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.

Chalkboard Champion Bill Holden: He Talks the Talk and Walks the Walk

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holdenbridge_i[1]Often classroom teachers become advocates for social issues that extend far beyond their classroom. Such is the case with teacher Bill Holden, an educator who has worked tirelessly to increase awareness about the problem of juvenile diabetes.

Bill was born in 1948 in Elgin, Illinois. He earned his degree from Southern Illinois University in 1970. Bill accepted his first position as a teacher in 1973, but soon became interested in working with Native American students. After teaching many years in Illinois, he transferred to Camp Verde, Arizona. At Camp Verde, Bill became aware of the alarming rate of diabetes among his Native American students. Bill retired after 32 years in the classroom, but he was not done dedicating his energy to benefit his students. He decided to focus his vast energy on helping to find a cure for juvenile diabetes.

In 2005, Bill literally walked from Arizona to Chicago, a distance of 2,100 miles, with the goal of raising $250,000 in donations for the American Diabetes Association to fund research to find a cure for juvenile diabetes. Bill started his walk on January 11, 2005, walking through the states of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Illinois. Along the way he battled arthritis in both knees, fatigue, sunburn, windburn, and stifling heat, and once he was nearly hit by a car. It took the dedicated teacher six months to complete the walk, but the effort garnered him national attention.

Bill Holden is certainly a true chalkboard champion.

Teaching, Technology, and the Future of Chalkboard Champions

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Colorful Chalk at ChalkboardMany years ago in a language arts anthology assigned as a textbook for a class I was teaching, I came across a short story by Isaac Asimov entitled “The Fun They Had.” This futuristic story described two children who had an afternoon free because their “teacher,” a computer, had crashed, temporarily rendering it impossible for them to complete their school assignments. To occupy their time, the children went up to the attic to explore, where they came across a dusty trunk of ancient printed books. As residents of a highly technological society where every function was completed by computer, they had never seen books before. The find generated a conversation between the children about how students in the past attended schools with other children, interacted on a daily basis with a human teacher, and conducted their studies with print materials. At the end of their discussion, the children concluded that children of the past must have had much more fun in school than they.

The grass is always greener, isn’t it?

I have been thinking about this somewhat prophetic story a great deal lately. I have recently enrolled in an online course at the local university. For this course, the professor lists readings and assignments, which the student is expected to complete, usually through downloading a program and creating a product which demonstrates an understanding of the content and a mastery of the technology. The products are then posted online, where they are then critiqued by peers and graded by the professor.

I know I am not a child, but I find myself craving more. More direct instruction. More guided practice. Face-to-face time with the professor. Human interaction with my classmates that is more, well, human.

While out and about the other day, I became engaged in conversation with a student at a local prestigious private university. I related to her that on the first day of one of my other courses, one that meets for four hours every other week, I was surprised when the instructor commented that she had expected everyone to show up with their laptops. I had dutifully shown up with my notebook, paper, pen, and textbook, and considered myself prepared. Not having taken a university course in about five years, it had never occurred to me that bringing a laptop was now an instructional expectation. That was a wake-up call for me.

The other student told me that she recently took a course in chemistry at her university, and on the first day of class, 24 students showed up. Twelve did not have laptops. The instructor excused those twelve, because, he said, there was no way they could complete that day’s assignments without the necessary technology. She said two people dropped the class that day, and four more dropped it the next week, because they had no way of acquiring the technology. The young lady then told me that the entire course was taught by computer. How is it that a chemistry class does not involve a lab, or experiments, or any other kind of experiential learning?

I’m left to wonder if, in a society where technology is becoming more and more pervasive, there will be space in the future for chalkboard champions?

 

Ad Carter: The High School Foreign Language Teacher who Climbed Mountains

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539w[1]Often talented educators earn recognition for achievements outside the realm of teaching. Such is the case with Hubert Adams Carter, a high school foreign language teacher, mountain climber, and journalist from Massachusetts.

Hubert, who was most often called “Ad,” was born on June 6, 1914, in Newton, Massachusetts. He graduated from Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts, in 1932, and from Harvard University in 1936.

Ad was very young when he began his career as a mountain climber. He made his first notable ascent at the age of five when he climbed Mount Washington in New Hampshire. Ten years later he  climbed the Matterhorn, and he also began making ascents near  Kandersteg in the Swiss Alps. In 1936, during his senior year at Harvard, Ad was a member of the British-American Himalayan expedition that climbed India’s Mount Nandevi for the first time. In 1937, this amazing athlete was named to the US Ski Team, competing in the Alpine World Skiing Championships. The following year he participated in the Pan American Championships.

In 1938, Ad married fellow teacher Ann Brooks, pictured with him above. The union produced three sons and a daughter and lasted 53 years.

During World War II, Ad assisted with the establishment and training of the 10th Mountain Division. A talented linguist, he translated material in German, Italian, French, and Spanish for use in writing the first army manuals on mountain warfare. He also interrogated Japanese and German prisoners of war. For these valuable services, Ad was given a Commendation for Meritorious Civilian Service in 1945.

After the war, Ad returned to school. He earned his master’s degree from Middlebury College in 1947, and then accepted a position as a teacher of foreign languages at his alma mater, Milton Academy. He taught German, French, and Spanish. He also founded the school’s Ski and Mountaineering Club, which today is known as the H. Adams Carter Outdoor Program. The dedicated teacher often used his vacation home in Jefferson, New Hampshire, as a base camp for school field trips to the White Mountains.

In addition to teaching, from 1954 to 1958, Ad contributed his expertise as an officer of the American Alpine Club, and from 1960 to 1995, he served as the editor for the American Alpine Journal, a position he held for 35 years. Under his leadership, the Journal became one of the most prominent  journals of record for mountaineering in the world.

Ad retired from the teaching profession in 1970 after 23 years as an educator. This chalkboard champion, journalist, and talented athlete passed away on April 2, 1995, at the age of 80, from an embolism.

Teacher Bonnie Bracey Sutton: An Educators’ Spokesperson in Washington

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bio_bon[1]How wonderful it is when one of our fellow educators becomes a spokesperson in Washington for our profession. One such educator is Bonnie Bracey Sutton, an elementary school teacher and technology consultant now based in Washington, D.C.

Bonnie is a former teacher at the Ashlawn Elementary School in Arlington, Virginia, and a teacher-in-residence at the Arlington Career Center, where she teaches all subjects. She is a graduate researcher at George Mason University’s Telecommunications Department, where she evaluates new programs and technologies. She is also a member of the George Lucas Educational Foundation advisory board.

Bonnie was also named a Christa McAuliffe Educator for the National Foundation of Education, and she is a member of the Challenger Center faculty. She is a Young Astronaut teacher and, in 1990, was named a Challenger Fellow. That year she received the President’s Award in Teaching in science. Bonnie has also attended the Hubbell Space Science Institute and holds honors in a variety of fields in educational fields, including technology, aerospace, physics, geography, and multicultural education. She has also earned a graduate degree from Marymount University SED program.

Bonnie was one of the first teachers to promote the role of the internet in classroom instruction.  She was the only teacher selected by the Clinton administration to serve on the National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIIAC). Bonnie also served as the lead educator on President Clinton’s 21st Century Teacher Initiative.

Currently, this remarkable teacher works as an international educational consultant. In this capacity, she conducts outreach activities for the George Lucas Education Foundation and other groups. She is also an active member of the Digital Divide Network and does preventative work on cyber-bullying.

Bonnie Bracey Sutton: Truly a chalkboard champion!