Category Archives: Education

NYC Performing Arts teacher Amanda Mendez garners Big Apple Award

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Performing Arts educator Amanda Mendez of New York City has garnered a 2025—2026 Big Apple Award from the New York City Department of Education. Photo credit: Rocket Reach

There are many outstanding teachers working in New York City public schools who are deserving of recognition. One of these is Amanda Mendez, a Performing Arts educator who teaches at The Bath Beach School. She has garnered a 202—2026 Big Apple Award from the New York City Department of Education.

Amanda teaches theater courses at Public School 163, a highly rated school located in Brooklyn. The facility serves students in grades kindergarten through eighth grade.

In addition to working with students in the classroom, Amanda is also the Program Director for the FIAO SONYC after school program in her building, she is a member of her school’s graduation committee, and she has collaborated in writing curriculum units for Theatre for the Office of Arts and Special Projects Office.

Amanda earned her Bachelor’s degree in Dramatic Arts with a Minor in Psychology from City University of New York, Staten Island. She earned her Master’s degree in Educational Theater from the same university in 2018.

The Big Apple Awards recognize and celebrate New York City teachers who inspire students to be their best selves, dream, and advocate for their future; model equitable learning with high expectations for the diverse and dynamic needs of all students; affirm students’ identities, unique gifts, and genius; and enrich their school communities by partnering with families, community members, and community-based organizations.

 

The remarkable Stacey Bess, who taught in The School With No Name

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Educator, author, and public speaker Stacey Bess taught in a storage shed in a Salt Lake City homeless shelter when she was a first year teacher. Photo credit: American Program Bureau, Inc.

Here is a teacher who is truly inspirational: Stacey Bess of Salt Lake City, Utah.

As a first-year teacher in the late 1980’s, Stacey landed in a classroom set up in a storage shed in a local homeless shelter. The facility was literally referred to as The School With No Name. As you can imagine, her students wrestled with a variety of difficult circumstances, including unstable living arrangements, domestic abuse, poverty, and alcohol and drug-abusing parents. Not the most desirable circumstances for learning. But this remarkable teacher created a safe and loving classroom environment for her kids. She went to battle with the local school board for a more suitable teaching space and better resources. And, oh, yeah, she raised her own family and defeated thyroid cancer at the same time.

While working at The School With No Name, Stacey chronicled the heart-wrenching stories of her students so she would never forget how far these children had come. After reviewing the stories, she discovered profound life-lessons and eventually wrote a book entitled Nobody Don’t Love Nobody, published in 1994.

For her outstanding work with underprivileged students, Stacey has been recognized with a number of awards, including the National Jefferson Award for Greatest Public Service by Someone 35 Years or Younger in 1995. She received the Delta Kappa Gamma Educator’s Award in 1995 and the Rescuer of Humanity from Project Love award in 1996.

Today, Stacey works as a public speaker, advocating for the educational rights of underprivileged children. She travels throughout the country sharing her story and offering inspiration to new and veteran educators. “We are in the best business in the whole world,” she tells her audiences. “We are in the kid business.”

You can read the story of this dynamic educator, in Beyond the Blackboard, published in 2011 and currently available through amazon.com. Stacey also published Planting More Than Pansies: A Fable about Love in 2003.

Celebrating Chalkboard Champions who have served our Country

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When celebrating our nation’s veterans today, I like to remember that many of them are also Chalkboard Champions. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, about 2% of teachers in our nation’s classrooms are military veterans.

The call to service is something that many service members don’t lose once they are discharged from the military. That’s one of the reasons that so many veterans gravitate towards the teaching professions once their service is complete.

Military veterans have many personality traits that make them particularly suited for a career in teaching. When entering the profession, veterans are typically older and have had more varied life experiences. In addition, veterans can bring a wealth of leadership qualities to the classroom. An understanding of the importance of discipline, an appreciation of the value of education, the ability to adapt, and the capacity to work well, even highly stressful circumstances, are some of the qualities that veterans can bring to the classroom. Also, often veterans possess the ability to persevere, which is a trait that is especially needed in a profession that has a high turnover rate.

Another valuable characteristic that many veterans possess is their potential to connect with students from ethnically diverse neighborhoods or lower-economic backgrounds, because many veterans themselves come from such circumstances. They understand from firsthand experience how challenging some school environments can be, and therefore may be more invested in helping to make a difference in such school systems. Furthermore, veterans have been especially trained to accomplish tasks collaboratively.

For these reasons, and many more, veterans are invaluable as Chalkboard Champions. So, today and every day, let’s celebrate our nation’s teachers who are also veterans!

Elem teacher Ashley Barefoot named Mississippi’s State Teacher of the Year

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Elementary teacher Ashley Barefoot of Mississippi has been named her state’s 2025-2026 teacher of the Year. Photo credit: Mississippi Association for Gifted Children

Every year, an outstanding educator from each state is named that state’s Teacher of the Year. This year, Ashley Barefoot, an elementary public school teacher, is serving as Mississippi’s honoree.

Ashley teaches at Longleaf Elementary School in the Lamar County School District in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. In her classroom, she designs curriculum that facilitates discovery opportunities and teaches her students skills need to become lifelong learners. She develops lessons on how to write computer code, how to read and write in Braille, and how to solve Rubik’s cubes. In addition, she conducts school-wide service projects that honor veterans and military families.

“I want my students learning something new every week—whether it’s a concept, a strategy, or a way of thinking about the world,” declares Ashley. “We mix logic puzzles and challenges with open-ended projects that promote a growth mindset, creativity, and perseverance,” she continues.

In addition to her work with elementary students, Ashley has led professional development in Gifted Education at statewide workshops. She has also been involved in developing materials for Teaching with Primary Sources, and she has served as an online course facilitator for the Right Question Institute.

In 2000, Ashely earned her Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Southern Mississippi. While there, she studied in England for one year and backpacked around Europe for two summers. After earning her degree, she served in an after-school program as a member of AmeriCorps VISTA, and that’s where she discovered her passion for the teaching profession. Later Ashley her Master’s degree in Elementary Education from William Carey University, and she is also National Board Certified. Her career as a classroom educator spans 23 years, and she has taught Gifted Education for the last 19 of them.

As a lifelong learner, Ashely was named a National Endowment for the Humanities Landmarks Scholar. As part of this program, she visited Walden Pond while reading Thoreau; dug into archaeology and American Indian culture in Mesa Verde National Park; explored the concept of wilderness in the Adirondack Mountains; and studied the civil rights movement in Jackson, Mississippi. Furthermore, she analyzed environmental history in Boulder, Colorado with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History in 2013; served as an Earthwatch Teach Earth Fellow in Costa Rica in 2010; and spent a month backpacking in the Olympic Mountains with the National Outdoor Leadership School in 2009.

To learn more about Ashley Barefoot, click on this link to her personal website.

 

Gussie Nell Davis of Texas: Trailblazing PE teacher and drill team coach

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Physical education teacher and drill team coach Gussie Davis from Texas has been credited with creating a “living art form.” Photo credit: Kilgore College Rangerettes

Every once in awhile I come across the story of a pioneering teacher that I feel I simply must share. One of them is Gussie Nell Davis, a physical education teacher and drill team coach from Texas who is credited for creating a “living art form.”

Gussie was born in Farmersville, Texas, on Nov. 4 1906. As a child she was trained to be a concert pianist. However, after she began her education at the College of Industrial Arts, now known as Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas, she changed her major to physical education. Later she earned a Master’s degree from the University of Southern California.

Gussie inaugurated her career as an educator at Greenville High School in Greenville, Texas, in 1928. There she worked as a physical education teacher and pep squad direction. During her tenure there, she developed the first “dancing” pep squad in 1929.

Because of her success at Greenville, Gussie was hired to develop a similar program at Kilgore College in 1939. She developed a dancing drill team known as the Kilgore College Rangerettes, and established a performance genre that has served as a model for drill teams around the nation.

During Gussie’s 40 years as Director of the Rangerettes, her team traveled all over the country and internationally, representing Texas and the United States in South America, the Far East, Europe, and elsewhere around the world. The Rangerettes have been featured at numerous football bowl games across the nation, on national television, in movies, and on hundreds of magazine covers.

For this trailblazing work, Gussie earned many honors. She was named Honorary Citizen of Fort Worth in 1965. She received the International Citizen Citizenship Award in 1969, the Cotton Bowl Association 25th Anniversary Participation Award in 1974, a State of Texas House of Representatives Certificate of Citation, and a Distinguished Alumnae of Texas Woman’s University in 1978. She was also inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame. In 1996 she was named posthumously to the TDDTEA Texas Drill Team Hall of Fame, and in 1999, she was inducted into the Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame. Kilgore College named the Rangerette Residence on their campus in her honor.

Gussie Nell Davis retired in 1979. She passed away Dec. 20, 1993, from respiratory complications. She was interred in Farmersville Cemetery in Texas.

To learn more about this trailblazing educator and coach, click on this link to the Kilgore College Rangerettes.