Category Archives: Education

Brenda Barreras named one of five 2020 CA Teachers of the Year

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Kindergarten teacher  Brenda Barreras from Perris, California, has just been named the 2020 CA State Teacher of the Year.

On Oct. 4, 2019, California State Superintendent Tony Thurmond announced the names of the five educators to be recognized as 2020 California State Teachers of the Year. One of the five Thurmond honored is Brenda Barreras, a kindergarten teacher from Good Hope Elementary School in Perris, Riverside County, California.

Brenda has overcome many obstacles on her way to the classroom. She was only 16 years old when she immigrated to the United States, and when she arrived, she could not speak English. In spite of this, she became an honor roll student by the time she graduated high school.

Brenda has been teaching for 22 years. During those years, she has targeted the needs of English-language learners. She led the California Association for Bilingual Educators program at her previous school, Palms Elementary. She also founded an English-language tutoring program to provide assistance to students before and after school. “Ms. Barreras has used her own personal experience to inspire students to succeed,” declared Dr. Judy D. White, Riverside County Superintendent of Schools.  “As she has demonstrated, public education is the cornerstone of our democracy and changes the lives of our students for the better,” Dr. White continued.

Brenda will be joining the other four California State Teachers of the Year in Sacramento in January to meet with Superintendent Thurmond when the group will be formally recognized at a gala. The other educators who have been selected are Sean Bui from Cupertino High School in Cupertino; Mandy Kelly from Trabuco Mesa Elementary School in Rancho Santa Margarita; Guy Meyers from John Burroughs High School in Burbank; and Katya Robinson from West Sonoma County Consortium School in Sebastopol.

To read more about Brenda, click on this link from the Press Enterprise.

Educator and suffragist Katherine Devereux Blake

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Educator and indefatigable suffragist Katherine Devereux Blake

Teachers are often among the first to throw their boundless energy into campaigns that benefit society as a whole. One of these was Katherine Devereux Blake, a teacher who became an influential suffragist.

Katherine was born in Manhattan, New York, on July 10, 1858. Her mother was well-known pioneer suffragist, newspaper correspondent, and novelist Lillie Devereux Blake.

Katherine earned her college degree in 1876 from what later became Hunter College. Following her graduation, she inaugurated her career as a public school teacher in New York City. By 1894 she accepted a position as the principal of the Girls Department of Public School 6. This school was renamed the Lillie Devereux School in 1916. Katherine served PS 6 as its principal for 34 years, until her retirement in 1927.

Throughout her career as an educator, Katherine Blake used her influence to champion causes that benefited both teachers and students. She promoted improvements in classroom lighting and sanitation, the reform of school textbooks, and night school for women. In addition, she actively worked for the National Education Association (NEA). She served on a number of committees that promoted teacher benefits, good relationships between public schools and the NEA, and the election of women to the New York Board of Education. Katherine was one of nineteen teachers selected to accompany Dr. John Dewey on his official visit to Russia in 1928.

Not only was Katherine Blake an outstanding educator, but she was also an influential journalist, suffragist, and peace activist. During her summer vacations from 1911-1919, she campaigned for women’s suffrage in California, New York, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, West Virginia, New Jersey, and Connecticut. In New York, she was the leader of nearly 15,000 teachers who worked for women’s suffrage. In the 1915 parade sponsored by the Woman Suffrage Association, Katherine marched at the front of a group of nearly 500 teachers.

Katherine Blake was also an active and outspoken peace activist. She was a member of the Ford Peace Expedition in 1915-1916, and she also served as the New York Chair of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. She was the chief spokesperson for the Disarmament Caravan, which toured 9,000 miles in 1931 to carry a disarmament petition to President Herbert Hoover and to the International Disarmament Conference in Geneva. The petition was comprised of nearly seven million signatures. Katherine traveled to Geneva repeatedly to attend the League of Nations Assembly as a newspaper correspondent. In 1938 she traveled abroad to study refugee problems.

This remarkable woman and chalkboard champion passed away on February 2, 1950, in St. Louis, Missouri. She was 91 years old. She is interred in Union Cemetery in Stratford, Fairfield County, Connecticut.

To read more about Katherine Devereux Blake, see this biographical sketch about NAWSA Suffragists.

Former teacher and Grey’s Anatomy actor Jesse Williams

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Jesse Williams, former history teacher and television actor famous for his role on Grey’s Anatomy.

Many excellent classroom teachers also distinguish themselves in the entertainment field. One teacher who has done this is Jesse Williams, a high school history teacher from Philadelphia who is well-known as an actor on Grey’s Anatomy.

Jesse was born in Chicago, Illinois, on August 5, 1981. As a child, Jesse attended schools in the Chicago area. As a teenager, he attended Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island, where he graduated in 1998. Jesse’s parents were very interested in the educational field. Not long after Jesse graduated from high school, his parents accepted positions in the public school system.

As a young man, Jesse attended college at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There he majored in African American Studies and Film and Media Arts. After he earned his Bachelor’s degree, Jesse accepted a position teaching American Studies, African Studies, and English in a low-income public charter school.

Jesse’s passion for teaching stemmed from his childhood experiences in the classroom. “I grew up in Chicago in an under-served community, over-crowded classrooms that sometimes had two grades in a classroom,” Jesse once confided. “Then I moved to a suburban area and had a healthy public school experience. I found this incredible chasm between two of the many Americas we have. I got a much better education and resources because of my zip code,” he continued. “I wanted to be part of the solution, so I started working in my community when I was at Temple University,” he said. Jesse’s career as an educator spanned six years.

In 2009, Jesse was cast in the role of Dr. Jackson Avery on the hit television show Grey’s Anatomy. He has also made appearance on Law & Order and Beyond the Break. His feature credits include Brooklyn’s Finest, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, Cabin in the Woods, the Butler, and Band Aid.

As a celebrity, the former teacher has used his influence to improve conditions for African Americans. For this work, Jesse won a BET Humanitarian Award. During his acceptance speech, the former teacher highlighted the evils of racial injustice and cultural appropriation.

To read more about Jesse Williams, read this online article published the Daily Press.

Educator and history-making mountain climber Fay Fuller

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Educator and history-making mountain climber Fay Fuller

There are many fine teachers who have distinguished themselves in fields outside of education. One of these is Evelyn Fay Fuller, a teacher who was the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Rainier.

Evelyn was born on October 10, 1869, in New Jersey. As a child, her family called her Fay. When young Fay was just twelve years old, her family moved to Tacoma in the state of Washington. Even as a child, Fay expressed great interest in exploring wilderness areas.

In 1885, at the end of Fay’s sophomore year, her high school closed abruptly. The fifteen-year-old continued her education on her own, while simultaneously teaching children at Tacoma’s Longfellow Elementary School.

Later Fay accepted teaching positions at Rosedale and at Yelm in Washington. While teaching in Yelm, famed mountain climber Philemon Van Trump visited her school. He had earned the distinction of being one of the first climbers to ascend nearby Mount Rainer. The pair soon became good friends.

Through Van Trump’s influence, the intrepid young teacher set herself the goal of climbing to the summit of Mount Rainier. She made her first attempt to climb the mountain in 1887. To prepare for the climb, Fay blackened her face with charcoal and wore goggles to reduce the sun’s glare. Her climbing outfit included heavy flannel underwear, a thick blue flannel bloomer suit, woolen hose, heavy calfskin boy’s shoes, and a straw hat. She later commented that her costume was assembled “at the time when bloomers were unknown, and it was considered quite immodest.”

On her first climb, Fay reached an elevation of 8,600 feet. Three years later, on August 10, 1890, the intrepid 21-year-old finally achieved her goal of reaching the summit. She was the first woman to make the climb successfully. As the story goes, the next party to climb the mountain found Fay’s hair pins on the trail and joked that the find proved a woman really had made it to the summit!

Shortly after her history-making climb, Fay left the teaching profession to go into journalism. She became the first woman reporter for the Tacoma Ledger, where she wrote a column covering mountaineering news. She also became instrumental in founding alpine clubs in Tacoma and in Portland, Oregon.

In 1900, Fay relocated to Chicago, Washington, DC, and New York City, where she continued her career as a journalist. In New York she married, and the newlyweds settled in Santa Monica, California.

This amazing educator and mountain climber passed away in Los Angeles on May 27, 1958. She was 88 years old. She is interred in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York. After her passing, Fay Peak in Mount Rainier National Park was named in her honor.

To read more about Fay’s climb, read this article published by the Historylink.org.

Two-time All-American softball player, teacher, and coach Sara Loete

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Two-time college All-American softball player Sara Loete teaches and coaches in Evansville, Indiana.

There are many examples of fine athletes who have also distinguished themselves in the classroom. One of these is two-time All-American softball player Sara Loete. She is now a high school history teacher and coach in Pekin, Indiana.

Sara was born on February 10, 1988, in Rock Island, Rock Island County, Illinois. She was raised in Pekin, Tazewell County, Illinois. As a teenager, Sara attended Pekin High School in her home town. While there, she was named a member of the All-Conference first team. She earned second-team All-Area honors as a senior after recording a .515 batting average. She earned Most Valuable Player honors in each of her last two seasons. In addition, her senior year, Sara earned honors as a national qualifying political speaker and the captain of the speech team.

Sara started playing softball when she was very young. “I actually started playing baseball when I was six years old,” she once recalled. “When I was nine and the boys started pitching, my mom wanted me to play softball. I’ve played ever since!”

After her high school graduation in 2006, Sara enrolled at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, as a pre-med biology major. “After quickly realizing my passion was not in medicine, but rather in teaching, I changed my major to Secondary Education with a concentration in History,” Sara remembers. At the end of her freshman year, she transferred to the University of Southern Indiana. While studying there, she played the position of designated hitter on the university’s softball team. Her efforts on the field earned her a position as the Illinois State hitting derby finalist and, in her junior year, she became a sectional champion. In 2011, Sara graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor’s degree in History and Social Science with a minor in Psychology. In 2014 she earned a Master’s degree in Education at Arkansas State University.

Once she completed her education, Sara accepted a position teaching world history, psychology, and English at William Henry Harrison High School in Evansville, Indiana. In addition to her classroom duties, she coaches the school’s softball, volleyball, and speech teams. She also serves as the adviser for her school’s Link Crew.

To view Sara’s teacher website, click on this link: Miss Loete’s Website.