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.

Georgia teacher Susan Allgood garners VFW Citizenship Education Award

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Middle school English teacher Susan Allgood of Toccoa, Georgia, has garnered a 2023 Smart Maher National citizenship Education Teacher Award from the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Photo credit: Veterans of Foreign Wars

As role models for young people, teachers often emphasize the qualities of patriotism and good citizenship in their young students. One teacher who does this exceptionally well is Susan Allgood, a middle school teacher from Toccoa, Georgia. She has been recognized by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) for her excellence in efforts to ensure  her students understand duty to country while honoring the service and memory of America’s veterans. The organization has honored her with a 2023 Smart Maher National Citizenship Education Teacher Award.

Susan teaches seventh and eighth grade English/Language Arts at Stephens County Middle School in Toccoa. She was selected for the honor because she encouraged not only the students in her classroom, but also every student on her campus to participate in the VFW’s annual Patriot’s Pen essay contest. To inspire the young authors, she shared novels and biographies about veterans, the military, and our nation’s history into her curriculum.

In addition to sharing the stories of veterans and promoting the essay contest, the honored teacher organized field trips to New York City to visit the memorial built at Ground Zero. She teaches lessons about the devastation and aftermath of Sept. 11. And she encourages her students to recognize that they can make a difference in the world around them.

It makes perfect sense that Susan would emphasize the role of veterans in her curriculum. She has two sons who are on active duty in the military. Because of this, she understands firsthand how important it is to connect the military and veterans with young people.

To learn more about Susan Allgood and the prestigious award she has won, click on the following link to the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

 

Clara Barton: School teacher, Civil War nurse, humanitarian, and activist

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Clara Barton was an accomplished school teacher. She was also a Civil War nurse, humanitarian, and women’s rights activist. Photo credit: National Archives

Many people have heard of the pioneering nurse and founder of the American Red Cross. But did you know that when she was a young woman she was a school teacher?

Clara was born on Dec. 25, 1821, on a farm in North Oxford, Massachusetts. Her formal schooling began when she was only three years old, When she was three years old, but even at that age she excelled in reading and spelling.

Clara studied at the Clinton Liberal Institute in Clinton, New York. There she earned her first teacher’s certificate in 1939. Even before this, when she was only 16 years old, Clara accepted a position as a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse in her home town of North Oxford. There she was praised for instilling discipline in her students without the use of corporal punishment, which was prevalent in her day. Later, Clara relocated to Bordentown, New Jersey, where she opened the first free public school in the state.

Clara’s career as an educator spanned 12 years. In addition to teaching in Massachusetts and New Jersey, she also taught in schools in Canada and West Georgia. Throughout her years ion the classroom, Clara lobbied vociferously for equal pay for women and men teachers. “I may sometimes be willing to teach for nothing, but if paid at all, I shall never do a man’s work for less than a man’s pay,” she once declared.

During the American Civil War, Clara volunteered to nurse wounded soldiers in Washington, DC. Some of her patients were members of the 6th Massachusetts Militia, and a few of them were her former students. Throughout the bitter conflict, Clara worked diligently to collect and store medical supplies, clean field hospitals, apply dressings, and serve food to wounded soldiers on both the Union and Confederate sides on the front lines. She was present at some of the most fierce battles of the war. Her grateful patients called her the “Angel of the Battlefield.”

When the Civil War was over, Clara coordinated a national effort to locate soldiers who were missing in action. Through. her efforts, 22,000 soldiers who were marked “missing” were located. In 1881, she founded the American Red Cross. In 1905, she established the National First Aid Society to teach people how to give first aid and save lives even when health workers are not on the scene.

This amazing educator, nurse, humanitarian, and women’s rights activist passed away on April 12, 1912, in Glen Echo, Maryland. She was 90 years of age. In 1973, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. To read more about her, click on this link to the National Women’s History Museum.

 

NY teacher Kemeisha Barrett garners 2023-2024 Big Apple Award

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Math teacher Kemeisha Barrett of Brooklyn, New York, has garnered a 2023-2024 Big Apple Award. Photo credit: Ebbetts Field Middle School

The city of New York is very proud of their public school teachers. In fact, city leaders regularly honor exceptional educators with their annual Big Apple Awards. For the 2023-2024 school year, one of these exceptional educators was Kemeisha Barrett, a middle school mathematics teacher at Ebbets Field Middle School in Brooklyn.

Kemeisha says her goal as an educator is to equip her seventh and eighth grade students with the tools they need to become problem-solvers and independent learners. “Math is often seen as a challenging subject, but I believe all students are capable of being successful with math,” she declares. “Students respond well when they are able to make connections between their academic encounters and cultural backgrounds. As such, I have challenged myself to establish a culturally responsive classroom environment for ALL of my students,” she continues.

The school where Kemeisha teaches is as special as the honored teacher. Ebbets Field Middle School is an education center founded in 2005 and located on the Jackie Robinson campus, the original home of the Brooklyn Dodgers. A large number of students who attend the school are immigrants or the children of immigrants. The learners who attend the school form a small community where every teacher knows every student and every student has plenty of opportunities to form and maintain strong friendships with other students.

This year, the Big Apple Awards were presented to 49 superlative New York City teachers. Each one was nominated by their principal for work in the profession that inspires students, models great teaching, and enriches school communities. The recipients were chosen through a rigorous selection process that includes community nominations, principal recommendations, classroom visits, an interview, and a review by a board of judges. To learn more about the program and this year’s recipients, click on this link to Big Apple Awards.

Educators caught by Lahaina wildfires have lost homes, classrooms

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Educators all over the country have undoubtedly heard of the calamitous wildfire that has befallen the community of Lahaina in Hawaii. The fast-moving fire has leveled nearly the entire town, killing more than 100 people and forcing thousands to flee without a possession to their name. When these survivors were finally able to return to their community, they found themselves homeless.

Preliminary counts indicate that more than 50 Maui educators have either lost their homes entirely, or their homes suffered so much damage that they are uninhabitable. And that’s not all. Since the fires destroyed King Kamehameha III Elementary School was also leveled, at least 15 of these teachers have lost their classrooms as well.

According to the Hawaii State Teachers Association (HSTA), some of these teachers and their families have been offered temporary shelter with family members, friends, or colleagues living in unaffected areas. Fortunately, a few of these educators have already set up GoFundMe, GiveSendGo, or Venmo accounts to help raise money to meet their most pressing immediate needs and get themselves and their households back on their feet. To see a partial list of these accounts compiled by HSTA, click on this link to their Maui Wildfires Donations webpage.

Remember that the counts of those educators that have been affected by the devastating wildfires do not include other school employees, such as education assistants, cafeteria workers, custodians, and administrators. And don’t forget the kids and their parents! They all need a great deal of assistance, too! This can be done through a donation to the Aloha United Way Maui Fire Relief Fund. Your tax-deductible donations will go directly to Maui United Way to support Maui victims.

Don’t be overwhelmed by the large numbers of people and the extent of the need. I’m sure every little bit of help you can offer will be very much appreciated.

 

Here’s to the teachers—they orchestrate childhood’s cherished mementos and memories

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While cleaning out a kitchen drawer this morning, I happened to come across a peculiar item—one I haven’t seen in many years. How old is this object, I ask myself? Oh, ancient, I decide. Almost 65 years old, in fact.

The object is a ceramic disk, a bit larger than a coaster, which had been painted in muted shades of yellow and gray, and topped with a glossy glaze. The image of a stick-figure girl, smiling as she leads a dog on a leash and surrounded by a balloon and a kite, is discernable in the colors. The image is surrounded by bubbles that were perforated into the disk with the eraser end of a #2 pencil. The reverse had not been glazed, and my name, “TERRY,” was crudely etched in capital letters.

Everything about this object is unpolished. This artistic endeavor will never win any accolades or awards. In fact, it’s a downright ugly little thing. But the masterpiece is mine.

I remember that long-ago day when I crafted this item as a kindergarten art project. The activity was designed by my teacher, Mrs. Somers. Not many artifacts  survived the turmoil and many relocations that gripped the household of my youngest years. This one only survived because it was gifted to my grandmother, who conserved it and returned it to me many years later.

In my mind, I gloss over the memories of the childhood chaos. It amazes me that, despite the turmoil I was experiencing at the time, I could still summon pleasant memories about puppies, balloons, kites, and bubbles. Ahhh, the innocence of youth. And in recalling the sanctuary of my kindergarten classroom, I feel an enveloping sense of serenity. Now, like the girl in the image, I am smiling.

Did Mrs. Somers know, when she designed this art activity, that she was providing a much-needed spot of brightness in my life? That her classroom was a place of safety for me? I doubt it. But I’m sure that, the day she removed our discs from the schoolhouse kiln, she knew that these were the mementos of happy times, and she hoped those artifacts would survive. This one did.

How wonderful and dear are the teachers, who thoughtfully orchestrate the creation of not only the cherished mementos, but also the treasured memories, of our childhood?