Author Archives: Terry Lee Marzell
Terry Lee Marzell shares her experience touring German Parliament
Author Terry Lee Marzell appears in front of the Bundestag, the German Parliament Building, located in Berlin. Photo credit: Hal Marzell
Many educators agree that travel, in addition to being fun and intellectually stimulating, is one of the most meaningful learning opportunities available. That’s one of the reasons why last month, my husband Hal and I enjoyed our tour of several countries in Eastern Europe, including Germany.
While in Berlin, we were able to visit the Bundestag, which is the official name of the Parliament of Germany. A tour of a parliament building in a foreign country offers students unique opportunities to compare and contrast governmental processes with those of our own country. This is especially valuable for young people who are considering a future career in law or government. Furthermore, these visits are interesting to those who are interested in history.
Hal Marzell examines plenary chamber of the German Parliament building in Berlin, Germany. Photo credit: Terry Lee Marzell
Of the many parliament buildings Hal and I have toured all over the world, the Bundestag is particularly interesting. I was intrigued by the architecture, which features the blending of a modern design fitted inside a historical structure. This blend signifies both Germany’s tumultuous past and the democracy of the present day. The exterior of the building, built between 1884 and 1894, was constructed in a solid Neo-Classical style. The old-fashioned style pays homage to the building’s historical origins. The modern features, fitted inside these original walls. consist of a glass structure which provides a light and airy feel to the interior space, not to mention plenty of natural light. The interior decor of the plenary chamber accentuates this atmosphere with light, neutral colors for wall and carpet materials and cool blue upholstered furniture pieces. I also particularly appreciated the contemporary metal sculpture of Germany’s Federal Eagle erected at the front of the chamber.
Author Terry Lee Marzell examines the mirrored column that supports the glass dome which crowns the Bundestag building.in Berlin, Germany. Photo credit: Hal Marzell
The entire edifice is crowned with a gigantic glass dome that allows for sky-high panoramic views of the entire city. This dome is supported by a mirrored tornado-shaped column that once again suggests Germany’s tumultuous past. The ring around the base of the support column allows for viewing into the plenary chamber situated below. The dome allows for a clear view both outside of and inside of the structure. Thus, the dome symbolizes the present-day goal of transparency and openness in Germany’s government.
We all know it is difficult to organize a field trip for your class to visit important sites overseas, no matter how valuable such a trip would be. But your students could learn more about this unique building online by examining the online site here. Happy travels, whether in person or virtual.
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Author Terry Lee Marzell shares resources for teaching about Auschwitz
Author Terry Lee Marzell and her husband, Hal, toured Auschwitz, the most notorious of the World War II Nazi concentration camps, on their tour of Eastern Europe in 2025. Photo credit: Terry Lee Marzell
Many Social Studies teachers, and also some Language Arts teachers, include Holocaust education as part of their classroom curriculum. Last month, my husband Hal and I traveled to Eastern Europe, where we were able to visit Auschwitz, the most notorious of the World War II Nazi concentration camps. This famous historic site is located outside of Krakow, Poland. Here is a brief description of our visit there and some links to some online Holocaust educational materials which teachers can incorporate into their lessons.
The guided tour, which lasted 90 minutes, was as sobering as you might expect. Our guide related a great deal of information, including graphic stories about the arrival of the prisoners, the disposition of their belongings, the medial experiments conducted by Dr. Josef Mengele, the meager food rations, the role of the Kapos, the daily roll calls, and the hospital ward. Our guide also talked about the selections, the executions, and the desperate suicides when some prisoners threw themselves on the barbed wire fences, giving the German guards a good excuse to shoot them. Then our tour leaders showed us the gas chambers and the crematorium. All of it very disturbing, as you can imagine, but important for understanding the depth of the terror prisoners experienced while imprisoned there.
Through the entire tour, haunting passages from Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, replayed in my head. I taught the book for many years in my sophomore classes before my retirement in 2017.
Since escorting a group of students on a field trip to this historic site is not feasible for most teachers, I thought I would share some resources that are available online for teachers to access. To access classroom lessons available online through the official website for Auschwitz click here. Additional resources provided by the Auschwitz are available here. These are aimed at students age 14 and older. Teachers can also consult the website for the United States Holocaust Museum here.
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Nancy Cook: Vocational Ed teacher, suffragist, and friend of Eleanor Roosevelt
Vocational education teacher, suffragist, and Chalkboard Champion Nancy Cook, at right, with Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, at left. Photo credit: George Washington University
Many remarkable teachers blend their interests in teaching with an interest in politics. Such is certainly the case with Nancy Cook, a high school vocational education teacher who was also a tireless worker for women’s suffrage and other political causes dear to her heart.
Nancy was born in Massena, New York, on August 26, 1884. After her graduation from high school, she attended Syracuse University, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in 1912. There she became an avid supporter of woman’s suffrage and campaigned for legislation to protect women, to abolish child labor, and to secure world peace.
After her graduation from college, Nancy accepted her first teaching position in Fulton, New York, where she taught art and handicrafts to high school students from 1913 to 1918. It was here that she ran into fellow Syracuse classmate Marion Dickerman, who was also a teacher of arts and handicrafts at the school. These two women become lifelong partners, spending almost their entire adult lives together.
During World War I, Nancy and Marion became active doing volunteer work for the Liberty Loan Drive and the Red Cross. As Marion remarked after the war, they both “really believed this was a war to end wars and make the world safe for democracy.” In 1918, Nancy and Marion traveled to London, England, to work in the Endell Street Military Hospital., a facility staffed entirely by women. There they scrubbed floors and performed whatever other chores were needed. Nancy would, with less than two weeks of training, begin to make artificial limbs for veterans that had lost an arm or a leg in the conflict.
Women earned the right to vote while Nancy and Marion were abroad. Upon their return to the United States, Nancy accepted a job as the executive secretary of the Women’s Division of the State Democratic Committee, a position she held for nineteen years. She was key to the gubernatorial and presidential campaigns of Al Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
In 1927, Nancy, Marion, and Eleanor Roosevelt purchased a small, private school for girls in New York City they called the Todhunter School. The school provided primary and secondary education, emphasizing art, music, and drama, as well as a college preparatory curriculum. Todhunter combined traditional testing and grading standards with progressive teaching methods.
Nancy and Marion were very good friends with Eleanor Roosevelt. Together, the three women built Stone Cottage at Val-Kill, on the banks of FallKill Creek in Dutchess County, New York. Nancy and Marion lived there full-time, and Eleanor often visited. Nancy, who was an expert woodworker, made all the furniture for the home. The trio established Val-Kill Industries with the goal of producing fine hand-made heirloom furniture/. More importantly, by doing so, they were acting on a larger social goal of providing a second income to local farming people in rural Hyde Park in order to keep them from migrating away to city jobs.
When Eleanor Roosevelt committed herself to redeveloping Arthurdale, West Virginia, she asked Nancy to work with the subsistence homestead program. Nancy and the First Lady oversaw the interior needs of each Arthurdale house, while Nancy temporarily administered the furniture and woodworking projects of Arthurdale’s Mountaineer Craftsmen’s Cooperative Association.
Nancy Cook, Chalkboard Champion and suffragist, passed away on August 16, 1962.
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GA math educator Dr. Valerie Jones inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame
Dr. Valerie Camille Jones of Atlanta, Georgia, has been named a 2025 inductee into the National Teachers Hall of Fame (NTHF). Photo credit: NTHF
There are many superb educators who work with our nation’s young people, and I am always eager to shine a spotlight on one of them: Dr. Valerie Camille Jones of Atlanta, Georgia. She has been named a 2025 inductee into the National Teachers Hall of Fame.
Valerie was selected for the honor in recognition for her innovative, student-centered classroom. Daily she strives to blend project-based learning, performing arts, and cutting-edge technology in her curriculum. She designs dynamic learning experiences that empower students to take ownership of their own education, deepen engagement, and build a strong sense of community. She does this by integrating popular culture such as dance, music, and media into her lessons. This makes abstract concepts accessible and relevant, and helps her students connect personally with the content, she says. Her efforts certainly yield measurable results. For example, her geometry class achieved the highest end-of-course test scores in her school district and ranked fifth in the state, earning her recognition as Teacher of the Year.
In addition to her NTHF honors, Valerie was honored as a 2021 Women in Technology Mathematician of the Year Award. She was recognized as a semi-finalist for a Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching by Baylor University in 2018. In 2013, she received a PAEMST (Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics & Science) by the National Science Foundation. And in 2006, she was named Teacher of the Year for Atlanta Schools.
The National Teachers Hall of Fame established a museum and recognition program in Emporia, Kansas, in 1989 to honor outstanding educators from all corners of the country. Nominees must be certificated public or non-public school teachers, active or retired, with at least 20 years of experience in teaching grades preK-12. Since the inaugural induction ceremonies in 1992, 145 educators from 40 states and the District of Columbia have been inducted. To learn more about the program, click on this link to the NTHF.
