Category Archives: Education

New Mexico teacher Sylvia Garcia succumbs to coronavirus

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With great sadness, we announce that New Mexico teacher Sylvia Garcia succumbed to coronavirus on Nov. 29, 2020. Photo credit: Las Cruces Sun News

With great sadness, we announce that the coronavirus has claimed the life of yet another beloved educator. Sylvia Garcia, a longtime teacher within New Mexico’s Las Cruces Public School District, passed away on November 29, 2020, after battling COVID-19. She was 60 years old.

Sylvia inaugurated her career in education in 1991. Most of her career was spent at schools where a large percentage of students were considered high risk. Over the three decades of her professional life, Sylvia taught at Sunrise Elementary, Hermosa Heights Elementary, and Valley View Elementary.  In 2019, she accepted a position at Lynn Community Middle School, where she taught math and reading intervention to sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students. In addition to her responsibilities in the classroom, Sylvia served in several leadership positions within the teachers’ union NEA Las Cruces.

Sylvia’s colleagues remember that she worked diligently on behalf of her students. “She was a unique teacher whose reach went beyond the classroom. She invested in the lives of her students and her colleagues and she made students feel like they were her own family,” recalled Lynn Middle School Principal Brenda Ballard. “During our remote learning time, she would find ways to engage students in something personal.  She knew details about students few others did,” Ballard continued.

To read more about this wonderful educator, see this link to the Las Cruces Sun News.

High school English teacher and author Frederick Houk Law

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High school English teacher and widely-published author Frederick Houk Law. Photo credit: Garrison House Ephemera

Many talented classroom teachers have also earned fame in areas other than education. One of these was Frederick Houk Law, a New York teacher who also earned acclaim as an author.

Frederick was born on September 7, 1871, in New York.

Frederick taught courses in English at Stuyvesant High School n New York. Throughout his life, the accomplished educator traveled widely, treking across Europe on bicycle, touring the African continent from Cape Town to Cairo, and exploring the interior of British Guiana.

This intrepid teacher wrote essays, reference works, biographies, textbooks, and other nonfiction books. In all, he published 102 works in 277 publications. The volume most often found in library collections is his Mastery of Speech: A Course In Eight Parts, published in 1918. His How To Write And How To Deliver An Oration published in 1926 is also frequently found in libraries.

Frederick also wrote plays, children’s tales, legends, and short stories for pulp fiction magazines such as Munsey’s. The periodical advertised itself as “a magazine of the people and for the people, with pictures and art and good cheer and human interest throughout.” The teacher’s most famous fiction work was The Heart of Sindhra: A Novel, published in 1898. The novel is set in 19th-century northern India, and relates the story of a revolutionary force that derives its inspiration from wisdom and treasure emanating from a lost world in the mountains.

This talented educator and gifted author passed away in his home state of New York on his birthday, September 7, in 1957.

See this link for a list of books by Frederick Houk Law that are available on amazon.

Gail Goolsby: The educator who worked in Afghanistan

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Gail Goolsby spent many years teaching in Afghanistan as an international K-12 administrator overcoming challenges in a patriarchal society. Photo credit: Gail Goolsby

Many gifted educators have shared their expertise in international settings. One of these is Gail Goolsby. She is a teacher and international K-12 administrator who has worked in the patriarchal society of Kabul, Afghanistan.

Gail decided to move from the United States to Afghanistan to develop and lead the international School of Kabul after the terrorist attacks of September 11. She spent seven years there, facing the challenges of working in a place where women were devalued and considered weak. Her book, Unveiled Truth, vividly describes her experiences during those years.

This amazing Chalkboard Champion retired from a career in education after serving 25 years as a teacher, school counselor, and principal. Today she is active in the community writing, speaking, counseling, and serving as a certified life coach in her own business, Learn to Live Well.

For her outstanding work as an educator, Gail was inducted into the prestigious Delta Kappa Gamma Society in 2013. She has been a member in both Missouri and Kansas. Within the organization she served on the Educational Excellence Committee. Currently, she serves as Beta Rho Chapter Vice President. Gail encourages members in the chapter and region to take advantage of Delta Kappa Gamma opportunities.

To learn more about Gail Goolsby, check out her website at gailgoolsby.com.

Innovative educator and physician Maria Montessori

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Innovative educator and physician Maria Montessori advocated classrooms offering freedom of choice, self-motivation, and student autonomy. Her pioneering ideas abut education survive today, in countries all over the world. Photo credit: American Montessori Society

Almost everyone in the field of education has heard of Maria Montessori, the Italian educator and physician who spent a lifetime working towards developing innovative methods of child-centered instruction. Her prescription for education, which includes freedom of choice, self-motivation, and student autonomy, has proven surprisingly effective for many students of all ability levels.

Maria was born August 31, 1870, in the provincial Italian town of Chiaravalle. As a young woman, she broke gender barriers when she enrolled in medical school at the Sapienza University of Rome, where she graduated with honors in 1896. She became one of Italy’s first female doctors. In this role she developed a great interest in working with children who had developmental and physical challenges, and she devoted an entire career to helping them. Little did she know that long after she had left this earth, her strategies would still be used to help all children learn.

Maria opened her first school, which she named the Casa dei Bambini (Children’s House) in Rome on January 6, 1907. In the beginning, the children who attended were difficult to teach, but before long they showed increasing interest in working with puzzles, learning to prepare meals, and manipulating learning materials that Maria had personally designed. She observed how the children absorbed knowledge from their surroundings, essentially teaching themselves. From these observations, Maria developed her pioneering theories regarding educational pedagogy.

In the years that followed, Maria traveled the world and wrote extensively about her approach to education, attracting many followers. Today, there are thousands of Montessori schools in countries all over the globe. Her progressive instructional methods are reproduced in over 22,000 schools in 110 countries in schools that are known as Montessori schools.

Maria Montessori passed away May 6, 1952, in Noorwijk, the Netherlands. To read more about this amazing Chalkboard Champion, see this link at the American Montessori Society.

Mary Abrams: Special Ed teacher and member Connecicut State Senate

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Mary Abrams, a dedicated Special Education teacher from Connecticut, also serves diligently in her State Senate.

There are so many talented educators in our country who have chosen to serve their communities not only in the classroom, but also in political office. One of these is Mary Abrams, a Special Education teacher from Connecticut who also serves diligently in her state Senate.

As a young girl, Mary attended St. Rose School in Newton, Connecticut. She graduated from Francis T. Maloney High School in Meriden, Connecticut. She earned both her Bachelor’s and a Master’s degrees in Special Education, and later a Sixth Year degree in Education Leadership, all from Southern Connecticut State University. Mary has also garnered the Educational Leadership Student Award for Excellence in Practice.

After earning her degrees, Mary taught Special Education for over 25 years before transitioning from the classroom to school administration, where she served for more than a decade both as the Director of Special Education and then as a high school Assistant Principal. In addition to her classroom responsibilities, Mary served on the Democratic Town Committee, the Library Board, the St. Andrews Vestry, and as a Girl Scout leader. She retired from the academic world in 2017, declaring that she will always be an advocate for education.

In November, 2018, Mary was elected on the Democratic ticket to serve in the Connecticut State Senate. She represents the 13th District, which includes Meriden, Cheshire, Middlefield, Middletown, and Rockfall. In the Senate she serves as the Chair for the Committee on Public Health; the Vice Chair of the Committees on Education and Veterans’ Affairs, and a member of the Committees on Aging and Appropriations.

To learn more about Mary Abrams, click on this link to her website.