Category Archives: Education

Kentucky teacher Stephanie Foster succumbs to Covid-19

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Sadly, we report the passing of Kentucky elementary school teacher Stephanie Foster, who succumbed to Covid-19 on Jan. 11, 2022. Photo credit: Commonwealth Journal

Sadly, the educational community is mourning the loss of yet another beloved teacher. Stephanie Foster, an elementary school teacher from Burnside, Kentucky, succumbed to the disease on Jan. 11, 2022. She was 40 years old.

Stephanie was born on Dec. 30, 1981 in Somerset, Kentucky. As a teenager, she attended Pulaski County High School, where she graduated in 2000. Stephanie earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education and her Master’s Degree, both from Eastern Kentucky. She earned a second Master’s Degree from the University of the Cumberlands.

The fallen educator taught first grade at Burnside Elementary in the Pulaski County School System. She had been teaching at that school for 15 years. Prior to her assignment at Burnside, she taught for two years at Shopville Elementary.

The loss has been keenly felt throughout the school community. “Those lower primary grades, you do a lot of one-on-one instruction. You’re on the kids’ level,” said District Superintendent Patrick Richardson Richardson. Dr. Jeni Bolander, also a teacher, agreed that the students and their families have been hard-hit by the loss. “Teachers just have the biggest hearts,” she asserted. “They want to see the world be a better place.”

“She was a leader within our school,” recalled Burnside Principal April Mounce. “She served as a grade level representative for many years, was an instructional technology trainer for our new teachers, served as a mentor for new teachers and student teachers…..and provided professional development to other teachers on various topics and programs, Mounce continued.

 

Thelma Dewitty: First Black educator in Seattle, Washington

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Thelma Dewitty

Thelma Dewitty, the first African American teacher hired by the Seattle Public School System, reading to her second-graders at Cooper School in 1950. Photo credit: The Pride Foundation

Many excellent classroom teachers became pioneering groundbreakers in their time. This is true of Thelma Dewitty, a talented classroom teacher who became the first African American educator in Washington state’s Seattle Public School System.

Thelma was born in 1912 in Beaumont, Texas. As a young woman, she earned her Bachelor’s degree from Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, in 1941. Even before she earned her degree, Thelma inaugurated her career as a teacher in Corpus Christi, Texas, accepting her first position in 1942. She taught there for nine years, and then for another five years in Beaumont, Texas.

In 1947, Thelma moved to Washington State with her husband. There she attended graduate school at the University of Washington, and began writing a book about mathematics for children. When she expressed an interest in teaching in Seattle, she discovered that the city’s school system was not integrated. Although she was an African American, the NAACP, the Seattle Urban League, the Civic Unity Committee, and Christian Friends for Racial Equality encouraged the local school board to break the color barrier and hire her. The school board agreed, and Thelma was hired to teach at Frank B. Cooper School in the Delridge neighborhood of West Seattle. Throughout her long career as a teacher in Seattle, she also taught at several other elementary schools, including John Hay, Laurelhurst, and Sand Point, and she also completed a stint at Meany Junior High School.  After a career as an educator that spanned almost four decades, the dedicated classroom teacher retired in 1973.

In addition to serving as an educator, Thelma worked tirelessly for the Seattle branch of the NAACP, serving as its president in the late 1950s. She also served on the Washington State Board Against Discrimination, and she volunteered on the Board of Theater Supervisors for Seattle and King County.

This amazing educator passed away on August 19, 1976, in Seattle at age 63. She is buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Seattle, King County, Washington.

Florida STEM teacher Ryan Smith writes grants, wins awards

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Florida STEM educator Ryan Smith has written grants that have garnered over $60,000 for classroom projects and earned several prestigious awards for developing lessons that employ hands-on projects. Photo credit:

One of the most awesome educators around is Ryan Smith, a STEM teacher from Lake Worth, Florida. Ryan has earned several prestigious awards for developing lessons that employ hands-on projects to draw a direct connection between science concepts and the real world.

Ryan teaches science, math, and STEM courses to elementary students in grades two through eight. He has developed several elective courses for students in his school. These include a class in Environmental Engineering and another in Digital Design & Fabrication. In addition, Ryan co-created the Stiles-Nicholson STEM Inventors Challenge, which has been resulted in the placement of over 70 3D printers in middle and elementary schools in his area.

In 2021, Ryan garnered an Rosenthal Prize Honorable Mention from the National Museum of Mathematics. The honor was earned for his lesson, “Astronaut Explorer: A Measurement Conversion Conundrum,” which allows students to take on the role of astronauts exploring a new planet on which they must learn about the civilization’s measurement system. This activity promotes genuine thinking, decoding, and reasoning, and is designed to help students construct procedures for converting from one unit to another using ratios and unit conversions.  Ryan was awarded a $500 cash prize.

In addition to his Rosenthal Prize honors, Ryan garnered the School District of Palm Beach County Innovative Educator Award in both 2016 and 2015. In 2014, Ryan earned the Palm Beach County Science Educators (PBCSEA) Teacher of the Year Award.

Originally, Ryan planned to be a physical therapist, and for this reason he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology and Exercise Science from Arizona State University in 2002. But then he changed course and decided to pursue a career in the classroom. He earned a second Bachelor’s degree in Education and Instructional Technology in 2016. He also earned a Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Kaplan University in 2012.

Visual arts educator Kim King named Connecticut’s 2022 Teacher of the Year

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Elementary school visual arts educator Kim King has been named Connecticut’s 2022 State Teacher of the Year. Photo credit: New York University

Congratulations to visual arts teacher Kim King, who has been named Connecticut’s 2022 State Teacher of the Year!

Kim splits her time between Annie E. Vinton Elementary and Southeast Elementary schools in Mansfield. Previously she taught at Riverside Magnet School in East Hartford and Westbrook High School in Westbrook in her state.

Throughout her 12-year career as a professional educator, Kim has taught students in pre-K to twelfth grade. Regardless of the grade level she works with, her curriculum explores themes of equity, empowerment, and creativity. Kim believes that creating art helps to build confidence from within, and empowers students to discover and trust their voices and ideas.

Kim’s teaching philosophy is that what our students see and what they are exposed to matters profoundly. Her colleagues appreciate this mindset. “Kim is deeply committed to student-centered practices and supports children to find their voice and express themselves through a discovery-focused process of making art,” remarked Kelly Lyman, Superintendent of Mansfield Public Schools.

In addition to her work in the classroom, Kim works with Make Us Visible Connecticut. Through this program, the Korean born teacher contributes her expertise to enhancing the Asian American/Pacific Islander curriculum. Kim believes that all students should be reflected in the American experience and in our country’s history.

In addition to her 2022 Teacher of the Year honors, Kim was the recipient of a grant from Fund for Teachers to study the art and culture of Korea. The experience helped her guide students towards understanding people and communities different from their own through art.

Kim earned her Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art from Syracuse University in New York in 1993. She earned her Master’s degree in Art Education from New York University in 1999.

To learn more about Kim King, see this article published by Steinhardt Alumna.

Elem science educator Dr. Jennifer Norford garners awards

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Elementary school educator Dr. Jennifer Norford garnered a Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching from President Barack Obama in 2008. Photo credit: Jennifer Norford

I always enjoy sharing stories about excellent educators who have earned recognition for their work with students. One of these is Dr. Jennifer Norford, a science teacher from the US Virgin Islands who received Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST) from President Barack Obama in 2008.

At the time she garnered her Presidential Award, Jennifer was teaching fifth and sixth grade at the Ulla F. Muller Elementary School in Charlotte Amalie in the Virgin Islands. In the more than two decades she worked in the classroom, Jennifer was praised for her tireless efforts to maintain rigor and relevance in her teacher. She had a reputation for developing curriculum that fostered creativity, scientific inquiry, and cooperative learning in her classroom.

In addition to her work in the classroom, Jennifer also served as the liaison for the High, Objective, Uniform State Standard of Evaluation (HOUSSE), a program funded by the US Department of Education to assist teachers in becoming designated highly qualified teachers. She also coordinated her school’s first-ever School Health Index Plan, served on the School Improvement Team, and was selected president of the Parent-Teacher Association.

Jennifer earned her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education, magna cum laude, from the University of the Virgin Islands. She earned her Master’s degree in Education with a concentration in Educational Administration. She completed the requirements for her PhD in Educational Leadership from Walden University in 2013. Additionally, she is a member of the Gamma Beta Phi Honor Society.

In addition to her PAEMST award, Jennifer garnered the Outstanding Award for Science Theory and Practice from the College of Further Education in St. Kitts, Virgin Islands.