Category Archives: Education

Music teacher Sarah Mae Lagasca garners coveted Milken Award

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High school music educator Sarah Mae Lagasca of Newark, New Jersey, has garnered a prestigious 2021-2022 Milken Educator Award. Photo credit: milkeneducatoraward.org

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 Sarah Mae Lagasca, a high school music teacher from New Jersey, who has garnered a prestigious 2021-2022 Milken Educator Award.

As a music teacher at Arts High School in Newark, Sarah Mae strives to increase her students’ proficiency in music theory, composition, sight reading, vocal technique, music history, recording and production technology, marketing and branding, and personal artistic growth.

Sarah Mae has long been recognized as an innovative instructor. Throughout the pandemic, the honored educator culled and shared a variety of strategies to keep students engaged in her virtual classroom, including breakout rooms, hand signals, recordings, and online programs such as Music First, FlipGrid, and Soundtrap.

As if all that were not enough, Sarah Mae has made significant contributions to music outside of the classroom as well. She has conducted Newark’s All-City Choral Ensemble and organized workshops with professional musicians through the VH1: Save the Music Foundation and GRAMMY Museum. She has performed with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and contributed to various recordings, including Arturo O’Farrill’s “Four Questions,” which won the 2021 Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album.

Sarah Mae attended the Westminster Choir College, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Music Education in 2013. Westminster is a residential conservatory of music formerly located in Princeton, New Jersey. In the Fall of 2020, the college relocated to Rider University’s Lawrenceville campus.

The Milken Educator Awards have been described by Teacher Magazine as the “Oscars of Teaching.” In addition to the $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. Sarah Mae is one of up to 60 educators to receive the Milken Educator Award for the 2021-2022 school year. To learn more, click on Milken Educator Awards.

Math teacher M.B.W. Tent also writes books for young people

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Many fine educators have also earned a name for themselves as published authors. One of these is M.B.W. Tent, a math teacher who has published several books for young people.

M.B.W., whose first name is Margaret, was born on Nov. 2, 1944. She was raised in western Massachusetts. As a young girl, she graduated from Amherst Regional High School. Following high school, she earned both her Bachelor’s degree and her Master’s degree at the University of Alabama, Birmingham.

For many years, M.B.W. taught school at Altamont High School in Birmingham, Alabama. She has said she has enjoys bringing the history of mathematics into her teaching.

M.B.W. has published a number of educational books about mathematicians for students of elementary school age. Her works include Emmy Noether: The Mother of Modern Algebra (2008); The Prince of Mathematics: Carl Friedrich Gauss (2009); Leonard Euler and the Bernoullis: Mathematicians from Basel (2009); Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: The Polymath who Brought us Calculus (2019). She also published A 1928 Road Trip from the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts to the National Parks of the West (2011).

As an author, many of M.B.W.’s books have earned favorable reviews from professional organizations such as the Mathematical Association of America and the Association for Computing Machinery. In addition, her books are frequently cited in academic publications, and they have garnered praise from such renowned mathematicians as Charles Ashbacher, William Dunham, Peter Neumann, Peter Lax, and Cathleen Synge Morawetz.

Teacher Harriet Hobart championed Women’s Suffrage

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Former schoolteacher Harriet Hobart with her husband, Chauncey Hobart, and several of his colleagues and others in Minnehaha Falls, Minnesota. Photo credit: MNopedia.

Many fine classroom teachers have worked tirelessly on social causes. One of these was Harriet Hobart, a teacher who championed the causes of women’s suffrage and temperance.

Harriet was born on Jan. 1, 1825, in Northern Ireland. She was just 18 years old when she immigrated to the United States in 1843. As a young woman, Harriet launched a highly successful career as a professional educator in New York City. In a career that spanned 25 years, Harriet spent 10 years as a classroom teacher and another 15 years as a teaching principal.

In April, 1868, Harriet relocated to Red Wing, Minnesota, where she married a recently widowed Methodist Episcopal minister, Chauncey Hobart. Chauncey had already built an impressive career serving Methodist parishioners in Illinois and Wisconsin frontier towns before landing in Minnesota.

In addition to her work as an educator, Harriet dedicated her considerable energies to social causes. Viewed by her colleagues as an effective leader and speaker, the former teacher became president of the Minnesota Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), a post she held for 17 years. During this time, Harriet urged the WCTU to work on women’s rights, specifically women’s suffrage, a cause for which she worked tirelessly for the rest of her life.

Sadly, Harriet passed away on Feb., 17, 1898. She was 74 years old. Alas, she did not live to see her work completed, but Prohibition and Women’s Suffrage made great gains during the 20 years following her passing. The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, adopted in 1919, banned the making and sale of alcohol, although the amendment was repealed in 1933. The Nineteenth Amendment, which secured the right to vote for women, was ratified in 1920.

To read more about Harriet Hobart, see this article about her published by Alchetron.

Jahsha Tabron named Delaware’s 2022 State Teacher of the Year

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Congrats to Special Education teacher Jahsha Tabron, who has been named Delaware’s 2022 State Teacher of the Year. Photo Credit: Delaware State University

Congratulations are due to Jahsha Tabron, a high school teacher from Delaware who has been named her state’s 2022 Teacher of the Year. She was selected from a field of 20 teachers representing school districts or charter schools throughout the state.

Jahsha currently teaches at Brandywine High School, where she works primarily with ninth graders who are transitioning into high school. In all, her career as an educator has spanned an impressive 21 years.

In addition to her work with students, Jahsha serves as her school’s Special Education Department Chair. She also works towards establishing equitable educational practices, and she facilitates opportunities for colleagues to foster student-centered growth. She mentors new teachers in compliances with special education requirements that are necessary for developing individualized education plans for students.

Jahsha recognizes that the efforts of her colleagues is just as important as her own. “I’m reminded daily that I am a part of something important, something bigger than myself and my classroom,” she said at the time she accepted her honor. “Our community includes teachers, counselors, and administrators,” she continued. “At the core of a true school community, there’s accountability, solidarity and a mutual understanding why we are her to prepare students. This is what creates successful students and successful schools,” she concluded.

As a result of her selection as Teacher of the Year, Jahsha will receive a $5,000 grant to use for the educational benefit of her students, as well as two personal grants totaling an additional $5,000.

A native of Bronx, New York, Jahsha was born of immigrant parents from Jamaica. The honored educator earned her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary and Special Education from Delaware State University in 2000. Later she earned her Master’s degree in School Leadership and Administration from Wilmington University.