Chalkboard Champion Albert Cullum Introduced Play into the Curriculum

Oftentimes a gifted educator serves as an inspiration not only for his students, but for other teachers as well. Such is certainly the case for chalkboard champion Albert Cullum.

Albert Cullum was born in November of 1921. His career as an educator began in the 1940's, after a failed attempt at a career as a Broadway actor. He accepted a teaching position at St. Luke's School in Greenwich village in New York City, but quickly realized this would be no easy gig. "I knew after the first month [at the job that] something was missing," he once confessed. "I realized, 'I'm not having fun. If I'm not having fun, no one in the room is having fun'…. I realized there should be more play during the day… more learning that is playful." After that, the neophyte educator completely changed his style of teaching. Instead of the prevailing Dick and Jane style, he opted to introduce his children to classic literature such as Shakespeare and Greek drama.

After St. Luke's, Albert taught at the Midland School in Rye, New York, a suburb of New York City, from 1956 to 1966. As a trailblazer in American education, Albert ignited the imagination of countless young students. Through his passionate use of poetry and drama, he helped build students' self-confidence and inspired them to new heights of originality and joy. It was during this time that he and his close friend Robert Downey, Sr., filmed the footage seen in the movie A Touch of Greatness, an Emmy-nominated documentary about Albert's work in the classroom.

Eventually Albert became a professor of education at Boston University and Stonehill College, a liberal arts college in Massachusetts. At Stonehill, he trained aspiring teachers for more than thirty years. In addition to his teaching, Albert worked with the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services using poetry and drama as a therapeutic tool for incarcerated male and female adolescents. He also authored numerous books on education, including The Geranium On The Windowsill Just Died But Teacher You Went Right On (Harlin Quist Books: 2000), which sold over half a million copies, and Push Back the Desks (MacMilan: 1967), considered a classic in the field of education.

After teaching his final class for the semester in May, 2003, Albert's health began to fail. The innovative and prolific educator passed away on July 13, 2003."Teachers can be the bearers of gifts," Albert once said. "Not only do we have the privilege of introducing great literature to young imaginative minds, but we also have the priceless opportunity of giving each child the gift of believing in him or herself."

Cruising or Crashing? What's Your Experience with Technology in the Classroom?

Having devoted nearly three and a half decades to perfecting my practice, I'd love to feel as though I could cruise leisurely through my finely-tuned lesson plans until I sail languidly into the port of retirement. However, like many teachers at all stages of their career, I feel instead that I am racing at breakneck speed through a vast ocean of technological innovation, hanging on for dear life lest I be knocked overboard into a sea of electronic devices and internet resources. Will I drown? Will I be eaten alive? Which devices and resources are the lifesavers, and which ones are the sharks? It's hard to say.

Here is a four-minute YouTube video that demonstrates the urgency of finding the answer to this questions:

I recommend searching out an innovative program at your local university. Having gotten my feet wet swimming in the pool of courses in Educational Technology offered by Cal State Long Beach, I can truly say I have found a beacon and a buoy. The skills I have learned there, the leadership of a remarkable team of professors, and the collaboration of my fellow learners---these have become my best life preservers.

Don't flounder around out there on your own! Once you have found the leaning community that best meets your needs, hang on, employ your most tried-and-true survival strategies, and enjoy the ride!

Dr. Jessie Voigts reviews Chalkboard Heroes

I'm excited to announce that today Dr. Jessie Voigts of Newago, Michigan, published a review of Chalkboard Heroes on her website, www.WanderingEducators.com. Dr. Voigts, who holds a PhD in International Education, is the director of the Youth Travel Blogging Mentorship Program, the co-founder of Writing Walking Women, and she has published six books of her own. Here is an excerpt of her review:

Chalkboard Heroes:

Twelve Courageous Teachers and Their Deeds of Valor

You know what I love? Stories of awesome people. They inspire, teach, and lead by example. Such is the case with Chalkboard Heroes, a marvelous new book by Terry Lee Marzell.

I think that to write about incredible people, you must be an incredible person, yourself. And so it is. Terry has been an educator in Corona, California, for the past thirty-three years, working at both the high school and the junior high school levels. She has taught English, developmental reading, drama, journalism, library science, geography, and interior design. She has also served as her school’s cheerleading advisor for four years, the drama coach for two years, and the school’s newspaper advisor for five years. Throughout her long career as an educator, she has worked with English-language learners and students in honors courses, and she has been a mentor for both International Baccalaureate candidates and special education students. Terry has seven years of experience as a home-stay coordinator and tour escort for students from abroad. In addition, she has mentored several collegiate student teachers. She is currently serving her school as a district librarian.

Let’s talk about her new book, Chalkboard Heroes. This is a remarkable, inspiring book of – yes, you guessed it – remarkable, inspiring teachers. What springs to mind when I read this? That ordinary people can do extraordinary things. That beliefs COUNT. That teachers are pretty special, indeed.

What I love most about this book is the care taken in writing these lives. You can tell that Terry loves teachers, writing, researching, and the selflessness and caring that teachers bring to their students.

This book? It’s a gift to the world, an act of love that shows how important teachers are, throughout history. We know the stories of some – Christa McAuliffe, Robert Moses, Dave Sanders. The stories of others I didn’t know both educate and warm my heart, from coping with racism to the frontier, from gender to social change. This is a history book, an ode to the teaching profession, and a deep look into the lives of teachers. But most of all, it’s a compilation of incredible lives, spent in the pursuit of something they cherished. That is, indeed, remarkable.

You can read the entire review at: www.Wandering Educators.com

Chalkboard Champion William A. Feilds of Tennessee

Often talented educators also become accomplished politicians. Such is the case with Tennessee school teacher William A. Feilds.

William A. Feilds was born into slavery near Fisherville in the county of Shelby located in west Tennessee in circa 1846. Although many records spell his surname as "Field" or "Fields," William himself seems generally to have used the "e-i" combination, normally adding a final "s."

Through years of hard work and close application to study, William earned his teaching certificate which qualified him to teach in the public schools. By 1883, William had become the principal of Shelby County’s 5th District school, at that time located on Waldran Avenue just beyond the Memphis city limits, not far from where Memphis Central High School stands today.

In addition to his career as a schoolteacher and principal, William served one term in the Tennessee House of Representatives as a member of the Republican party. He served from 1885-1886. During his years of service in the legislature, William was particularly interested in efforts to educate black children and to give African Americans greater control over the schools in their communities.  He urged passage of his bill, HB 119, which would require parents and guardians to enroll children aged 7-16 in school for 120 days per year. After he left the legislature, William was also elected a member of the Shelby County County Court, a legislative body, and he served as a justice of the peace.

On December 29, 1874, William A. Feilds married Elizabeth Feilds. The couple had three children: Mary, Cyrus William, and Stella. He is also purported to be the great-great-grandfather of actress and recording artist Vanessa Williams.

This chalkboard champion passed away on September 9, 1898.

Chalkboard Champion William A. Hadley: The Blind Teaching the Blind

Many talented and dedicated educators have devoted their careers to working with handicapped students. Such is the case with William Allen Hadley, a hardworking educator who established a correspondence school for blind adults.

William Hadley was born in Moorsville, Indiana, in 1860. He earned his bachelor's degree from Earlham College in 1881, and his master's degree from the University of Minnesota.

After his college graduation, William taught school in Minnesota, and also served as the Superintendent of Schools in the small town of Wilmar, Minnesota. During the next year, the veteran teacher traveled to Germany to study at the University of Berlin. When he returned to the United States, he accepted a position at Marietta College in Ohio. Later he taught in public schools in Peoria, Illinois, and at a Chicago's Lakeview High School for another fifteen years.

William was a family man. He married Jessie Henderson, a schoolteacher from Fox Lake, Illinois, and the couple had two daughters, Margaret and Emily. William's favorite hobby was reading books in English, German, Latin, and Greek. He was described as a devout Quaker, a strong, quiet man with a capacity for courage, able to stand up to problems and adversities and enjoying intellectual adventures, and possessing a deep concern for human beings.

In 1915, at the age of 55, William was afflicted with a bad bout of influenza, and then he suffered a detached retina which resulted in his blindness. In order to pursue his academic life, William taught himself Braille. The hardworking educator soon discovered that there were few educational opportunities for blind adults, and he felt compelled to assist others to acquire communication skills. In 1920, the intrepid teacher established The Hadley School for the Blind, a correspondence school where blind students could be educated. His first student was a farmer's wife from Kansas who, like William, had suddenly lost her vision and sought to regain her ability to read and write. Teaching most of the early courses himself, William began by converting each individual volume of textbooks to Braille by hand and personally answering lessons with letters of correction and encouragement. Within a year he was teaching about ninety students in the United States, Canada, and China. Among the courses offered were reading and writing in Braille, English grammar, business correspondence, and the Bible as literature. These courses were offered free of charge. William served as the Hadley School's president for more than fifteen years and remained active on the Board of Trustees until his death.

William received an honorary Doctor of Laws in 1931 and a Doctor of Humanities in 1933 from Beloit College. The Bosma Industries for the Blind honored him as the 2004 recipient of the Hasbrook Award, given to a true pioneer in the blindness field.

In 1941, at the age of 101, this chalkboard champion passed away. He is buried in Moorsville, Indiana.

Marcia Brown: The Teacher who Became Famous as a Children's Author and Illustrator

Many talented educators earn recognition for achievements outside their classrooms. Marcia Joan Brown is a spectacular example of this. She is an internationally renowned author and illustrator of children's books. Marcia has published over thirty books in her lifetime, and she is a three-time winner   of the coveted Caldecott Medal, the highest award for excellence in children's picture book illustrations bestowed by the American Library Association.

Marcia Brown was born in Rochester, New York, on July 13, 1918, one of three daughters of the Reverend Clarence Edward and Adelaide Elizabeth (Zimber) Brown. As a young child, Marcia lived in several small towns in upstate New York, including Cooperstown and Kingston, as her father moved from one ministerial post to another. She was raised in a family that supported artistic expression, and she decided at an early age to become an artist. In a videotaped interview in 1996, Marcia reminisced about the books and artworks in her local public library in Cooperstown, New York, that as a child nurtured her sense of wonder and joy in beautiful things.

After her high school graduation in 1936, Marcia enrolled in New York State College for Teachers (NYSCT), the University at Albany's predecessor, where she majored in English and Drama. She earned her bachelor's degree in 1940. While in college her literary and artistic talents blossomed, as she made numerous contributions to the college's literary and humor magazines.

After graduating from NYSCT, Marcia accepted her first position as a high school teacher at Cornwall High School in New York City. In 1943, she began working in the New York Public Library's Central Children's Room. She spent the next six years gaining valuable experience as a storyteller ,while also delving into the library's extensive international and historical collections. She published her first four books while working in the library's Central Children's Room. 

During her long career as a writer and illustrator, Marcia produced over thirty children's books, and many of her titles have been reprinted in other languages, including Afrikaans, German, Japanese, Spanish, and Xhosa-Bantu. Critics have marveled at her use of spare texts, strong images, and a variety of media, including woodcuts, pen and ink, and gouache. Her characters are described as lively, humorous, magical, and enchanting, and they include handsome princes, sly cats, evil sorcerers, flying elephants, and snow queens.

From 1955 to 1983 Brown won a total of three Caldecott Medals, the award bestowed annually to the illustrator of the year's "most distinguished American picture book for children" by the American Library Association. She had been a runner-up six times from 1948 to 1954, and those six books have been designated Caldecott Honor Books.

Today, Marcia Brown lives in California and continues to produce works of writing and illustration.

Chalkboard Heroes: The Launching Party!

Family and friends of author Terry Lee Marzell gathered on Sunday, March 8, at the launching party of her new book, Chalkboard Heroes. The event served as another opportunity to celebrate the significant achievements of America's teachers, not only the twelve remarkable educators described in the book, but all the talented, dedicated, and hardworking teachers that can be found in all corners of our country.

The festive occasion featured this delicious designer cake accented with a reproduction of the book cover in fondant-covered Rice-Krispies treats perched atop a chalkboard-themed cake. This divine confection was created by Darla's Cake Designs in Chino Hills.

The author's next event is a book signing at Barnes and Noble in Chino Hills scheduled for Sunday, April 19, at 1:00 p.m. The address is 3625 Grand Avenue. The event is timed to coincide with Teacher Appreciation Week. So come on over, meet the author, and show your support for your favorite teacher. See you there!