Tag Archives: Teacher Musicians

Kentucky teacher Kyri Demby is also a musician, author, and motivational speaker

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Elementary school teacher Kyri Demby of Kentucky has also earned acclaim as a musician, author, and motivational speaker. Photo Credit: Kentucky Department of Education

Elementary school teacher Kyri Demby has earned a name for himself as a musician, author, and motivational speaker from Kentucky.

Kyri currently teaches music and art in grades kindergarten through five at Jacob Elementary School in Louisville, Kentucky. His career as an educator spans 15 years.

As a musician, Kyri uses music to build classroom community. And he also uses his talent to benefit his community. In fact, every year on his birthday he provides a benefit concert for the Ronald McDonald House. Kyri describes himself as a gospel songwriter. He has written songs for many churches and gospel groups throughout the country.

And music is only one of this educator’s talents. Kyri has published a variety of books, including Lori Biscuit: The Musical Detective series; the Tales of the Still Quarters series; the Uncle Jabbo’s Stable series; and Demby’s Playful Parables. “As a teacher, I always tell stories to my kids,” Kyri once said. “One day I decided maybe I should write these stories down.”

For his work in the classroom, Kyri garnered a 2021 Robinson Award for Diversity and Equity in Public Education by the Kentucky Department of Education. Since 2004, the award has been given to a person or group within the state that displays outstanding leadership, commitment, and service promoting equity and opportunities. The criteria for winning the award include successful efforts to close socio-economic and/or racial achievement gaps and significantly improving learning, achievement, or other measured outcomes among students of color or economically disadvantaged students. The award is named for Samuel Robinson, a former educator who served on the Kentucky Board of Education from 1991 to 2004. Robinson was known as an advocate for racial and social justice and for promoting the concept that education can make a difference in the lives of all students.

Kyri earned his Bachelor’s degree in Music Teacher Education from Bethune-Cookman University in 2001. He earned his Master’s degree in Educational Leadership and Administration from the University of South Florida in 2008.

Oregon STEM teacher Ranjani Krishnan garners coveted 2023 PAEMST Award

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Computer science and mathematics teacher Ranjani Krishnan from Lincoln High School in Portland, Oregon, has garnered a coveted 2023 PAEMST Award. Photo credit: Lincoln High School

There are so many talented educators who have earned recognition for their expertise, creativity, and hard work in the classroom. One of these is Ranjani Krishnan, a high school  STEM teacher from Portland, Oregon. She has garnered a coveted 2023 PAEMST award.

The PAEMST, Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, recognize the dedication, hard work, and importance that America’s teachers play in supporting learners who will become future STEM professionals, including computer technologists, climate scientists, mathematicians, innovators, space explorers, and engineers. The PAEMST program, founded in 1983, is administered by the National Science Foundation (NSF) on behalf of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The honor comes with a meeting with the President and a $10,000 cash prize.

Ranjani teaches computer technology and mathematics at Lincoln High School in Portland. She has worked there for seven years. Her efforts include participating in an annual schoolwide student-led Wellness Fair on her campus. During the pandemic, she orchestrated student research that resulted in a 3-D prototype of a face shield designed to protect health care workers in her city.

In addition to her work with students, Ranjani is also an accomplished musician. Her first album, released in 2015 and entitled Cream of Portland, offers musical selections that are a composite of many musical styles, Indian Classical, Flamenco, Balkan, North African, Jazz, Celtic, and Country.

The honored educator earned a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and another in Music Theory and Composition, both from Reed College in Portland. She earned a Master’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Illinois Urbana at Champaign, and a second Master’s degree in Mathematics Teacher Education from the Lewis and Clark Graduate School of Education and Counseling.

NV music teacher Darren Motamedy earns Heart of Education Award

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Music educator and Band Director Darren Motamedy has earned a Heart of Education Award from the Smith Center in Las Vegas. Photo credit: Walter Johnson Junior High

There are many excellent educators throughout our country who go above and beyond for their students. One of these is Darren Motamedy, a music teacher and Band Director from Clark County, Nevada. The hardworking music educator has just earned a Heart of Education Award from the Smith Center in Las Vegas.

It seems that Darren was simply born to teach. “Teaching is one of my favorite parts of my life. I love the energy of sharing knowledge about music with my students,” he says. “I have a unique approach to teaching music because I’m a professional musician and I know what are the important skills necessary to become a successful!” he reveals.

When Darren was hired to fill the position of band director at Walter Johnson Junior High School in Las Vegas, the program was struggling. Right away he dived into the difficult job of transforming it. He obtained grants to purchase $50,000 worth of new instruments and equipment, which provided opportunities for many at-risk students to join the band. Offering free lessons for students, he also raised over $100,000 so that every participant in the band program could participate in out-of-state field trips.

“I have achieved success at Johnson Junior High during my 13 years by taking it one step at a time,” asserts Darren. “It’s the little things that I do on a daily basis that become the model for success,” he continued.

The effort has not gone unnoticed. Darren is one of 20 teachers in Clark County, Nevada, who has earned a Smith Center Heart of Education Award this year. The recognition, presented in Las Vegas on April 21, 2023, comes with a commemorative medallion, a $5,000 cash award, and a $1,000 donation to the school program of the honoree’s choice. This is the eighth year the recognition has been presented to Clark County teachers who have gone above and beyond for their students.

 

Teacher and musician Zitkala Sa was also a political activist

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Teacher and musician Zitkala Sa, also known as Red Bird, was also a political activist. Photo Credit: National Park Service

It’s Women’s History Month, so today I would like to introduce you to one of the most amazing Chalkboard Champions and political activists in American history. She is Native American Zitkala Sa, whose Indian name translated means Red Bird.

This remarkable educator was born on February 22, 1876, on the Yankton Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Her father, an American of European descent, abandoned his family, leaving his young daughter to be raised alone by her Native American mother. Despite her father’s absence, Zitkala Sa described her childhood on the reservation as a time of freedom and joy spent in the loving care of her tribe.

In 1884, when she was just eight years old, missionaries visited the reservation and removed several of the Native American children, including Zitkala Sa, to Wabash, Indiana. There she was enrolled in White’s Manual Labor Institute, a school founded by Quaker Josiah White for the purpose of educating “poor children, white, colored, and Indian.” She attended the school for three years until 1887, later describing her life there in detail in her autobiography The School Days of an Indian Girl. In the book she described her despair over having been separated from her family, and having her heritage stripped from her as she was forced to give up her native language, clothing, and religious practices. She was also forced to cut her long hair, a symbolic act of shame among Native Americans. Her deep emotional pain, however, was somewhat brightened by the joy and exhilaration she felt in learning to read, write, and play the violin. During these years, Zitkala Sa became an accomplished musician.

After completing her secondary education in 1895, the young graduate enrolled at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, on a scholarship. The move was an unusual one, because at that time higher education for women was not common. In 1899, Zitkala Sa accepted a position as a music teacher at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Here she became an important role model for Native American children who, like herself, had been separated from their families and relocated far from their home reservations to attend an Indian boarding school. In 1900, the young teacher escorted some of her students to the Paris Exposition in France, where she played her violin in public performances by the school band. After she returned to the Carlisle School, Zitkala Sa became embroiled in a conflict with the Carlisle’s founder, Colonel Richard Henry Pratt, when she expressed resentment over the rigid program of assimilation into the dominant white culture that Pratt advocated, and the fact that the school’s curriculum did not encourage Native American children to aspire to anything beyond lives spent as manual laborers.

After that, as a political activist, Zitkala Sa devoted her energy and talent towards the improvement of the lives of her fellow Native Americans. The former teacher founded the National Council of American Indians in 1926 and served as its president until her death in 1938. She traveled around the country delivering speeches on controversial issues such as Native American enfranchisement, their full citizenship, Indian military service in World War I, corruption in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the apportionment of tribal lands. In 1997 she was selected as a Women’s History Month Honoree by the National Women’s History Project.

Zitkala Sa: a national treasure and a genuine Chalkboard Champion.

You can read more about the Carlisle Indian School in my book, Chalkboard Champions, available from amazon.

Peter Tork of Monkees fame also taught English, drama, music

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Peter Tork of the 1960s band The Monkeys also spent there years in a California classroom teaching English, drama, and music.  Photo Credit: UK Music Reviews

Former teacher Peter Tork doesn’t Monkee around. But there was a time in his life when he did.

In the mid-1960s, a pop band known as the Monkees hit the music scene with a few songs and a zany television show aimed at American teens. The band became, literally, an overnight sensation. Peter Tork, who played bass guitar and keyboards, was a member of that band. The other three members were Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, and Michael Nesmith.

Over the next five years, the group attempted to keep up with a whirlwind schedule that included weekly television sitcom episodes, studio recording sessions, national and international concert tours, and a full-length feature movie. The hard work paid off. Since they first hit the scene, the Monkees have sold more than 75 million records worldwide, making them one of the biggest selling groups of all time. Their best known songs are “I’m a Believer,” “Last Train to Clarksville,” “Daydream Believer,” and “Pleasant Valley Sunday.”

But the work schedule, creative differences with producer Don Kirshner, and infighting among the band members left Peter exhausted. In December, 1968, he bought out the remaining four years of his contract and left the Monkees. For the next few years, Peter drifted from one gig to another and spent or gave away all his Monkees earnings. By 1975, he’d hit rock bottom.

That’s when, even though he had dropped out of college, Peter accepted a position as a teacher at Pacific Hills School, a private secondary school in Santa Monica, California. He was hired to work there by Dr. Penrod Moss, the school’s director, because Moss was so impressed by Peter’s interview. “I like to hire people who are independent and creative,” Moss explained. “I was impressed by his personality and his ability to talk.” For Peter, a career in the classroom is not so odd when you consider that his father was an economics professor at the University of Connecticut for many years. At Pacific Hills, Peter taught many subjects, including English, math, drama, history, and music. He also served as a baseball coach at several schools. In all, Peter’s career as an educator spanned three years.

In 1986, the Monkees got together again to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the band. The following year they released a new studio album which earned measured success. Since then, Peter participated with fellow Monkees in numerous reunion shows and tours, until band member Davy Jones passed away in 2012.

In March, 2009, the former teacher was diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma, and later that year underwent extensive surgery. Despite being declared cured, ten years later the cancer recurred, and he succumbed to the disease on February 21, 2019. He was 77 years old.