Easter time, and its accompanying Spring Break (yippee!), is a time of renewal and new growth, not only spiritually and personally, but professionally as well. Whenever I am looking for professional inspiration, I turn to a handy little book called The Quotable Teacher edited by Randy Howe. This little volume is divided into ten chapters devoted to various teaching topics of interest to educators. For example, “Those Who Teach,” “The Philosophy Behind Good Teaching,” “The Need to Think Outside the Box,” and “Those We Teach.” I keep a copy on my desk at school for those moments when I need a little lift. If you wish to acquire this thought-provoking little volume, you can find The Quotable Teacher on amazon.com.

Just about everyone has heard of the best-selling book The Freedom Writers Diary, written by teacher Erin Gruwell and her high school class of inner-city at-risk students. This collection of student experiences, which will tug at any teacher’s heart strings, was also depicted in a movie starring Hollywood celeb Hilary Swank. This book really zeroes in on some of the challenges our kids face when they are not in school, and how much a caring and dedicated teacher can help them overcome those challenges. The movie delves a little more into the personal life of the teacher, and aside from the suggestion that you have to work three jobs and give up your marriage to be a good teacher, it’s pretty inspiring. What I think is amazing is that my high school students love this book just as much as my fellow teachers do! The Freedom Writers Diary is easy to find on amazon and at just about any brick-and-mortar bookstore.

Have you ever heard of the Orphan Trains? During the early years of the 20th century, there were literally thousands of homeless children living aimlessly on the streets of New York City. The Children’s Aid Society (CAS), an organization which still exists to benefit children today, developed a method for finding loving and wholesome homes for many of these children. The CAS organized small groups of children to be transported west and placed them in foster homes on farms and in rural communities. To care for the children, the CAS recruited teachers to escort them, conduct background checks on the prospective foster parents, and make periodic checks on the children’s progress. One such teacher was Clara Comstock, born in 1879 in Hartsville, New York.

Andrea Warren has documented the phenomena of the Orphan Trains very diligently in her book, We Rode the Orphan Trains, available through amazon.com. You can also read a chapter about teacher Clara Comstock in Chalkboard Champions.

Between the years of 1847 and 1858, more than six hundred women left their comfortable, civilized homes and traveled across the country to teach in America’s frontier schools. These women dedicated their lives and their talents and overcame untold hardships to educate the children of the Wild West. The true stories in this book, Frontier Teachers: Stories of Heroic Women of the Old West by Chris Enss, spotlight twelve of these most amazing teachers.

One of the most compelling tales is that of Olive Mann Isbell and Hannah Clapp, who opened school each day armed with guns to protect their students from hostile natives, and Sister Blandina Segale, who became a teacher to outlaws, including Billy the Kid, and Eliza Mott, who taught her students the alphabet using the inscriptions on tombstones because she didn’t have any textbooks or supplies.

In addition to these compelling stories, the volume possesses numerous high-quality black-and-white photographs of the teachers and their classrooms, plus a handy appendix furnishing additional details about teaching in frontier schools. The book is a treasure-trove of information for anyone interested in the history of education during this particular time period.

If you’re interested in finding out more about these historic women, you can find this book at amazon.com through the following link: Frontier Teachers.