Author Archives: Terry Lee Marzell

About Terry Lee Marzell

Terry Lee Marzell holds a bachelor's degree in English from Cal State Fullerton and a master's degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from Cal State San Bernardino. She also holds a certificate for Interior Design Level 1 from Mt. San Antonio College. She has been an educator in the Corona Norco Unified School District for more than 30 years.

Oklahoma teacher and social activist Maude Brockway

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Oklahoma teacher and social activist Maude Brockway taught former enslaved people and Native Americans. Photo Credit: Public Domain

Often times, hardworking educators dedicate their energy and talent to the improvement of social conditions for others. Maude Brockway, an African American teacher from Oklahoma, is one of these. As a social activist, she taught former enslaved people and Native Americans.

Maude was born on February 28, 1876, in Clark County, Arkansas. She was raised in Curtis, where she attended the Arkadelphia Presbyterian Academy, an elementary and secondary school founded to educate the children for former enslaved people. The school was operated under the auspices of the Presbyterian Board of Missions for Freedmen. Later Maude enrolled at Arkansas Baptist College located in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Once she completed her education, Maude moved to Indian Territory in Oklahoma, where she worked as a teacher in Ardmore and Berwyn in the Chickasaw Nation. Later she opened a hat-making business. In 1910, Maude relocated to Oklahoma City, then still part of the Oklahoma Territory. There she became involved in an activist movement that furthered the interests of African American citizens in the city. She was particularly active in the Black Clubwomen’s Movement in her area. This movement took place throughout the United States, functioning under the founding philosophy that women had a moral duty and responsibility to transform public policy.

As part of her work as an activist, Maude founded the Oklahoma Training School for Women and Girls in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. This school was later known as the Drusilla Dunjee Houston Training School. Later she established the Brockway Community Center in Oklahoma City. The center offered training courses, well-baby clinics, a daycare center, and a women’s health center which included a birth control clinic.

Sadly, Maude Brockway succumbed to a heart attack on October 24, 1959, in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, while attending a the state convention of the Women’s Auxiliary of the state Baptist Convention. At the time, the Chalkboard Champion was 83 years old. To read more about her, see this link to The Black Dispatch.

Annual song competition honors beloved Hawaii educator George Alanson Andrus

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There are times when a particularly special educator inspires students long after he or she no longer walks this earth. One of these educators is George Alanson Andrus, a beloved music teacher who taught in the Hawaiian islands during the early part of the 20th century. Even though he lived a century ago, George became the inspiration for a singing competition that still takes place annually at Hawaii’s Kamehameha School. The Kamehameha School is a privately-funded high school originally founded to provide quality education for Native Hawaiian students. Many consider the institution to be one of the most prestigious schools in the Hawaiian islands.

When George suddenly collapsed and died on May 26, 1921, the principal and faculty of the school wanted to honor the popular teacher. To do so, they hastily organized an impromptu choral competition between the classes that very same day. They held that first competition in the dark on the steps of the campus’s Bishop Museum, illuminated only by the headlights of automobiles aimed at the contestants. The following year, the Kamehameha School for Girls staged their first annual song contest.

In the early days of the contest, each class sang the school’s alma mater, Sons of Hawaii, followed by a Hawaiian composition, and culminating with an original song in Hawaiian composed by members of the class. In 1968, the competition was televised for the first time, live, with a simulcast on radio. Today, the event is still highly anticipated, and, like the very first competition, many of the song selections are still delivered a cappella.

To learn more about the Kamehameha Schools, visit their website at www.ksbe.edu. To view a performance at the 2024 competition, view this four-minute YouTube video below.

TN educator Missy Testerman named 2024 National Teacher of the Year

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Congratulations to ESL educator Missy Testermann of Tennessee, who has been named the 2024 National Teacher of the Year. 

Missy teaches in rural Rogersville, Tennessee, where she has worked for over three decades. She taught first and second grade for many years, but currently works was a Second Language Specialist and Program Director.

Missy earned her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and a Master’s degree in Reading Education from East Tennessee State University (ETSU). In addition, she earned her English as a Second Language license through Freed-Hardeman University. Missy uses this training in her rural Appalachian community, where she builds bridges between cultures between both families who have been in the area for centuries and newer immigrants. Through a curriculum focused on a study of Americans from diverse backgrounds, this exceptional educator allows students to better understand that people are inherently the same and that they all belong. 

View the six-minute YouTube video below of Missy’s appearance on CBS Mornings, where she was interviewed by Gayle King.

 

For Teacher Appreciation Day May 7, gift inspirational Chalkboard books

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Teacher Appreciation Day 2024 is coming up on Tuesday., May 7! It’s not too early to think about gifting your colleagues or your child’s teachers with a little something to show your appreciation for all their hard work in the classroom. When trying to decide just the right gift, consider copies of my books, Chalkboard Champions and Chalkboard Heroes. Each volume is packed with inspirational stories about remarkable educators in American history and the historical implications of their pioneering work.

Among the captivating stories in Chalkboard Champions is the story of Charlotte Forten Grimke, an African American born into freedom who volunteered to teach emancipated slaves as the Civil War raged around her. Read the eyewitness account of the Wounded Knee massacre through the eyes of teacher Elaine Goodale Eastman, and educator Mary Tsukamoto, imprisoned in a WWII Japanese internment camp. Read about Mississippi Freedom Summer teacher Sandra Adickes who, together with her students, defied Jim Crow laws to integrate the Hattiesburg Public Library. Marvel at the pioneering work of Anne Sullivan Macy, the teacher of Helen Keller, the efforts of teacher Clara Comstock to find homes for thousands of Orphan Train riders, and the dedication of Jaime Escalante, the East LA educator who proved to that inner city Latino youths could successfully meet the demands of a rigorous curriculum.

In Chalkboard Heroes, read about dedicated educators who were heroes both inside and outside of the classroom, including WWI veteran Henry Alvin Cameron and Civil War veteran Francis Wayland Parker. Learn about teachers who were social reformers such as Dolores Huerta, Civil Rights activist Robert Parris Moses, suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt, and Native American rights advocate Zitkala-Sa, all of whom put themselves at risk to fight for improved conditions for disenfranchised citizens. Discover brave pioneers who took great risks to blaze a trail for others to follow such as Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher in space; Willa Brown Chappell, the aviatrix who taught Tuskegee airmen to fly; Etta Schureman Jones, the Alaskan teacher who was interned in a POW camp in Japan during WWII; and Olive Mann Isbell, who established the first English school in California while the Mexican american War raged around her.

All these remarkable stories and more can be shared with someone you know this year on Teacher Appreciation Day!