Rita Pierson says "Every Kid Needs a Champion"

Every once in a while I come across an inspirational video that just resonates. This is the case with the video below, a recording of Rita Pierson, an educator with forty years of experience in the profession. As she tells it, she once heard a colleague say, "They don't pay me to like the kids." Her response: "Kids don't learn from people they don't like.'" This video presents a rousing call to educators to believe in their students and actually connect with them on a real, human, and personal level. Enjoy!

Comic Book Artist and High School Art Teacher Franco Aureliani

Often talented educators win acclaim in fields other than teaching. Such is the case for Franco Aureliani, an art teacher at Carmel High School in Carmel, New York. Franco has taught courses in studio art, portfolio preparation, drawing and painting, and advance placement studio art.

In addition to teaching, Franco is a comic book writer and artist. With Art Baltazar, Franco won acclaim for co-writing the DC Comics series Tiny Titans, for which he won an Eisner Award for Best Publication for Kids in both 2009 and 2011.He also won an Eisner Award for Early Readers in 2014 for Itty Bitty Hellboy. The two have made a name for themselves in the comic industry for their work on some of the most fun and ageless comics of all time.

Below is a one-minute video showing this personable teacher and his co-author Art Baltazar in action at Comic Con.

Praise for Chalkboard Heroes

Praise continues to mount for the new book, Chalkboard Heroes, a collection of inspirational biographical sketches recognizing twelve teachers from American history who were both exemplars of the teaching profession, pioneers, social reformers, protectors, and role models of society.

Donald L. Johnson of the Cameron High School Alumni Association says, "Terry, what an excellent job done on the chapter for Prof. Henry Cameron!  You actually brought him to life and gave him an identity and an existence. I commend you for your research and writing ability."

Chalkboard Hero Prudence Crandall: She Dared to Educate African American Girls

There are many courageous teachers who have made great sacrifices for the sake of their students. One of these was Quaker Prudence Crandall, a Connecticut teacher who lost everything in order to educate African American girls in a time when doing so was unheard of.


In 1831, Prudence opened a boarding school for young ladies in Canterbury, Connecticut. By the end of the first year, she had earned the praise of parents, community members, and students throughout New England.

Then one day an African American student named Sarah Harris asked to be admitted to the academy. Sarah said she wanted to learn how to be a teacher so she could open her own school for black students. Prudence knew admitting an African American student would generate some resistance from her neighbors, but after some soul-searching, she decided her conscience would not allow her to refuse the request. Prudence had severely under-estimated the resistance.

Figuring the complaint was that she was operating an integrated school, the intrepid teacher closed her academy for white girls and re-opened as an academy for "misses of color." That just made the situation worse, causing ripples all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court and resulting in Prudence's brief incarceration in the local jail. Eventually, Prudence was forced to close her school and leave town.

Years later, however, the courageous stance taken by this heroic teacher caused her to be named the Female State Hero for Connecticut. Read the gripping account of what happened in my newly-released book, Chalkboard Heroes, now available on amazon.com.

Author Mary Breu reviews Chalkboard Heroes

Below you will find a review of my recently released book, Chalkboard Heroes, written by Mary Breu, author of Last Letters from Attu, the enthralling story of Etta Jones, an intrepid teacher and nurse from New Jersey who traveled to the Alaskan Territory as a pioneer. Etta Jones was incarcerated in a Japanese prisoner of war camp during World War II.

Chalkboard Heroes: Review

by Mary Breu

Terry Lee Marzell, Chalkboard Heroes: Twelve Courageous Teachers and Their Deeds of Valor. Tucson, Arizona: Wheatmark, 2015. vii + 243 pp. Preface, photographs, glossary, bibliography, index.

Chalkboard Heroes: Twelve Courageous Teachers and Their Deeds of Valor is the author’s second book, a non-fiction compilation of innovative teachers who have impacted their students and our society; some names are familiar, others are not. Each profile has been thoroughly researched and includes vivid descriptions that exemplify qualities that make an excellent teacher. The reader can peek through a window and see the teachers’ early lives, watch him or her develop and see what inspired their passion for teaching. The teachers’ voices allow the reader to get a feel for the personalities and qualities of people who encouraged them to become teachers. The teachers in this book demonstrate the essence of what a teacher does; they find ways, sometimes against incredible odds, to reach his or her students and make learning more real as opposed to standing in front of the class and lecturing. Valuable backgrounds and historical events are included. The author’s writing style pulls the reader in by telling something striking about the teacher and that makes the reader eager to find out more.

Horace Mann’s niece, Olive Mann Isbell, was born in Ohio in 1824. Twenty-two years later, she and her husband found themselves at a Mission in California. The Mexican -American War was raging all around them, but Olive continued to teach her twenty students, using “a long pointed stick to draw diagrams on the dirt floor” and “charcoal from an extinguished fire to write the letters of the alphabet on the palms of the children’s hands. And she kept a long rifle by her side, just in case” (Page 2.) One hundred forty years later, another teacher “discovered that much information about the social history of the United States has been found in diaries, travel accounts and personal letters. Just as the pioneer travelers of the Conestoga wagon days kept personal journals, I, as a pioneer space traveler, would do the same.” (Page 187.) The teacher’s name was Christa McAuliffe. The author wrote, “Christa believed that such a journal, which would record space flight from the perspective from a non-astronaut, would demonstrate to students that even an ordinary person could contribute to history in very important ways” (Page 187).

Today, when teachers are in the throes of bureaucratic paperwork, subjected to administrators who make unrealistic demands, respond to parents who question a teacher’s seemingly unreasonable assignments and deal with students who, the teacher knows, come from incredibly difficult home environments, reading about these teachers’ lives will be an inspiration because, in the end, all a teacher wants to do is teach. The common thread woven into the fabric of this book is a quote from Lee Iacocca: “In a completely rational society, the best of us would aspire to be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something less, because passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest honor and highest responsibility anyone could have” (Page 1.) Christa McAuliffe understood that message when she proclaimed, “I touch the future…I teach!” (Page 177.)

I recommend this book to teachers of all grade levels. Middle and high school students would also benefit from the author’s clear, concise and correct telling of historical events and people.

Read More by Mary Breu

To view Mary Breu's web page, simply click on Mary Breu.

To  find Mary Breu's book on amazon.com, click on Last Letters from Attu.

The Conversation about Using Blogs in the Classroom

Within my professional learning community, my colleagues and I have been having a lively discussion about the purpose and value of blogs. So I was looking over my blog here, which I inaugurated on November 18, 2012. In the little over two years since I first started my blog, I have published nearly 300 posts. To date, I have attracted over 24,889 page views. I've been told this is pretty impressive, so I thank all my readers! I love to write about great teachers, and I hope that my posts and books will inspire respect for educators, and also reinforce a passion for the profession from current practitioners.

Even though my favorite thing to write about is remarkable teachers, it seems that the posts that garner the most response are the ones that offer tips and hints about how teachers can build upon their own practice. So this post is an offering in that vein.

Almost everyone is already aware that the use of blogs for personal, professional, and educational purposes has exploded in recent years. In 2015, 6.7 million people published blogs on blogging sites, and 12 million people blogged via some sort of social network. Today, 31% more individuals are blogging than were publishing three years ago. It has been noted that approximately 70% of American students under the age of 18 are writing blogs. If you would like to read more statistics about blogs, click on this article: 10 Interesting Key Facts and Figures about Blogging.

As you can expect from teachers, most of the conversations I've had with my colleagues have revolved around how blogs can be used productively in the classroom. There are so many possibilities to use blogs as an effective instructional tool! Some of the purposes we discussed include providing opportunities for educators to personally reflect on teaching experiences, to provide tips and strategies to other teachers, to record lesson plans and other curricular materials, and to explore issues and topics important to the profession. You can use the platform to keep parents informed of your instructional program. You can create an online book club for your students, or post assignments, writing prompts, or online readings for students to react to. You could showcase your students' writing, art, and projects. You could build a class newsletter and record your students' activities, posting photographs and videos of them in action. Using blogs, students can express opinions about class readings or current events, complete class writing assignments, put together an online portfolio of their work, or showcase products of their project-based learning, all for a pre-determined audience: just the members of the class and their parents, groups of students in other schools, or even the world at large. This real-world application of the technology falls in line very nicely with Common Core State Standards---which is a genuine benefit. To read a first-hand account of a teacher successfully employing this strategy in her classroom, click: Blogging in the the 21st Century Classroom.

I've included here a ten-minute YouTube video to help you further explore the practice of classroom blogging. I selected this particular video because it was concise and relatively short, offering a brief overview of the history of blogs, the uses of blogs in general, how blogs can be used in the classroom, and examples of some blogs that are relevant to professional educators. I also liked it because it is a more polished and professional production than something created in an individual's bedroom.





Blogging---and other social networking tools---are becoming one of the most powerful tools a teacher can employ in their instructional program. But why is this the case? I can say from personal experience that part of the lure of blogging is the idea that people out there are interested in reading my thoughts and ideas. When I published my first blog post, I was excited by the idea that my online "voice" would be read by others, and that they would respond with comments of their own. I was pretty disappointed when, the first month or so, I had no readers at all, and zero responses. Writing is hard work, and blogging on a daily basis is an immense commitment! But I continued to plug away at it, and gradually my daily readership grew. It has come to the point now that I feel an obligation to my readers to publish at least once or twice a week. I can't let them down! Imagine how excited your students will be when they publish their classwork and projects online---they have a built-in audience ready and waiting: the other members of your class---and the feedback from their peers will quickly pile up. Furthermore, experts say that one of the best aspects of blogging is that the relative anonymity of online publishing gives a voice to the student who might not otherwise contribute to the academic conversation. How exciting would it be if your students came to feel motivated to write for their audiences daily or even weekly, just like I did?

Blogging is just one of the social media tools that can be used to enhance learning. Experts agree that the teacher who recognizes and employs blogging and other social networking strategies is tapping into extremely potent implements for learning. In the seven-minute video below, educator Don Olcott, Chief Executive of the Observatory of Borderless Higher Education in London, England, discusses the efficacy of social networking tools to facilitate learning in the classroom:





Finally, a really great resource to consult for more information about this topic is a nifty little book called Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson (Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Publishing, 2010).

If you are not yet using blogs in your instructional program, I hope that now you will feel motivated and confident enough to give it a try!


Sources:

Anurag. "10 Interesting Key Facts and Figures About Blogging." Quickrpost. February 5, 2015.
http://www.quikrpost.com/4487/10-interesting-key-facts-and-figures-about-blogging-bloggers-should-know/

Keller, Lee, and Cavenaugh, Kim. "Blogs in Education." Palm Breeze Cafe. January 20, 2008. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7XiCg_wpzE

Lampinen, Michelle. "Blogging in the 21st-Century Classroom." Edutopia. April 8, 2013. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/blogging-in-21st-century-classroom-michelle-lampinen

Olcott, Don. "Facilitate Learning Between Students." Penn State World Campus. August 16, 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO0FE4125ak&list=PL10135682177CBD2D&index=51

Richardson, Will. Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Publishing, 2010.

National School Counseling Week: Let's Celebrate!

This week, February 2-6, is National School Counseling Week 2015. The purpose of this celebration is to focus public attention on the unique contributions by professional school counselors within American school systems.

National School Counseling Week highlights the tremendous impact school counselors can have in helping our students to achieve school success. Day in and day out, these dedicated professionals labor tirelessly to help ensure the academic success, personal achievement, and emotional well-being of our kids.

On the campus where I work, their commitment to the success of each student starts with their very first interaction with students through their eighth grade outreach programs, and continues with assisting the freshmen with their graduation requirements plans, one-on-one meetings with English-language learners, counseling students who are failing classes, helping students who are lacking credits with strategies for credit recovery, and making sure seniors are on track to graduate. In between all this heavy-duty work, counselors help students find scholarships to fund their post-graduation education programs, write letters of recommendation, judge senior projects, and attend IEP meetings. And as if all that wasn't enough, they also organize small group counseling sessions to help students deal with such issues as bullying, smoking-cessation, teen parenting, or bereavement. When the inevitable quarrels between students arise, they serve as competent conflict resolution facilitators, and they have even been known to mediate the occasional dispute between a student and a teacher. And then, just to top it all off, if---God forbid---some tragedy such as a fatal traffic accident or a suicide strikes, school counselors quickly mobilize into a highly-effective crisis management team.

Phenomenal, aren't they? Chalkboard champions, in the truest sense of the word.