PE and Health teacher Jean Kuczka was slain in a school gun violence incident in St. Louis, Missouri, on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. Photo Credit: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Once again, the educational community mourns the loss of another teacher to school gun violence. Physical education teacher Jean Kuczka, age 61, was fatally wounded in an attack at Central Visual & Performing Arts High School located in St. Louis, Missouri. She had been a teacher on the campus since 2008.
As a young woman, Jean attended Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri, on a field hockey scholarship. There she studied physical education and played on the school’s field hockey team. In fact, she was a member of the university’s 1979 national championship team.
Jean’s college coach, Rhonda Ridinger, declared the fallen educator is a hero. Ridinger, who coached Jean at Missouri State from 1979 to 1982, says Jean loved her team like her family, just like the students she put first on Monday. “I think she did what a loving, seasoned teacher would do, protect the kids,” remarked Ridinger. Jean’s daughter, Abigail Kuczka, agrees. “My mom loved kids,” Abigail asserts. “I know her students looked at her like she was their mom,” Abigail continued, adding that her mother was killed while protecting her students.
After earning her Bachelor’s degree in Education, Jean began teaching physical education at Seven Holy Founders in Affton, Missouri. For the next 16 years, Jean developed a physical education program for the K-8 students. When she decided she wanted to concentrate on junior high school students, Jean transferred to Carr Lane Middle School in St. Louis in 2002. At first, she taught physical education, but later she decided she wanted to teach courses in health education, so she developed a health ed program for the middle school. Once health became a state-required course at the high school level, Jean transferred to Central Visual & Performing Arts High School, where she has taught Health, Personal Finance, and Physical Education since 2008.
Jean Kuczka was the mother of five and the grandmother of six.
Teacher Elaine Goodall Eastman, who described herself as a Sister to the Sioux, established a day school on a Sioux Indian reservation in the territory of South Dakota. Photo Credit: Boston University
Many talented and dedicated educators have devoted themselves to working for disenfranchised groups of students. One of these was Elaine Goodale Eastman, who often described herself as a “Sister to the Sioux.”
When she was just a young woman, Elaine, originally from Massachusetts, established a day school on a Sioux Indian reservation in the territory of South Dakota. Contrary to prevailing opinion of her day, she believed very strongly that it was best to keep Native American children at home rather than transport them far away from their families to Indian boarding schools. She hadn’t taught on the reservation very long when she was promoted to the position of Superintendent of Indian Education for the Two Dakotas. In this capacity, she travelled throughout the five Dakota reservations, visiting the more than 60 government and missionary schools within her jurisdiction, and writing detailed evaluation reports on each school she visited.
It was because of her work that Elaine just happened to be visiting the Pine Ridge Reservation when the tragic Wounded Knee Massacre took place. As a result of this tragedy, more than 200 men, women, and children from the Lakota tribe were killed, and another 51 were wounded. In addition, 25 government soldiers were also killed, most by “friendly fire,” and another 39 were wounded. Following the massacre, Elaine and her fiance, physician Charles Eastman of the Santee Sioux tribe, cared for the survivors and wrote detailed government reports to accurately describe what happened.
Middle school teacher Sara Casassa has been named the 2022 New Hampshire State Teacher of the Year. Photo Credit: Barnard School
It is always a pleasure to share stories about talented educators who have earned accolades for their work in the classroom. One of these is Sara Casassa, a middle school teacher from New Hampshire. Sara has been named her state’s 2022 Teacher of the Year.
Sara’s career as an educator spans more than three decades. Since 2009, she has taught Language Arts and Social Studies courses to students in grades 6 through 8 at Barnard School in South Hampton. She also serves as the cross county coach and the yearbook advisor. As if all this were not enough, the indefatigable educator has also worked as a technology integrator and as her school’s webmaster. She has presented inservice on technology and literacy at a variety of workshops and conferences.
It was due to her innovative work with technology that Sara became the first choice for New Hampshire’s top teacher honors, says South Hampton School Board Chair Jim Kime. He praised the middle school English teacher for “leveraging technology,” even before Covid-19 forced widespread school closures. Kime noted that before the pandemic, Sara created a virtual classroom for a student who was forced to leave school for three to four weeks because of an illness. The virtual classroom she created became the prototype once COVID hit, and her expertise was invaluable to both the students and staff.
Despite this success, Sara insists that establishing and maintaining strong relationships are still at the heart of her teaching. “While teaching pedagogy has changed and needs of students and families are much different then they were 20 years ago, the importance of creating relationships, engaging in meaningful learning opportunities, and meeting students where they are has remained constant,” she declares.
Sara earned her Bachelor’s degree with a dual major in English and History and her Master’s degree in English, both from Boston College. She has also completed courses on her Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study in curriculum and instruction.
Educator Joaquin Bustoz established an Advanced Placement math and science program for students in the Tempe Unified School District. Photo Credit: Arizona State University
There are many examples of brilliant educators who have offered their talents to improve high school instruction. One such educator was Joaquin Bustoz, Jr., a university math professor from Arizona who established an Advanced Placement program for high school students.
Joaquin was born on Dec. 30, 1939, in Tempe, Arizona, one of five children born to parents Joaquin, Sr., and Ramona. His parents, who were farm workers, also worked for their local schools, and were so revered that the Tempe Unified School District even named one of their elementary school after the couple.
In 1962, Joaquin earned his Bachelor’s degree in math from Arizona State University. Continuing his education at that institution, he earned his Master’s degree the following year, and in 1967 he completed the requirements for his PhD. After earning his doctorate, Joaquin became a professor of mathematics at the University of Cincinatti, where he taught from 1969 to 1976.
In 1985, Joaquin founded the Summer Math-Science Honors program for high school students under the auspices of the University of Arizona. Still in place today, the curriculum offers an Advanced Placement program that provides opportunities for under-represented students to study university mathematics and science while still enrolled in high school. He also devoted many hours to Native American students on the nearby Navajo and Pima Reservations.
For his outstanding work as an educator, Joaquin garnered numerous awards. For example, President Bill Clinton recognized Joaquin with the prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Math, and Engineering (PAEMST) in 1996.
Sadly, this talented and dedicated educator was killed on Aug. 13, 2003, in an automobile accident. He is interred at Double Butte Cemetery in Tempe.
You can learn more about this outstanding Chalkboard Champion on the website of the Mathematical Association of America by clicking MAA. You can also learn more about the Advanced Placement program he founded at ASU Summer Math Program.
Anyone who works with kids surely knows the actress and singer Idina Menzel. Her Tony award-winning Broadway roles include Elphaba in Wicked and Maureen Johnson in Rent. Her blockbuster songs include “Let it Be” sung by the character Elsa in the Disney animated feature Frozen. Or maybe you know her from her many appearances as Shelby Corcoran in the television series Glee. But not many people know Idina’s sister, Cara Mentzel, an elementary school teacher in Boulder, Colorado. At least, they didn’t know the younger sister before now. (And her name really is spelled with the extra “T”.)
Cara earned her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, magna cum laude, from the University of Colorado in 1996. She earned her Master’s degree in Elementary Education with an emphasis on Children’s Literacy from the same university in 2008. In addition, she was designated a National Board certified reading teacher in 2011.
After earning her degrees, Cara taught elementary school, primarily second and third grades, for 13 years in classrooms in the Boulder Valley School District in Boulder, Colorado. For her work in the classroom, Cara has earned some prestigious recognition. She garnered the Barnes & Noble “My Favorite Teacher” award in the 2010-2011 academic year, and she was named to the Superintendent’s Honor Roll in 2011.
Former elementary teacher Cara Mentzel and her sister, singer and actress, Idina Menzel, have just published Loud Mouse, their first children’s book together. Photo Credit: Emejo Madrid
Cara and Idina have recently been interviewed on numerous daytime talk shows because the sisters have co-written a new book for young children. The volume, written for an audience aged 3-5 years, is entitled Loud Mouse. The book, illustrated by Jaclyn Sinquett, was published last month by Disney-Hyperion Press. The storyline revolves around the main character, a mouse named Dee, who was born to sing. Usually she performs just for herself, but when her teacher asks everyone to share something with their classmates, Dee decides to share a song. And as Dee sings la, la, la, la, LOUDly in front of her class for the first time, something extraordinary happens. . . .
Loud Mouse is not Cara’s first published book. Voice Lessons: A Sisters Story is a first-hand account of a younger sister growing up in the shadow of her larger-than-life older sister—looking up to her, wondering how they were alike and how they were different and, ultimately, learning how to live her own life and speak in her own voice. The book was published in 2017 by St. Martin’s Press.
Today, Cara devotes her considerable talent to writing, but on occasion she can still be found back in the classroom, speaking to kids about her favorite books. Idina and Cara are currently working on their second book together, a sequel to Loud Mouse entitled Proud Mouse.
