Category Archives: Education

Susan Rosato named Vermont’s 2021 Teacher of the Year

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Susan Rosato, an English Language educator from Vermont, has been named her state’s 2021 Teacher of the Year. Photo credit: Linked In.

I enjoy sharing stories about exceptional educators who have earned accolades for their work in the classroom. One of these is Susan Rosato, an English Language educator from Vermont who has been named her state’s 2021 Teacher of the Year.

Susan currently teaches at Colchester High School in Colchester, Vermont, where she has been for 17 years. She began her career at the elementary level, teaching for five years at McMahon Elementary School in Holyoke, Massachusetts. In all, her career as an educator has spanned 22 years.

Within the educational community, Susan has a reputation for being a fierce advocate for immigrant and refugee families, and she has dedicated herself to smoothing their transition from their home countries to the United States. To this end, she has created and implemented a “newcomer” class in her school. She teaches the school’s English Learner (EL) course, and she instituted her school’s EL summer school program. In addition, she developed the district’s EL professional development course for her colleagues.

During the pandemic when students were completing lessons via distance learning, Susan stayed connected with families and provided support so they could maintain access to their children’s education, figure out how to sign up for unemployment benefits, and update their health information. She also created instructional and multilingual videos to provide information about the reopening of schools.

“What I can do and what we can all do to make students’ dreams a reality is we can start breaking down some of these barriers that refugee and immigrant students and other minority populations in our country and state face,” declares Susan. “I believe that our curriculum needs to be accessible and free of cultural bias. We need to start from the idea about what students can do, not what they can’t do,” she continues.

Susan earned her Bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education from the State University of New York at Cortland in 1991. She earned her Master’s degree in Teaching English as a Second Language from the State University of New York at Albany in 1994.

To read more about Susan Rosato, see this article about her published by the St. Albans Messenger.

Former science teacher Alberto Carvalho becomes Supt. of LAUSD

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Alberto Carvalho, an immigrant from Portugal, began his career as an educator as a science teacher in Florida. He has just been hired to be the Superintendent of the LAUSD in California. Photo credit: fortwayne.com

Many excellent classroom teachers go on to positions of leadership and influence in their school districts. Alberto Carvalho is a fine example of this. Alberto inaugurated his career in education as a science teacher in Miami, Florida, rising to the position of Superintendent there. He has just been hired to be the Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District in California.

Because of his determination and hard work, Alberto was able to put himself through college. He enrolled in courses first at Broward Community College, and later he earned a scholarship to Barry University, where he earned his Bachelor’s degree.

Alberto inaugurated his career in education as a science teacher at Miami Jackson Senior High School in Miami-Dade County. He taught physics, chemistry, and calculus there. After four years in the classroom, Alberto served the District in several leadership positions, including Assistant Principal and Chief Communications Officer.

For the past 13 years, Alberto has served as the Superintendent for Miami-Dade County Public Schools. During his tenure there, he garnered local, state, national, and international recognition. He was named Florida’s 2014 Superintendent of the Year; the 2014 National Superintendent of the Year; the 2016 winner of the Harold W. McGraw Prize in Education; the 2018 National Urban Superintendent of the Year; the 2019 National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) Superintendent of the Year; and he garnered recognition by Scholastic Administrator as one of “The Fantastic Five” educators making a difference in America. Alberto currently serves on the National Assessment Governing Board, to which he was appointed by the US Secretary of Education. He also serves as a committee member for the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, and as an Advisory Committee Member to the Harvard Program on Education Policy and Governance.

On Dec. 14, 2021, this Chalkboard Champion was hired to be the Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District in Los Angeles, California.

Former New Mexico teacher and politician Retta Ward

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Former high school biology teacher Retta Ward of New Mexico also served her state as a capable politician. Photo credit: Washington Times.

Many fine classroom teachers also earn success in political positions. Former high school teacher Retta Ward of New Mexico was one of these. After she left the classroom, she served as the State Secretary of the New Mexico Department of Health.

Retta was born on May 4, 1953, in New Mexico. As a young girl, Retta grew up in the southeastern New Mexico town of Hagerman. As a high school student, Retta served her school as the editor of the yearbook, and she also claimed Homecoming Queen honors. When she graduated, she was named as the school’s valedictorian.

Retta earned her Bachelor’s degree in Health Education from the University of New Mexico, and her Master’s degree in Public Health from the University of Arizona.

After earning her degrees, Retta inaugurated her career as a teacher when she accepted a position as a high school biology teacher in Cave Creek, Arizona. Later she served in middle schools in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In all, her career in education spanned ten years.

Retta was appointed to the position of State Secretary of New Mexico Department of Health in 2013 by Governor Susana Martinez. Retta served in the position until her passing in 2016. Previously, she served as Secretary of the state’s Aging and Long-Term Services Department. Before that, she managed the arthritis program for the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Sadly, Retta suffered a medical emergency while driving alone near Santa Fe, New Mexico. When her car was found, emergency personnel discovered that she had succumbed to a condition that was not an automobile accident. This was on March 3, 2016. Later it was determined that Retta had suffered an aortic dissection. She was 62 years old.

To read more about this Chalkboard Champion, click on this link to an article published in the Albuquerque Journal.

Mississippi teacher La’Keshia Johnson featured in Time Magazine

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For her work in and out of the classroom, Mississippi kindergarten teacher La’Keshia Johnson was featured in an article by Time Magazine. Photo credit: Okolona Municipal School District.

So many of our nation’s educators have gone above and beyond the call of duty to provide for their students during the pandemic—not just meeting their educational needs, but providing meals for those who needed food, helping with housing, acquiring clothing, and assisting with emotional support. One of these is La’Keshia Johnson, who teaches kindergarten at Okolona Elementary School in Okolona, Mississippi.

For much of last year, teacher La’Keshia made it her mission to ensure her kindergarten students in the rural town of Okolona, Mississippi, received their breakfasts and hot lunches, even in the midst of the pandemic. She never missed a day of delivering meals to them, even though it meant assembling them and riding the bus to deliver them herself. “We wanted to make sure every student was taken care of,” she explained. “You’re so accustomed to seeing their smiling faces up and down the hall. The pandemic kind of took that away.”

Because her students were isolated at home, La’Keshia penned and mailed letters to her kids modeled after the Flat Stanley books. She encouraged them to write back and include pictures with their “Flat Ms. Johnson” cutouts.

When Okolona schools returned to in-person instruction, La’Keshia drew satisfaction from watching her students enter the classroom unable to recognize the letters of the alphabet, but leave with the ability to read a book out loud.

For her outstanding work within and beyond her classroom, La’Keshia Johnson was featured in the Time Magazine article entitled “Educators who Saved a Pandemic Year” published in September, 2021. She truly is a chalkboard Champion.

Patricia Eshelman named New York’s 2021 Agriculture Teacher of the Year

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Science educator Patricia Eshelman of Bolivar, New York, has been named the 2021 NYAITC Teacher of the Year. Photo credit: New York Agriculture in the Classroom.

Congratulations go to New York teacher Patricia Eshelman, who was recently honored by the National Agriculture in the Classroom Organization and the National Food Institute of Food and Agriculture, which is part of the US Department of Agriculture. Patricia has been named the 2021 New York Agriculture in the Classroom Teacher of the Year. She earned this honor for her unique lessons in the classroom that get students outside of a normal classroom setting.

Patricia teaches biology and a course entitled Sustainable Living and Agriculture at Bolivar Richburg High School in Bolivar, New York. The course covers a broad range of agricultural topics from botany to ethics, and allows students valuable hands-on learning experiences and community-engagement.

Patricia has created lessons she calls “Farmer Fridays,” where she invites guest speakers to talk to her classes. In addition, the innovative educator directs her students in building, planting, and maintaining a garden as part of her school’s Wolverine Environmental Education Center (WEE). In their garden, the students have planted garlic, asparagus, blueberries, black raspberries, fruit trees, perennial flowers, and tomatoes. The food the students grow is given away or sold to the community, to teachers on campus, or to the school cafeteria. In addition to the garden, the students conduct studies about food waste which led them to explore composting and vermicomposting food from the school cafeteria.

Patricia was one of eight teachers across the country who was honored with a 2021 National Excellence in Teaching about Agriculture Award. The group was honored at the 2021 National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference “Fields of Dreams” in Des Moines, Iowa, last summer.

To read more about Patricia Eshelman, see this article published about her by the Daily Reporter.