Category Archives: Education

TX teacher Lori Garrett earns prestigious 2022 PAEMST Award

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Texas elementary school teacher Lori Garrett has earned a prestigious 2022 PAEMST Award. Photo Credit: Moore County Journal

It is always a pleasure for me to share stories about exceptional educators who have earned recognition for their work. One of these is Lori Garrett, an elementary school teacher from Texas who has garnered a prestigious 2022 PAEMST award.

The PAEMST, Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, recognize 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.

Lori’s career as an educator spans ten years, all of which she has spent at Cactus Elementary School in the Dumas Independent School District in Cactus, Texas. She taught one year in kindergarten and two years of fourth grade math and science. For seven years, she has been developing and teaching a pilot program that provides science pull-out for pre-kindergarten to fourth grade students, and a pull-out enrichment program for kindergarten to fourth grade students. The enrichment program features agricultural and project-based learning opportunities. She has also been working on expanding the school’s Maker Room STREAMS curriculum to include not only STEM goals, but also reading, art, and social studies objectives.

As if all this were not enough, Lori and her students have incorporated produce grown in their classroom garden into food packages which are delivered through a community outreach program. The recipients are enthusiastic about receiving fresh produce instead of relying entirely on canned and packaged goods, explains Lori. For this work, she has twice earned a White-Reinhardt Mini-Grant from the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture.

In addition to her PAEMST Award and her White-Reinhardt Mini-Grant, Lori was honored as her District’s Elementary Teacher of the Year in 2021. She also garnered the Ag in the Classroom Teacher Award from the Texas Farm Bureau’s  in 2017.

Lori earned her Bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology and a Third Mate License in the Merchant Marines, both from Texas A&M University at Galveston.

English teacher Erin Gruwell helped students compose The Freedom Writers

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Just about everyone has heard of the best-selling nonfiction book The Freedom Writers Diary, written by former high school English teacher Erin Gruwell and her class of inner-city students. This collection of student experiences, which will tug at any teacher’s heart strings, was also depicted in a highly-acclaimed movie starring Hollywood celeb Hilary Swank. When I think about the movie, I am reminded of the great importance a teacher plays in the lives of his or her students, whether they are low-income or at-risk or not.

The setting of the story is an inner-city school, Woodrow Wilson High, located in Long Beach, California. The volume was published in 1999, and it was an instant success. The story line still has relevance for those who are in the teaching profession today. 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 this particular educator, 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. (Nobody could be more hardworking and persevering than teachers who have wrestled with the pandemic, in my opinion.)

What I think is truly amazing is that many high school students love this book just as much as teachers do! The Freedom Writers Diary is easy to find on amazon and at just about any brick-and-mortar bookstore. Erin has also published a book about her professional experiences entitled Teach with Your Heart: Lessons I Learned from the Freedom Writers. Any teacher who can find a few spare hours (I know, that’s impossible, right?) could find one of these books helpful for inspiration and rejuvenation.

Perhaps you know someone who would welcome these books as a Christmas gift! Give it some thought!

Immigrant and progressive educator Leonard Covello

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Leonard Covello

Teacher Leonard Covello, the immigrant who developed progressive educational reforms. Photo credit: Ralph Morse, TiimeLife Images

Leonard Covello was just nine years old in 1896 when he immigrated to New York City with his family from the little village of Avigliano in southern Italy. But he grew up to become one of America’s greatest educators, developing and instituting progressive community-centered educational programs. These programs are characterized by close links between the school, the home, and the community, and are still a model for today’s educational institutions.

As an immigrant student himself, Leonard understood the unique needs of this particular group of students, and, as an Italian immigrant, he recognized the specific conflicts between the home and the family experienced by most Italian immigrant children. Drawing from his personal experience, Leonard was able to develop innovative school programs that allowed Italian immigrant students to succeed in American public schools in ways they had never realized before. His observations and solutions are still applicable to certain groups of students we find in today’s classrooms.

You can read more about this innovative teacher and principal in my book, Chalkboard Champions: Twelve Remarkable Teachers Who Educated America’s Disenfranchised Students, available from amazon at the following link: Chalkboard Champions. You can also learn more about this remarkable educator in Teacher with a Heart: Reflections on Leonard Covello and Community by Vito Perrone. This volume is available from amazon at the following link: Teacher with a Heart. In addition to analysis by Perrone, the book contains lengthy excerpts from Leonard Covello’s autobiography, now out of print.

Nebraska teacher Katie Mace garners prestigious Milken Educator Award

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English teacher Katie Mace of Lyons, Nebraska, has garnered a prestigious 2022 Milken Educator Award. Photo Credit: Milken Family Foundation

I always enjoy sharing an inspirational story about a talented educator who has earned accolades for her work in the classroom. Today’s story is about Katie Mace, a high school English teacher from the small town of Lyons in northeast Nebraska. Katie has garnered a prestigious 2022 Milken Educator Award.

Katie earned her Bachelor’s degree in Secondary English from the University of Nebraska in 2003. She earned her Master’s degree in English Curriculum and Instruction from Wayne State College in 2011. She earned a second Master’s degree in Counseling from Creighton University in Nebraska in 2014.

Katie teaches English and Speech at Lyons-Decatur Northeast’s High School in Lyons. Her innovative instructional practices keep students engaged and excited as they develop their reading and language arts skills. For example, during a unit on medieval literature and culture, students invite staff and peers to a medieval feast. In another activity, her students make pitches for fictional businesses ideas in the style of the television show “Shark Tank.” And she regularly encourages her students to enter local and national writing contests. As a result of Katie’s instructional strategies, her students regularly score at the top of state averages on the English section of the ACT, and former students credit her with their college and career successes.

The honored educator also goes to great lengths to care for students’ social-emotional needs. Putting her Master’s degree in Counseling to work, she spends one period each day working with students individually and in small groups.

The Milken Educator Awards have been described by Teacher Magazine as the “Oscars of Teaching.” In addition to a $25,000 cash prize and public recognition, the honor includes membership in the National Milken Educator Network, a group of more than 2,700 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.

English teacher Brittney Miller also serves in the Nevada State Assembly

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Middle School English teacher Brittney Miller also serves her community in the Nevada State Assembly. Photo Credit: Brittney Miller

Many talented classroom teachers also serve as successful politicians. One of these is Brittney Marie Miller, a middle school English teacher who currently serves in the Nevada State Assembly.

Brittney was born in 1974 in Detroit, Michigan. Her father, a former Marine who served in Viet Nam, was a police sergeant in Detroit. Her mother, a former civilian employee for the US Army Tank Arsenal, was a registered nurse.

Brittney earned her Bachelor’s degree in 1996 in Criminal Justice from Saginaw Valley State University located in University Center, Michigan. In 1999 she earned her first Master’s degree, in Public Administration from Oakland University located in the cities of Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills, Michigan. In 2011 she earned her second degree, in Teaching from Sierra Nevada College, Incline Village, Nevada.

For several years after earning her degrees, Brittney channeled her considerable energy in prisoner re-entry programs, training programs, and employment services. But for the past 11 years, she has been teaching Language Arts at Canarelli Middle School in the Clark County School District in Nevada. “After years developing programs in public schools, work force development, and prisoner re-entry, I knew that becoming a teacher was one more way I could serve,” Brittney once said. “Indeed, I reduced my salary by over a third when I became a teacher, but that’s how passionate and devoted I am to service. I believe strongly in education. To build a future, we must invest in our children first,” she added.

In 2017, Brittney was elected to represent District 5 in the Nevada State Assembly, where she still serves. She succeeded Republican Assemblyman Erv Nelson who resigned from his post to run for the Nevada State Senate. As a representative, Brittney is a member of four committees: Education; Corrections, Parole, and Probation; Health and Human Services; and Judiciary.

To learn more about this accomplished Chalkboard Champion, check out this interview by Nevada Public Radio or her website at Miller4ThePeople.