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.

Indian boarding schools were places of cultural genocide

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While conducting research for my first book Chalkboard Champions, I was surprised to learn a great deal about numerous types of schools that I had never heard about in the 36 years I had been teaching. I learned about industrial schools, soup schools, farm schools, normal schools, and specialist schools. One of the types of schools I was particularly interested in reading about was Indian boarding schools, and the controversies these facilities generated.

Indian boarding schools were created specifically for the purpose of educating Native Americans. American Indian children were sent to these facilities, sometimes involuntarily, because it was believed the only way Native Americans could ever succeed in a predominantly white society would be if they abandoned their tribal ways and adopted the lifestyle practiced by the dominant culture. Proponents believed that this assimilation could best be accomplished when the Indian children were very young.

Most Indian boarding schools were originally founded by church missionaries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Later, some were established and run by the US government. Maybe the intentions were pure, but the results were disastrous. Some historians go so far as to assert these schools were institutions of cultural genocide.

The children, some as young as four years old, were taken away from their families, sent many miles away from home, and forced to give up their native languages, customs and religious beliefs, art and music, clothing, and even their names. These youngsters often found it traumatic when they were forced to cut their long hair, a symbolic act of shame and sorrow to many Native Americans. The highly regimented routine and military atmosphere of the boarding schools were harsh on the youngest ones. Exposure to diseases to which they had no natural immunities, coupled with homesickness and, in some locations, unsanitary conditions, led to a disturbingly high death rate. In despair, some of the youngsters ran away from their schools, freezing or starving to death trying to make their way back to their home reservations. Such a terribly sad thought for educators who care so much about kids and really believe in the liberating power of schools.

You can read more about these schools in the book Indian Boarding School: Teaching the White Man’s Way, available on amazon.com. You can also read about them in my book, Chalkboard Champions.

NYC STEM teacher Bianca Bibiloni garners a 2023 Big Apple Award

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Elementary school science teacher Bianca Bibiloni from Queens, New York, has garnered a 2023 Big Apple Award. Photo credit: PS 14 Fairview

There are many fine educators who have earned accolades for their work in the classroom. One of these is Bianca Bibiloni, an elementary school STEAM teacher from New York City, who has earned a 2023 Big Apple Award.

Bianca teaches at PS 14 Fairview in Queens. She has worked there for 13 years. The school offers courses that focus on equity-based practices and culturally responsive education. To that end, she helped develop the school’s UNITY team.

In addition, Bianca has made it her mission to help her students to develop into problem-solving scientists. In fact, she spearheaded the school’s STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) program. An integral part of her program has been her involvement in the GrowNYC Recycling Champions program, a nonprofit organization that has established over 800 school gardens. Bianca has also participated in the Sustainable STEAM Fair. At her school site, Bianca has organized many garden initiatives for her students, and she is involved in the Seed to Plate Program. At one point, the innovative educator built a raised bed garden on top of a concrete schoolyard.

Congratulations, Bianca!

 

 

TN STEM teacher Evie LaFollette garners 2023 Yager Exemplary Teaching Award

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STEM teacher Evie LaFollette of Tennessee has garnered a 2023 Robert E. Yager Exemplary Teaching Award from the National Science Teaching Association. Photo credit: Kingsport City Schools

Congratulations go to Evie LaFollette, a STEM teacher at Dobyns-Bennett High School in Kingsport, Tennessee. She has garnered a 2023 Robert E. Yager Exemplary Teaching Award from the National Science Teaching Association.

The Robert E. Yager Exemplary Teaching Award annually recognizes six science teachers who successfully use innovation and excellence in their classroom. The recipients of the award receive $1,000 towards their expenses to attend the annual NSTA National Conference on Science Education, and an additional $1,000 for their personal use. Each of the six teachers selected were invited to present at the conference, attend the district director meet-and-greet, and participate in their NSTA District Director Leadership retreat.

Evie has been an educator for fourteen years, seven of them at Dobyns-Bennett High, where she teaches Biology courses. She is obviously dedicated to her students and to her work. “It is my goal that each of my students feel seen, accepted, and supported in my classroom,” Evie declares. “I try to inspire my students to approach science like an engineer, always looking for solutions and being creative in their problem solving approach,” she says.
For the past ten years, Evie has also instructed online Psychology and Advanced Placement Psychology courses for the Niswonger Foundation. She also teaches Synthetic Biology at East Tennessee State University in a program which provides college credit to gifted and talented high school students throughout the state. And as if all that were not enough, she leads teacher workshops to train high school teachers all over Tennessee in how to implement Synthetic Biology and Genetic Engineering. Furthermore, in April, 2022, she was a presenter of “Life Changing Science Education” at the international science conference SynBioBeta held in Oakland, CA.
Evie earned her Bachelor’s degree in Behavioral Neuroscience from East Tennessee State University in Johnson City. She earned her Master’s degree in Education from Milligan University in Elizabethton, Tennessee.

To learn more about the National Science Teachers Association, click on this link to the NSTA.

Emancipation schools educated newly-freed African Americans

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Emancipation schools were organized by the US Freedman’s Bureau to educate newly freed African Americans. (Photo credit: New Georgia encyclopedia)

When enslaved African Americans were finally freed by the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, an entire group of people who had been previously been denied the opportunity to go to school were suddenly in need of education. (Before the Civil War, it had been declared illegal to teach a slave to read and write in many Southern states.) The schools that were created to meet this need were referred to as emancipation schools.

The United States government and the African American community realized that education was critical to advancement as free individuals in society. It wasn’t just the children, individuals in every age group from grandparents to toddlers needed educational opportunities, and they needed these opportunities right away.

The need was met in a variety of ways. Many intrepid educators from the North traveled to the South to establish schools under the auspices of northern aid societies. These educators were both liberal-minded, abolitionist white teachers and civic-minded, educated Black teachers. Some African Americans were offered educational opportunities in schools created by the army during the Civil War. In these schools, Black soldiers could learn to read and write through the army. In addition, the US government established the Freedmen’s Bureau, and this department was responsible for organizing many educational opportunities for newly freed slaves.

For a more informative discussion about emancipation schools, see this link to the American Experience.

CA educator Efrain Tovar uses “translanguaging” strategies in his Newcomers class

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Many outstanding educators are working diligently to help recent immigrants to the United States learn how to function fluently in the English language. But some of the best are those that encourage these students to simultaneously develop their proficiency in their native languages. One of these is Efrain Tovar, an English as a Second Language teacher at Abraham Lincoln Middle School in Selma, located in Fresno County in California.

Efrain creates a vibrant classroom community for “newcomers,” the moniker given to recently-arrived immigrant students who have limited proficiency in English. In his class, students come from a wide range of countries, including Mexico, Yemen, India, Egypt, Guatemala, and others. Efrain uses this ethnic diversity not only to create a safe and welcoming space for learning, but also to further develop and personalize each student’s English language learning curriculum.

Efrain is an advocate for Ann instructional process known as “translanguaging,” the practice of encouraging the student to use their existing linguistic backgrounds and heritages to master new academic content and, ultimately, to be able to move fluently between two or more languages. Studies have shown that when English language learners are given consistent opportunities to practice their home languages in class, their English proficiency flourishes—along with their sense of belonging and identity. “The goal is to be bilingual and bi-literate so that you’ll not only be a contributing citizen, but also be a bridge maker when you speak multiple languages with multiple communities,” explains Efrain.

You can watch this amazing educator at work and hear what his student have to say about him, in the video above. To learn more about studies in translanguaging, you can read this article detailing an explore 2011 study about English language learners and academic achievement. You can also access this article published in 2023 by EdSource which describes why bilingual students do better on tests than native English speakers.