Category Archives: Education

Maryland educator, politician, and civil rights activist Verda Welcome

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As part of our Black History Month celebration, we recognize Maryland’s Verda Welcome: Educator, politician, civil rights activist, and community activist. Photo Credit: Preservation Maryland Trust

During Black History Month, we celebrate the many African American teachers who have dedicated themselves to social and political causes outside of the classroom. One of these educators was Verda Welcome, a teacher, politician, civil rights activist, and community activist from the state of Maryland.

Verda was born on March 18, 1807, in Lake Lure, North Carolina.  She was one of 16 children of farmers John and Docia Freeman. As a young girl, Verda attended North Carolina and Delaware public schools. The young scholar always planned to pursue higher education. However, following the death of her mother in 1928, she found herself with limited financial resources to pursue her goal. Undaunted, she worked as a domestic during the day and attended school in the evening. Eventually she earned her high school diploma. “I had to make the daily sacrifices needed to keep my dreams intact,” Verda once declared.

In 1929, Verda moved to Baltimore to continue her education at Coppin Normal School. There she earned her teaching certificate in 1932. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in History from Morgan State College in 1939. She completed the requirements for her Master’s Degree from New York University in 1943. In her later years, Verda was awarded honorary doctorates from Howard University, Morgan University, and the University of Maryland.

During her youth, Verda learned first-hand that African Americans were often underpaid, under-educated, and underprivileged. She determined to make a positive impact in the Black community as an educator, and so she taught in the Baltimore City Public Schools for 11 years.

In 1959, the dedicated teacher was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates to represent the Fourth District. She was the first Black woman to achieve that distinction. Verda served as a delegate until 1962, when she was elected to the Maryland State Senate. She was America’s first African American female state senator.

Verda served in the Maryland State Senate until 1982. Between the State House and the State Senate, she devoted a total of 25 years of service in the legislature. Significant among her accomplishments there was the passage of legislation dealing with such issues as discrimination in public accommodations, equal pay for equal work, the harassment of welfare recipients, illegal employment practices, voter registration, the abolition of capital punishment, and reforms in the state’s correctional facilities.

For her many important achievements in the area of civil rights, this amazing educator was inducted into Maryland’s Women’s Hall of Fame in 1988. Verda was 83 years old when she passed away on April 22, 1990, in Baltimore.

To read more about this amazing Chalkboard Champion, see this article published in the Baltimore Sun.

Former teacher, NASA astronaut Joseph Acaba earns new appointment

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Joseph Acaba, former Melbourne High School science teacher turned veteran astronaut, has just been appointed Chief of NASA’s Astronaut Office at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Photo Credit: Yahoo News

As an astronaut, Joseph Acaba has logged a total of 306 days in space on three flights, first as a mission specialist on the space shuttle Discovery, and twice aboard the International Space Station. And recently, this veteran astronaut was appointed as Chief of NASA’s Astronaut Office at Johnson Space Center in Houston, the first astronaut of Hispanic heritage selected to lead the office. But did you know that this accomplished individual was once a science and mathematics teacher?

Before his selection by NASA in 2004 as one of three “educator astronauts,” an initiative intended to build upon Challenger astronaut Christa McAuliffe’s Teacher in Space legacy, he spent his first year, 1999-2000, as a full-time teacher at Melbourne High School in Florida. There he taught freshman science before moving on to teach math and science in Dunnellon Middle School in Florida, where he remained for four years.

And that is not all of this Chalkboard Champion’s impressive employment history. Joe was a member of the United States Marine Corps Reserves. He  also worked as a hydro-geologist in Los Angeles, California, primarily on Superfund sites. And he spent two years in the United States Peace Corps as an Environmental Education Awareness Promoter in the Dominican Republic. In addition, he worked for a time as the manager of the Caribbean Marine Research Center at Lee Stocking Island in the Exumas, Bahamas.

Joe once said that, as an educator astronaut, he hoped to reach out to minority students. On March 18, 2008, he traveled to Puerto Rico, where he was honored by the island’s senate. During his visit, Joe met with school children at the capitol and at Science Park located in Bayamon. Science Park boasts a planetarium and several surplus NASA rockets among its exhibits. Joe made a second trip to Puerto Rico on June 1, 2009. On that trip he spent seven days on the island and came into contact with over 10,000 citizens, most of them school children.

IN teacher Brittany Tinkler garners prestigious 2022-2023 Milken Award

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Elementary school teacher Brittany Tinkler of Indianapolis, Indiana, has garnered a prestigious 2022-2023 Milken Educator Award. Photo Credit: Brittany Tinkler

There are many exceptional teachers working in American schools who are deserving of recognition. One of these is Brittany Tinkler, an elementary school teacher from Indianapolis, Indiana. She has garnered a prestigious 2022-2023 Milken Educator Award, she learned on Feb. 8, 2023.

Brittany teaches second grade at Rosa Parks Elementary School in Perry Township. She has taught there for 11 years. In her classroom, Brittany has embraced project-based learning, and she shares the practice with fellow educators through presentations, articles, and podcasts. Furthermore, Brittany enjoys exposing her students to different careers. To that end, she has brought a variety of community organizations into the school, including the local zoo, a radio station, and a fire station. In addition, she has launched a robotics club and founded  an after-school running club.

Brittany, who graduated from Perry-Meridian High School, says her own academic struggles as a child led her to pursue a career in education. “When I got into high school after all of this struggling, I officially decided I was going to become an educator so that I can help students feel successful and find what it is they’re good at, so I can bring that out of them at a young age,” she declared.

The honored educator earned her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education in 2012 from Indiana University and her Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instructional Leadership in 2018 from Indiana Wesleyan University.

Brittany is one of 40 educators nationwide who has earned a Milken Educator Award this year. The honors have been described by Teacher Magazine as the “Oscars of Teaching.” In addition to a $25,000 cash prize and public recognition, the recognition includes membership in the National Milken Educator Network, a group of more than 3,000 exemplary teachers, principals, and specialists from all over the country who work towards strengthening best practices in education. To learn more, click on Milken Educator Awards.

Montana teacher Shianne Schmidt garners coveted 2020 PAEMST

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Elementary school teacher Shianne Schmidt from Whitefish, Montana, has garnered a coveted 2020 PAEMST. Photo Credit: Whitefish Pilot

There are many talented educators who have earned recognition for their outstanding work in the classroom. One of these is Shianne Schmidt, an elementary school teacher from Whitefish, Montana. She has garnered a coveted PAEMST in 2020.

In a career that has spanned 11 years, Shianne has spent the last six of them teaching third and fourth graders at Olney Bissell School in Whitefish. She previously taught a combination of third and fourth graders at Reed Point Elementary School in Reed Point, Montana. She inaugurated her career as a teacher at Koliganek Public School in Dilliingham, Alaska.

Shianne teaches all subject areas in her classroom, but mathematics is her favorite subject and her area of special expertise. But this expertise took time and effort to develop. She says math wasn’t always an area of strength for her, and she could tell it was a subject that many of her young students struggled with. When she noticed that many of her students expressed frustration with math, or when they made comments such as, “I’ll never be good at math,” she knew she had to find a way to turn the negative into a positive. “I said, we’ve got to change that,” Shianne recalls. “That’s got to change. What can I do to help these kids learn better?” To accomplish this, the honored educator worked diligently to become an expert herself. “I started re-teaching math to myself so that it made sense to me and so it made sense to students,” she explained. “I learned in that journey there was not just one way to get the answer or solution.” And along the way, she learned to love the subject.

Shianne expresses her love of math by developing engaging activities that motivate her students. She excites children in mathematical learning with classroom transformations and project-based learning tasks. Some of the students’ favorites have been creating their own food truck, rollercoaster mathematics, and a cross-curricular unit that studies Alaska’s famous Iditarod race.

The PAEMST, Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, is an honor that recognizes the dedication, hard work, and importance that America’s teachers play in supporting learners who will become future STEM professionals, including computer technologists, climate scientists, mathematicians, innovators, space explorers, and engineers. The PAEMST program, founded in 1983, is administered by the National Science Foundation (NSF) on behalf of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The honor comes with a $10,000 cash prize.

Tuskegee Airman LeRoy Battle: Educator, musician, veteran

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High school music teacher and Tuskegee Airman LeRoy Battle authored an autobiography entitled Easier Said, published in 1995. Photo Credit: Tuskegee Airmen, Inc.

As a part of our national celebration of Black History Month, I would like to share the story of LeRoy Battle, a high school music teacher who was also a heroic Tuskegee Airman.

LeRoy was born Dec. 31, 1921, in the Harlem section of New York City, New York. His father owned a candy store, and his mother worked as a beautician and cook. While a youngster, LeRoy expressed an avid interest in music. He was able to take music lessons through both the Boy Scouts and the YMCA, where it was obvious he was a natural. By the time he was in the seventh grade, young LeRoy owned his own drum set. After years of learning and practice, the youthful musician was proficient enough to give music lessons as a private tutor.

As a teenager, LeRoy attended Alexander Hamilton High School in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. There he played drums in the marching band and the school orchestra. He also performed in New York’s All-City Orchestra, the Harold Cabbell Orchestra, and the Al Bounds Orchestra. By the time LeRoy was a senior, he played with legendary singer Billie Holiday at the Three Deuces Jazz Club. He also worked with Pearl Bailey. After his graduation, the youthful musician joined a traveling band and went on the road.

Educator LeRoy Battle shown during World War II, when he served in the prestigious Tuskegee Airman group. Photo Credit: Capital Gazette

During WWII, Leroy was drafted. He served in the United States Army Air Corps from 1945 to 1947. Once he earned his silver wings and bars, LeRoy volunteered to join the Tuskegee Airmen. “I can’t say that I ever had any previous aspirations to be a pilot,” he once confessed. “But it sounded like a much better opportunity than anything else that was likely to come along.”  After completing the Tuskegee program at Tuskegee University, gunnery training at Tyndall Field, and bombardier training at Midland Air Force Base, LeRoy joined the 616th Squadron of the 477th Bombardment Group stationed at Freeman Army Air Force Base. For his heroism during WWII, LeRoy garnered the Congressional Gold Medal.

When the war ended, the former pilot continued his studies in music. He returned to New York City and enrolled at the Juilliard School of Music.Then Morgan State University, a historically Black college located in Baltimore, Maryland. There he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Musical Education. He also earned a Master’s degree in Education from the University of Maryland, College Park.

In 1950, LeRoy accepted a position as a music teacher at Douglass High School in Washington, DC. That year he established a stage band for his students. Over the next eight years, The Douglass High School Band placed garnered first place in 14 competitions. In 1958, the students became the first African American band featured in the prestigious yearbook First Chair of America. Jet Magazine also printed a spread on the outstanding young musicians. Before LeRoy retired in 1978, he also served as a guidance counselor and assistant principal. For 17 of those years, he also served as a drummer in the Washington Redskins Marching Band.

Post-retirement, LeRoy continued to make music. From 1992 to 1996 he did session work with jazz musicians Eva Cassidy and Chuck Brown.In addition, he worked as a motivational speaker for the Tuskegee Airmen’s Speaker’s Bureau. And, as if all that wasn’t enough, he authored an autobiography entitled Easier Said, published in 1995.

Sadly, LeRoy passed away on March 28, 2015, in Harwood, Maryland. He was 93 years old. To read more about this remarkable Chalkboard Champion, see his obituary published in the Capital Gazette.