Category Archives: Education

MI teacher Leah Porter named her state’s 2021-2022 Teacher of the Year

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Third grade teacher Leah Porter of Holt, Michigan, has been named her state’s 2021-2022 Teacher of the Year. Photo credit: Lansing State Journal.

I always enjoy sharing stories about outstanding educators who have earned recognition for their work in the classroom. One of these is Leah Porter, an elementary school teacher from Holt, Michigan. She has been named her state’s 2021-2022 Teacher of the Year.

Leah is teaching third grade at Wilcox Elementary School in Holt this year, but she spent the last 15 years teaching kindergarten. Her career as an educator has spanned a total of 16 years. Leah has served her school in a variety of roles over her tenure there, including serving as a Reading Recovery teacher, teacher leader, and interventionist.

Leah is best known for her ability to build relationships with her students, and to build an atmosphere of inclusion in her classroom. “In my greatest dreams, I see an educational system that allows each child the freedom to be themselves, to have security and trust in their learning spaces, and to be celebrated for all that they are,” declared Leah.

Leah said that she has dreamed of being since she was a little girl. About a decade ago, her mother even found an old childhood drawing she’d made of herself as a teacher, which now hangs in her classroom. Reflecting on why she chose to become an educator, Leah credited her childhood teachers from North Elementary School in Lansing, Michigan, who taught her to appreciate the learning community that school provides. “I loved thinking about how you could be creative (in the job) and have to work and be on your toes every second of the day,” she said. “For all the prep and things that you think teaching will be, it’s a thousand times better than all those things and a thousand times as challenging, too, simultaneously,” she continued.

Leah earned both her Bachelor’s degree in 2004 and her Master’s degree in 2009, both from Michigan State University College of Education.

Popular theater teacher Jeannie Hutter succumbs to Covid-19

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Jeannie Hutter, a performing arts educator in Independence, Missouri, succumbed to Covid-19 on Jan. 5, 2022. Photo credit: Tommie Hutter

We are saddened to report that Covid-19 has claimed the life of yet another beloved educator. Jeannie Hutter, a performing arts teacher from Independence, Missouri, succumbed to the disease on Jan. 5, 2022. She was 57 years old.

Jeannie was born on July 18, 1964, in San Diego, California. She graduated from high school in 1982 from Goose Creek High School in Goose Creek, South Carolina.  She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics at MidAmerica Nazarene College in 1986. In addition, she completed courses at Sterling College in Sterling, Kansas, for her certification in speech and theatre.

Jeannie inaugurated her teaching career in 1990 when she accepted a position teaching math at Liberty Middle School in Hutchinson, Kansas. In 1993, she moved to Kansas City where she taught math at the Kansas City Middle School of the Arts.

In 1999, Jeannie established the speech and drama program at Osage Trail Middle School, Independence, Missouri. While there, she earned a Master’s degree in Educational Technology from Lesley University. Ten years later she relocated from the middle school to Fort Osage High School, where she taught acting, directing, and stagecraft as the school’s Director of Theatre. During her 25-year tenure there, the popular teacher directed 75 productions.

The fallen educator will be sorely missed. Student Grant McDaniel recalled the personal struggles his teacher guided him through. He remembered she taught her students how to cope with life, which sometimes requires individuals to cope with loss. “She didn’t only teach us to cope, but she also taught us that life does go on, and to keep moving,” recalled student Lillian Templeton. Jeannie will perhaps be missed most by her twin sister, Tommie Hutter, who is also a teacher at the school. “She used to tease the kids and say, ‘I want a thank you when you get your Tony,'” Tommie remembered. “The funny thing is, every one of those kids has ended up in education. So I think that in itself tells you how much she has made a difference as an educator,” continued Tommie.

Jeannie was fully vaccinated, but had a rare auto-immune disease that put her at high risk. She struggled with a condition called granulomatosis with polyangiitis, a disorder causing inflammation of blood vessels in the nose, sinuses, throat, lungs, and kidneys. Formerly called Wegener’s granulomatosis, this condition causes decreased blood flow to various organs.

Horror fiction is an unusual genre for a woman author, but Georgia teacher Kristi DeMeester is good at it

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Kristi DeMeester, a high school English teacher from Georgia, has achieved success as an author of horror fiction, an unusual genre for women authors. Photo credit: Kristi DeMeester

There are many outstanding teachers who have earned acclaim in fields outside of the classroom. One of these is Kristi DeMeester, a high school English teacher from Georgia who has also achieved success as an author of horror fiction, an unusual genre for women authors.

Kristi has taught grades 9 through 12 at Roswell High School in Fulton County, Georgia. In addition to teaching, she has served her school as the yearbook advisor and an assistant JV Volleyball coach.

A voracious reader herself, Kristi encourages her students to read, too. “I do feel that young people should read whatever they like without the fear of being shamed for what they are reading or told it’s beneath them or too smutty or too silly,” she says. “But I do think all young people should experience a book that moves them deeply and teaches them something about the world that exists outside of themselves,” she continues.

Kristi has published an impressive list of novels and short stories in the horror genre. Her novels include Beneath, published in 2017, and Such a Pretty Smile, published in 2022. She has also published two short story collections. The first is Split Tongues, published in 2016, and the second is Everything That’s Underneath, published in 2017. Her short fiction has appeared in Ellen Datlow’s The Year’s Best Horror Volume 9, Year’s Best Weird Fiction Volumes 1 and 3, and in publications such as Pseudopod, The Dark, Black Static, and others.

This talented educator and author earned her Bachelor’s degree in Secondary English Education and her Master’s degree in Professional Writing from Kennesaw State University.

Morgan Rankin named Tennessee State Teacher of the Year

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Second grade teacher Morgan Rankin has been named the 2022 Tennessee State Teacher of the Year. Photo credit: WJHL

It is always a pleasure to share stories about outstanding educators who have earned recognition for their work. One of these is Morgan Rankin, who has been named the 2022 Tennessee State Teacher of the Year.

Morgan teaches second grade at South Side Elementary School in Johnson City. She has worked at the school for seven years. She came to Tennessee in 2014 from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, where she taught kindergarten.

“I’m always looking for those hands-on ways that are gonna get those kids excited and hooked in the learning,” revealed Morgan. “Kids by nature are really curious, inquisitive, and often really driven on their own to seek out information. The best part of my job is I get to be a part of steering that in specific directions,” she continued. Morgan encourages her students to be strong readers, to ask questions, and above all else, be kind. “The things we are doing now are shaping them into who they are going to be as adults,” the honored teacher asserts. “I think that is an incredible opportunity.”

In addition to her work in the classroom, Morgan is the founder of South Side School’s Genius Hour, an inquiry-based learning club for students modeled after Google’s 20% Project.

As if all this were not enough, Morgan serves as an active member of the Technology Teacher Leaders in Johnson City Schools. In this role, she mentors other educators on the use of technology in the classroom. She is also is a founding member of the Blue Ridge Literacy Project, a program that delivers professional development in research-based literacy practices to Tennessee teachers. She has been a Technology Teacher Leader in her district since 2016.

Throughout her career as a literacy specialist and elementary educator, Morgan has been committed to instilling a love of reading and inquiry-based learning in all students. She believes that all children can learn and grow academically, socially, and emotionally in a warm and welcoming classroom environment that provides hands-on, student-centered learning.

Teacher Prentice G. Downes: Explorer, cartographer, cultural anthropologist, and writer

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Teacher Prentice G. Downes earned fame as an explorer, cartographer, cultural anthropologist, and writer. Photo credit: canadiangeographic.ca

Many fine educators have distinguished themselves in areas outside the field of education. One was high school teacher Prentice G. Downes, known to his friends by the nickname “Spike.” In addition to his career as an educator, Prentice made a name for himself as an explorer, cartographer, cultural anthropologist, and writer.

Prentice was born 1909 in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of an Episcopal clergyman. After his 1928 graduation from Kent School in Kent, Connecticut, Prentice enrolled at Harvard University. Once he was ready to begin his career as a teacher, he accepted a position at Belmont Hill School, a prestigious New England prep school for boys located in Belmont, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston.

Prentice was well-known for hurrying back to class in unkempt condition each fall. Between 1936 and 1947, the native of Concord, Massachusetts, made several summer-long expeditions into the sprawling uncharted wilderness of subarctic Canada. Working on a shoestring budget, Prentice would round up a canoe, gear, food, and a local traveling associate. Then he would set out for the great unknown. He was notorious for cutting trips close to the wire, rushing back to Boston bearded, tanned, and garbed in threadbare bush clothes just in time for the beginning of school.

This intrepid teacher traveled by canoe to explore subarctic areas in the Great Barren Lands and learn about the lifestyles of the Native American tribes. During his travels, Prentice kept extensive journals recording a disappearing people and a landscape unknown to all but the Canadian natives at that time. He recorded not only daily events, but also the stories and traditions of the peoples he encountered, particularly people of the Cree and Dene tribes.

In 1939, Prentice traveled from the Brabant Lake area to the Cochrane River, starting at the town of Brochet on Reindeer Lake. Without the aid of maps, the intrepid teacher relied completely on local legend to find his way to the Thlewiaza River and his final destination, the Hudson Bay outpost on Nueltin Lake. Based on this trip, Prentice wrote the travelogue Sleeping Island: The Story of One Man’s Travels in the Great Barren Lands of the Canadian North. First published in 1943, this classic adventure story received a stellar review from the New York Times for its engaging descriptions of the expedition across a rugged landscape of lakes and rivers in northern Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and present-day Nunavut. Besides the polished and captivating writing style, Sleeping Island stands out because it documented ways of life that no longer exist.

In his later years, Prentice delivered lectures about his travels for Harvard’s Institute of Geographical Exploration. Additionally, he was commissioned by the US government to map portions of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. He also became a member of the prestigious Royal Geographical Society.

This Chalkboard Champion passed away in 1959 at the young age of 50.