graduated first from Philadelphia High School for Girls in 1904, and then from the Philadelphia Normal School in 1906.

After her college graduation, Helena accepted her first position as a teacher at George Washington Elementary School in the Philadelphia public school system. As a novice elementary teacher working in an underprivileged area of the city, Helena immediately became interested in the children who experienced difficulty in learning through traditional methods. The public school system of her day had no means of providing individualized programs for children with special needs. Rather than helping these students, such children were repeatedly held back, ostracized by their peers, and written off as hopeless. Some were actually sent to mental institutions. Helena showed unique patience and attention to these special needs children. Several such children who had been held back and failed in other classes began to thrive under Helena's expert care and innovative teaching methods.

Helena began using an individualized approach to the teaching of the developmentally delayed. She believed that each child in her care came complete with his or her own set of innate abilities, distinctive potential, and unique needs. She made it her purpose to aid them in the discovery that each one could be a contributing and valued member of their community and of a larger society. Her methods were groundbreaking, and they pre-dated many of the practices in the field of special education that are typically in use today.
In 1911, the Philadelphia Board of Education offered this remarkable teacher the job of Director of Special Education, a new position designed to supervise the creation of a special education department for the city's schools. Despite being offered a handsome salary for the time, she turned it down, believing that she could have a greater impact on her own. That same year, Helena received national attention following a visit to her classroom from a reporter who published an article detailing her innovative instructional methods. Following the publication of this article, Helena was contacted by a parent in South Carolina who was interested in entrusting her challenged son to Helena’s care. Helena agreed to assume responsibility for the boy during the summer, and that child became Helena’s first private school student. When Helena received offers from other parents of children with special needs, she responded to these requests by renting a six-bedroom home in Avalon, New Jersey, which she converted to a private school designed to teach and care for the eight children.

In 1924, the gifted teacher Helena married James Fentress, the widower of one of her friends. The couple were married for 21 years, but during all that time, Helena remained dedicated to the students she served. This chalkboard champion passed away on November 17, 1975, at her home in Devon, Pennsylvania, at the age of 90.

Chalkboard Champion Kimberly Ann Henry: The Former First Lady of Oklahoma

 

Many educators are easily recognizable for their efforts in the political arena. One such chalkboard champion is Kimberly Ann Henry, a high school history teacher who also just happens to be the former First Lady of Oklahoma. Kimberly was born in Norman, Oklahoma, attended Shawnee High School in Shawnee, Oklahoma. After her high school graduation, she attended the University of Oklahoma, where she earned her bachelor of science degree in secondary education in 1986.

Kimberly began her ten-year career as a classroom teacher by joining the staff of her alma mater, Shawnee High School, in 1993. There she taught economics, US government, advanced placement American history, and Oklahoma history. Her talents as an outstanding educator were rewarded when, in 1999-2000, she was one of only five educators across America to receive the Close-Up Foundation’s Linda Myers Chozen Award for Teaching Excellence in Civic Education. In addition to her work as a classroom teacher, Kimberly has been a strong advocate on behalf of troubled youth through her support of the Thunderbird Youth Academy. 

When her husband, Brad Henry, was elected governor of Oklahoma in 2003,  Kimberly became the First Lady of Oklahoma. She served in this capacity from 2003 to 2011. While First Lady, Kimberly fought to make education a priority in Oklahoma, and has been particularly instrumental in pushing for increased early childhood educational opportunities in the state. More recently, Kimberly has launched the MyTakeOnHealth Video Challenge which gives young people and students an opportunity to make video spots about health topics. She has also been actively involved with the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Kimberly is currently serving on board of directors for the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and the Jasmine Moran Children's Museum.  She also previously served on the board of directors for Science Museum Oklahoma, Leadership Oklahoma, and the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence. Also, Kimberly is currently serving as the Executive Director of the Sarkeys Foundation, a private, charitable foundation dedicated to providing support through gifts and grants to Oklahoma's non-profit organizations.

Kimberly Henry was honored with the Bill Lowry Library Champion Award for her work in literacy in 2004. The same year by she was named one of the The Journal Record’s 50 Most Distinguished Women. For her tireless efforts on behalf of the people of her state, she was inducted into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame in 2009.

Ninive Calegari: The Teacher that Works to Improve Teacher Salaries

A most remarkable chalkboard champion is San Francisco teacher Ninive Calegari, who has for many years dedicated her extraordinary talents as an educator to creating supportive and innovative learning environments for both teachers and students.

 

Ninive attended Santa Catalina High School in Monterey, California, where she graduated in 1989. After high school, she enrolled at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, where she earned her bachelor's degree in 1993. She completed the requirements for her master's degree in Teaching and Curriculum from the Harvard School of Education in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1995.

 

Ninive inaugurated her career as an education at Drake High School in San Anselmo, and also taught at San Francisco's first charter school, Leadership High School. Her career in the classroom spanned ten years. In addition, Ninive founded 826 Valencia, a writing program for students from six to eighteen years of age. The project has generated 826 national and numerous local 826 chapters. This project earned the Jim Henson Community Honor in 2010.

 

Ninive says her goal is to raise awareness of the unheralded struggles that many teachers face in simply doing their job. To better the working lives of her colleagues, she serves as the president of the Teacher Salary Project, a nonprofit organization designed to build the political will necessary to transform how American society values effective teachers. The organization publicizes her belief that increasing teachers' salaries is essential to meaningful school reform and critical to ensuring that American schools can acquire quality teachers. To meet this goal, Ninive has co-authored the book Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America's Teachers, published in 2005 by The New Press. Ninive has also lent her expertise as the co-producer of the organization's film, American Teacher, a documentary by Oscar-winning director Vanessa Roth, with narration by Matt Damon.

 

For her professional achievements, Ninive received Edutopia's 2007 Daring Dozen award. She also served on the board of Learning Points Associates, and as an advisor to the George Lucas Education Foundation. She has been the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, the William Coe Award for study at Stanford University, and the Andrew Mellon Fellowship.

 

Ninive currently lives in San Francisco with her husband and two young children.

    

NBA Star Pete Chilcutt: Also a Middle School Math and Science Teacher

Many admirable educators were once professional athletes. This is true of former NBA basketball player Pete Chilcutt, who later became a sixth-grade math and science teacher at Folsom Middle School in Folsom, California.

Peter Shawn Chilcutt was born on September 14, 1968, in Sumter, South Carolina. His stepfather was a professor at the University of Alabama, and his mother was a school teacher, too. Pete was raised in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where he attended Tuscaloosa Academy. He was actively recruited by a number of schools, ultimately deciding on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he had won a scholarship. After he graduated, he was selected by the Sacramento Kings in the first round of the NBA Draft in 1991.

At 6'10" and 245 pounds, Pete played the position of forward for seven different teams over a professional career that spanned from 1991 to 2000. He won an NBA Championship in the 1994-1995 season with the Houston Rockets, where he played from 1994-1996. He also played for the Detroit Pistons, the Vancouver Grizzlies, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Utah Jazz. His achievements are particularly amazing when one considers this amazing athlete was born with only one kidney.

Isabelle Salmon Ross: Pioneer Of Utah, and of Physical Education Courses for Women and Special Education Students

Many wonderful teachers were also pioneers in their time. Such is the case of Isabelle Salmon Ross, who was not only a pioneer settler in the Utah Territory in the 1800s, but was also a pioneer of physical education courses for women and special education students during her lifetime.

Isabelle Salmon was born on November 1, 1867, in Perry, Utah Territory. Her parents, William Weir Salmon and Margaret Hay Hunter Salmon, had immigrated from Scotland. Isabelle earned her degree in education at the University of Utah and also attended Harvard University. She became a physical education teacher in the public school system in Salt Lake City, at Brigham Young College, and at the Utah State School for the Deaf and the Blind in Ogden, Utah.

Isabelle was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She served her church in the general presidency of the Primary organization. While working in that capacity, Isabelle met and fell in love with fellow Mormon Charles James Ross. On September 29, 1897, the pair married in the Salt Lake Temple. Her husband was from Ogden and was a member of the general board of the Deseret Sunday School Union. He also served for a time as the manager of Ogden Tabernacle Choir.

In her later life, Isabelle suffered from coronary heart disease, and passed away at the age of eighty on December 28, 1947, in Salt Lake City. She is interred at the Salt Lake City Cemetery.