Category Archives: Education

NYC STEM teacher Bianca Bibiloni garners a 2023 Big Apple Award

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Elementary school science teacher Bianca Bibiloni from Queens, New York, has garnered a 2023 Big Apple Award. Photo credit: PS 14 Fairview

There are many fine educators who have earned accolades for their work in the classroom. One of these is Bianca Bibiloni, an elementary school STEAM teacher from New York City, who has earned a 2023 Big Apple Award.

Bianca teaches at PS 14 Fairview in Queens. She has worked there for 13 years. The school offers courses that focus on equity-based practices and culturally responsive education. To that end, she helped develop the school’s UNITY team.

In addition, Bianca has made it her mission to help her students to develop into problem-solving scientists. In fact, she spearheaded the school’s STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) program. An integral part of her program has been her involvement in the GrowNYC Recycling Champions program, a nonprofit organization that has established over 800 school gardens. Bianca has also participated in the Sustainable STEAM Fair. At her school site, Bianca has organized many garden initiatives for her students, and she is involved in the Seed to Plate Program. At one point, the innovative educator built a raised bed garden on top of a concrete schoolyard.

Congratulations, Bianca!

 

 

TN STEM teacher Evie LaFollette garners 2023 Yager Exemplary Teaching Award

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STEM teacher Evie LaFollette of Tennessee has garnered a 2023 Robert E. Yager Exemplary Teaching Award from the National Science Teaching Association. Photo credit: Kingsport City Schools

Congratulations go to Evie LaFollette, a STEM teacher at Dobyns-Bennett High School in Kingsport, Tennessee. She has garnered a 2023 Robert E. Yager Exemplary Teaching Award from the National Science Teaching Association.

The Robert E. Yager Exemplary Teaching Award annually recognizes six science teachers who successfully use innovation and excellence in their classroom. The recipients of the award receive $1,000 towards their expenses to attend the annual NSTA National Conference on Science Education, and an additional $1,000 for their personal use. Each of the six teachers selected were invited to present at the conference, attend the district director meet-and-greet, and participate in their NSTA District Director Leadership retreat.

Evie has been an educator for fourteen years, seven of them at Dobyns-Bennett High, where she teaches Biology courses. She is obviously dedicated to her students and to her work. “It is my goal that each of my students feel seen, accepted, and supported in my classroom,” Evie declares. “I try to inspire my students to approach science like an engineer, always looking for solutions and being creative in their problem solving approach,” she says.
For the past ten years, Evie has also instructed online Psychology and Advanced Placement Psychology courses for the Niswonger Foundation. She also teaches Synthetic Biology at East Tennessee State University in a program which provides college credit to gifted and talented high school students throughout the state. And as if all that were not enough, she leads teacher workshops to train high school teachers all over Tennessee in how to implement Synthetic Biology and Genetic Engineering. Furthermore, in April, 2022, she was a presenter of “Life Changing Science Education” at the international science conference SynBioBeta held in Oakland, CA.
Evie earned her Bachelor’s degree in Behavioral Neuroscience from East Tennessee State University in Johnson City. She earned her Master’s degree in Education from Milligan University in Elizabethton, Tennessee.

To learn more about the National Science Teachers Association, click on this link to the NSTA.

CA educator Efrain Tovar uses “translanguaging” strategies in his Newcomers class

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Many outstanding educators are working diligently to help recent immigrants to the United States learn how to function fluently in the English language. But some of the best are those that encourage these students to simultaneously develop their proficiency in their native languages. One of these is Efrain Tovar, an English as a Second Language teacher at Abraham Lincoln Middle School in Selma, located in Fresno County in California.

Efrain creates a vibrant classroom community for “newcomers,” the moniker given to recently-arrived immigrant students who have limited proficiency in English. In his class, students come from a wide range of countries, including Mexico, Yemen, India, Egypt, Guatemala, and others. Efrain uses this ethnic diversity not only to create a safe and welcoming space for learning, but also to further develop and personalize each student’s English language learning curriculum.

Efrain is an advocate for Ann instructional process known as “translanguaging,” the practice of encouraging the student to use their existing linguistic backgrounds and heritages to master new academic content and, ultimately, to be able to move fluently between two or more languages. Studies have shown that when English language learners are given consistent opportunities to practice their home languages in class, their English proficiency flourishes—along with their sense of belonging and identity. “The goal is to be bilingual and bi-literate so that you’ll not only be a contributing citizen, but also be a bridge maker when you speak multiple languages with multiple communities,” explains Efrain.

You can watch this amazing educator at work and hear what his student have to say about him, in the video above. To learn more about studies in translanguaging, you can read this article detailing an explore 2011 study about English language learners and academic achievement. You can also access this article published in 2023 by EdSource which describes why bilingual students do better on tests than native English speakers.

Home Econ teacher Jane Greimann served in the Iowa State House of Reps

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Home economics teacher Jane Greimann also served in the Iowa State House of Representatives. Photo credit: Iowa State Legislature

There are many exceptional educators who have gone on to successful careers in political office. One of these was Jane Greimann, a teacher who was elected to the Iowa State House of Representatives.

Jane was born on Jan. 25, 1942, on her family’s farm in Klemme, Iowa. After her high school graduation from Klemme High School in 1960, Jane enrolled at Iowa State University, where he completed courses in Home Economics. Immediately after graduating in 1964, she married Lowell Greimann, and the couple moved to Boulder, Colorado, where Jane worked as a seamstress and office worker. She gave birth to her first son there. Later the couple moved to San Antonio, Texas, where she worked with members of the Hispanic community and low-income adults. She gave birth to her second son there. In 1973 the couple returned to Iowa, where Jane adopted a little Vietnamese girl in 1975.

In 1980, Jane completed the requirements for her teaching certificate and accepted a position teaching art, health, and family and consumer science at Nevada Junior High school in Nevada, Iowa, where she taught for 16 years. During these years, she worked on studies of student health related to cholesterol and helped to start a breakfast program. She taught parenting classes and made a five-week trip to Russia in 1992. She also became a board member for the Eastern Story County Youth and Shelter Services. She retired from teaching in 1998.

In 1998, Jane was elected on the Democratic ticket to serve in the Iowa House of Representatives. From 1999 to 2005 she represented first District 61 and then District 45. While there, she served on the Committees for Public Education Funding; Human Services; Environment; Judiciary; Human Resources; and Natural Resources. She also served on the Mid-Iowa Community Action Board and the Hawk-I-State Board. Jane believed passionately in establishing more preventive programs and enacting more humane sentencing laws in our corrections system.

After leaving the House, served as the President of the local chapter of the League of Women Voters; as a Democratic caucus organizer; as a member of the Ames Public Art Commission; and as a member of the Education and Prevention Board of Youth and Shelter Services.

Sadly, Jane Greimann succumbed to lung cancer on Feb. 4, 2006. She was 64 years old. She was interred at Iowa State University Cemetery. Following her passing, the central committee of the Story County chapter of the Iowa Democratic Party honored the former teacher by placing a brick in the Plaza of Heroines outside of the university’s Catt Hall.

 

US “suffrage schools” helped to win the vote for women

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Educator and suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt established suffrage schools that helped women in the United States earn the right to vote.

When I read about remarkable teachers, I often come across terms that describe varieties of schools I have never heard of before. One such example is the term “suffrage schools.”

These schools were first developed in 1917 by suffragette Carrie Chapman Catt, a trained and experienced teacher. Her purpose in establishing these schools was to train women volunteers to become politically active and effective in their efforts to win the vote for women.

For the suffrage schools, Carrie developed innovative courses that focused on theories of government, political institutions, and practical applications. She also encouraged women to study state laws, identifying those that were specifically unfair to women, and working to change them. The curriculum also included such topics as public speaking, the organization of the US government, the history of the suffrage movement, how to develop a good relationship with the press, and how to use the press for influencing the electorate. Eventually the lessons taught in these schools paid off, for women won the right to vote with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1919.

You can read more about Carrie Chapman Catt and her suffrage schools in my second book, Chalkboard Heroes, available on amazon.