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.

Music educator Nora “Darlene” Mawson Helman honored by DKG

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Music educator Nora “Darlene” Mawson Helman earned recognition for her work with Delta Kappa Gamma (DKG), a prestigious organization for women educators. Photo Credit: Legacy.com

Many outstanding music teachers have chosen a career in education, much to the benefit of students in our country’s schools. One of these was Nora “Darlene” Mawson Helman, an award-winning music educator from Missouri.

Darlene was born near Archie, Missouri, on July 30, 1940. As the seventh daughter in her family, she was the younger of a set of identical twins. As a young woman, she earned both her Bachelor’s degree and her Master’s degree in Music Education from the University of Colorado.

In a career that spanned 33 years, Darlene taught middle school music, guitar, and choir in Independence, Missouri. She is remembered fondly by her former students. “Miss Mawson/Mrs. Helman was my music teacher in seventh through ninth grade. I remember sitting in awe of her voice and her piano playing,” recalls former student Denise Bogert. “She was a wonderful, kind, caring person and I still remember many of the things she taught me about music to this day,” Bogert continues.

In addition to her work in the classroom, the popular teacher was active in Delta Kappa Gamma (DKG), a prestigious International Honor Society for women educators. In that organization she served as the Missouri State President, the DKG Southwest Regional Choir Director, the Regional Convention Chair, the DKG International Music Chair, and the Hand Bell Director. Darlene arranged, composed, and published numerous choral compositions for DKG Conventions. As a member of the Independence Symphony Board of Directors, she implemented the annual Symphony’s “Young Artist Competition.” For all of these achievements, Darlene garnered the prestigious DKG Missouri State Achievement Award in 1993, and she was a recipient of the DKG Golden Gift national scholarship for Leadership Management in 1999.

Darlene Helman passed away on Nov. 3, 2015, in Independence, Missouri. In her honor, the Darlene Mawson Helman Music Education Scholarship has been established at the University of Central Missouri.

During Black History Month, we celebrate educator and Civil Rights leader Bob Moses

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Math educator and legendary Civil Rights Movement leader Bob Moses organized Black voter registration efforts and the Freedom Schools made famous during the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer. Photo credit: The Pine Belt News

During Black History Month, we’d like to recognize Bob Moses. He was a legendary Civil Rights Movement leader who organized black voter registration efforts and Freedom Schools made famous during the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer. He was also an innovative math educator.

Bob Moses was born in New York City on Jan. 23, 1935, to a family of modest means. He was raised in the Projects in Harlem. Despite his family’s limited financial resources, Bob earned a scholarship to attend Stuyvesant High School, an elite public high school for gifted boys. Before his graduation in 1952, Bob was elected senior class president and served as the captain of the school’s baseball team.

Upon graduation, Bob earned another scholarship, this time to attend Hamilton College, a prestigious private liberal arts college in Clinton, New York. There he majored in philosophy and participated in both the basketball and baseball programs. After completing the requirements for his Bachelor’s degree in 1956, Bob traveled abroad extensively, working in a series of Quaker summer camps in Europe and Japan building housing for the poor, harvesting crops for a missionary hospital, and improving facilities for mentally disturbed children. The following year he earned his Master’s degree in Analytic Philosophy from Harvard University.

Bob was teaching at the prestigious Horace Mann High School in the Bronx when he became aware of the student sit-ins that were taking place in Greensboro, North Carolina. He decided to join them, and that decision launched the math educator’s path towards becoming a legendary figure during the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement. Bob is best known for organizing the Black voter registration efforts and the Freedom Schools made famous during the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer. This heroic teacher’s revolutionary work, which was not without risk to life and limb, transformed the political power structure of entire communities.

Forty years later, Bob advocated for yet another transformational change: the Algebra Project. When he created this program, Bob asserted that a deficiency in math literacy in poor neighborhoods puts impoverished children at an economic disadvantage. The deficiency makes students unable to compete successfully for jobs in the 21st century. This disenfranchisement, he declared, is as debilitating as lack of personal liberties was prior to the Civil Rights Movement. Bob’s solution was to organize people, community by community, school by school, to overcome the achievement gap. He believed this would give impoverished children the tools they need to claim their share of economic enfranchisement. Bob described his work in this area in his  book, Radical Equations: Civil Rights from Mississippi to the Algebra Project written with fellow Civil Rights worker Charles E. Cobb, Jr.

Sadly, Bob Moses passed away in Florida on Sun., July 25, 2021, at the age of 86.

A chapter about this remarkable teacher is also included in my second book, entitled Chalkboard Heroes: Twelve Courageous Teachers and Their Deeds of Valor.  This book is also available on amazon; click on this link to view: Chalkboard Heroes.

STEM teacher Utah’s Jennifer Carver-Hunter advances space exploration education

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STEM teacher Jennifer Carver-Hunter from Salt Lake City, Utah, garnered a coveted PAEMST award for her innovative work in space exploration education. Photo Credit: Mountain View elementary School

It is always a pleasure to share stories about exceptional educations. One of these is Jennifer Carver-Hunter, an elementary school teacher from Salt Lake City, Utah. For her work in space exploration education, she has earned a coveted PAEMST award.

Jennifer teaches fifth grade Science and Language Arts at Mountain View Elementary School in Salt Lake City. In a career that spans 22 years, she’s been at Mountain View for 11 of those years. Prior to her work in Utah, Jennifer taught oral and written language comprehension and communication skills to multi-language learners at Johnson and Northside Elementary Schools in Montrose, Colorado.

Jennifer earned her PAEMST for. her work in space exploration STEN education. She believes in leading her students by example, and she works hard to share the message that learning is a lifelong endeavor. She is passionate about inspiring her students to feed their curiosity by wondering and asking questions, because these practices are critical in developing problem-solving and collaboration skills.

Jennifer herself is a lifelong learner. She  is a member of the Teacher Innovator Institute sponsored by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, and she is the master teacher and crew commander for the Spaceward Bound Utah program with the Mars Desert Research Station. Through these two programs, Jennifer promotes student interest in scientific exploration beyond Earth. Her young students spend their fifth grade year immersed in various simulations of life on Mars. Through student-designed investigations and hands-on engineering design projects, Jennifer’s students not only stay engaged in the content, but they also start to view themselves as the future scientists who might help send astronauts to Mars.

For this innovative work, in 2022, Jennifer was named one of five finalists for Utah State Teacher of the Year. She also earned a coveted PAEMST (Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching) in 2020. You can read more about this at PAEMST.

Jennifer earned her Bachelor’s degree in Spanish from Bryn Mawr College and her Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Adams State College. She is certified in Building Excellence in Elementary STEM from the University of Utah and an endorsement in Linguistically Diverse Education from Fort Lewis College.

Melissa Matz named Florida’s 2023 Teacher of the Year

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Melissa Matz, a junior high school math teacher from Florida, has been named her state’s 2023 Teacher of the Year. Photo Credit: Florida Education Foundation

Congratulations are due to Melissa Matz, a junior h high school math teacher from Florida. She has been named her state’s 2023 Teacher of the Year, which includes her designation as Florida’s Christa McAuliffe Ambassador for Education. This role will allow her to elevate and celebrate the teaching profession by promoting the contributions of Florida educators, while visiting classrooms and serving as a keynote speaker.

In a career that has spanned 20 years, Melissa currently teaches mathematics to seventh graders at Lakeside Junior High School in the Clay County School District in Orange Park. She says she is committed to building a strong relationship with each of her students. In fact, she makes it a point to speak with each student as they enter her classroom. Her philosophy is that when an individual steps outside of his comfort zone and takes positive risks, that is how extraordinary gains are achieved.

“Middle school is a big transition,” Melissa observes. “There is more stress, more challenges. They are becoming much more independent,” she continues. “As a teacher, we set them up for success in high school by making sure they have test-taking and study strategies. And giving kids the tools to navigate through that time in their life is just so important to me,” she concludes.

Melissa also strives to include hands-on, real-world projects as part of her curriculum. Clay County Schools Superintendent David Broskie recognized this when he presented the honored educator with her award. “Melissa Matz’s students see firsthand that the skills they acquire in her classroom can be applied to a broad spectrum of fields, and therefore, they can become well-rounded members of our community,” he says.

Melissa also serves as her school’s Math Department Chair, she is the Chairperson for the Lakeside’s School Advisory Committee, and she is a part of the school’s Leadership Team. She helped develop her district’s curriculum map for algebra, and she served on the math textbook adoption committee. And as if all this were not enough, she participates in a mentoring program that supports students as they transition to high school. And Melissa’s passion for teaching math goes well beyond her classroom. Within her community, she raises awareness for water conservation.

Melissa learned her Bachelor’s degree in Education from the University of Northern Iowa.

As the 2023 Teacher of the Year, Melissa will receive $20,000 from the state education department and a tuition waiver to pursue a graduate degree from Florida State University’s College of Education. She will also be able to provide a student of her choice with a two-year scholarship to a Florida college.

Isaac Scott Hathaway: Outstanding art teacher and renowned sculptor

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Outstanding art teacher and renowned sculptor Isaac Scott Hathaway of Kentucky. {photo Credit: University Museum and Cultural Center, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff

Many Chalkboard Champions have distinguished themselves in fields other than education. This is certainly the case with Isaac Scott Hathaway, a high school teacher and university professor who was also an accomplished artist. Isaac is probably best recognized for the masks and busts he created of important African American leaders, and as the designer of the first two US coins to feature black Americans.

Isaac was born on April 4, 1872, in Lexington, Kentucky. Following his high school graduation in 1890, he began his formal academic studies at Chandler Junior College in Lexington, and attended classes in art and dramatics at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. While in Boston, he sculpted his first bust, using as his subject Bishop Richard Allen, the first bishop of the African American Episcopal Church. Isaac’s first formal training in ceramics came from Cincinnati Art Academy.

At the conclusion of his studies and training, Isaac returned home to Lexington to teach at Keene High School. There he worked from 1897 to 1902. He also opened his first art studio, where he made plaster parts of human anatomy for schools and medical uses. In 1907 Isaac relocated to Washington, DC, where began making sculpture busts, including those of abolitionist Frederick Douglass, university president Booker T. Washington, poet Paul L. Dunbar, and scholar W.E.B. Dubois.

In 1912, this accomplished teacher and talented artist married Ettic Ramplin of South Boston, Virginia. Sadly, she died early in their marriage from complications in childbirth. Following Ettic’s death, Isaac established a course in ceramics at Branch Normal College, now known as the University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff. He taught there and at a high school in Pine Bluff until 1937. In 1926, Isaac married his second wife, Umer George Porter. The couple moved to Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1937 to inaugurate the ceramics department at Tuskegee University. Shortly thereafter, Umer earned a degree from Tuskegee and became Isaac’s assistant.

The remarkable educator made an important contribution to the art world in 1945 when he developed Alabama kaolin clay as a medium, and he became the first artist on record to “make the clay behave.” The following year, Isaac was commissioned by the Fine Arts Commission of the United States Mint to design a half dollar coin using Booker T. Washington as the face and subject. In 1950 he was commissioned to make another coin, this time combining the images of both Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver.

During the summer of 1947, Hathaway broke a significant racial barrier when he introduced ceramics at the all-white Auburn Polytechnic Institute, now known as Auburn University. In 1947, Isaac and Umer relocated to Montgomery, Alabama, where Isaac became the director of ceramics at Alabama State College. He worked there until his retirement in 1963.

Throughout his life, Professor Hathaway received many awards, including honorary degrees, doctorates, or fine arts awards from various colleges and universities where he helped introduce ceramics as a field of study. This Chalkboard Champion and amazing artist passed away at his home in Tuskegee, Alabama, on March 12, 1967.