Category Archives: Education

History teacher Pat Conroy has become an acclaimed author

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Former history teacher Pat Conroy has become a leading figure of Southern literature. Photo credit: Pat Conroy

Sometimes in history a talented educator earns fame, fortune, and acclaim in the literary world. One teacher like this is Pat Conroy, considered by many the leading figure of Southern literature of the late 20th century. Pat Conroy is the author of two acclaimed novels: The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini. Both these novels have garnered Academy Awards as films. He also penned the successful novel The Lords of Discipline.

Donald Patrick Conroy was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 26, 1945. His father was a Marine Corps fighter pilot, and for this reason his family moved frequently. Pat once said he attended eleven different schools before his sophomore year. Also, he has often described his father as abusive and his childhood as traumatic.

As a college student, Pat attended The Citadel, an all-male military college in South Carolina. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in English in 1967. After earning his degree, Pat accepted a position as an English teacher at Beaufort High School in Beaufort, South Carolina. While there, he wrote his first novel, The Boo, which he self-published using money he borrowed from the bank.

After two years, Pat spent a year teaching at a two-room school on Daufuskie Island off the coast of South Carolina. There he worked to expand the horizons of his African American students, poorly-educated kids who spoke the Gullah dialect and had very little knowledge of the world beyond their island. Pat’s unorthodox instructional methods caused the superintendent of schools to fire him after just one year. Nevertheless, Pat relished his job as an educator. “There’s no word in the language I revere more than ‘teacher,’” Pat said in 1986. “My heart sings when a kid refers to me as his teacher, and it always has. I’ve honored myself and the entire family of man by becoming a teacher.”

This dedicated educator and outstanding author passed away from pancreatic cancer on March 4, 2016. He was 70 years old. He is interred at St. Helena Memorial Garden on St. Helena Island, South Carolina. To read the 2009 interview with Pat Conroy published by Low Country Weekly, click on The Power of Circles.

Teacher Annie Brown Leslie became one of the country’s first advice columnists

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Teacher Annie Brown Leslie was among the first advice columnists in the country. Thoughout the Great Depression, her readers chipped in thousands of dollars to finance philanthropic endeavors she supported. Photo credit: The Detroit News

Many fine classroom teachers are also successful journalists. One of these was Annie Brown Leslie, a teacher from Maine who earned acclaim as one of the country’s first advice columnists.

Annie was born on Dec. 11, 1870, in Perry, Maine, the daughter of a farmer and Civil War veteran. As a young girl, she attended high school in Middleborough, Massachusetts. Upon her graduation in 1888, she enrolled at Mount Holyoke College, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in 1892.

After earning her degree, Annie inaugurated her career as a schoolteacher. Over the course of ten years, she taught in schools in Rockville, Connecticut; White River Junction, Vermont; and Mount Clemens, Michigan.

On Sept. 19, 1904, Annie married journalist and editor James Edward Leslie. After he died in 1917, she took over his position as the drama editor for the Pittsburgh Dispatch. Before long, using the pen name “Nancy Brown,” Annie began to publish an advice column entitled “Experience” for The Detroit News. The column ran from 1917 to 1942. In fact, she was among the first advice columnists in the country. Because of her common-sense philosophy, the former teacher won respect and widespread readership, and her column grew to be immensely influential. In 1929, her readers donated substantial funds to plant trees in a clearcut forest in Northern Michigan. At her suggestion, her readers contributed to a fundraising campaign in 1930 to purchase artwork for the Detroit Institute of Arts. They also funded a concert series by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Thoughout the Great Depression, thousands of readers chipped in pennies or a dollar, or two, or five, for philanthropic endeavors supported by “Nancy Brown.”

Sadly, Annie Brown Leslie passed away on Oct. 7, 1948. She was 77 years old. To read more about this amazing educator and journalist, see this article about her published by The Detroit News.

Stephanie Pritts named Iowa’s 2026 State Teacher of the Year

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Instructional coach Stephanie Pritts of Sheldon, Iowa, has been named her state’s 2026 Teacher of the Year. Photo credit: Sheldon Community School District

There are many exemplary educators who serve in American public schools. Occasionally, one of these garners well-earned recognition for their work. One of these is Stephanie Pritts, who has been named the 2026 Teacher of the Year for her home state of Iowa.

Stephanie works as an instructional coach in the Sheldon Community School District located in Sheldon, Iowa. She has worked in this role for the past ten years. Prior to this position, she taught both first and third grades.

As an instructional coach, Stephanie emphasizes relationships, evidence-based practices, and data-driven decision-making. She helps her colleagues in implementing high-impact strategies and reflecting on instructional effectiveness.

This dedicated educator says she always knew she would become a teachers. When she was in elementary school, she says, students were allowed to enter their names in a drawing to take home a teacher’s manual and the student workbooks that hadn’t been fully used. She was always the very first one to enter these drawings and, when she won, she would take home the manuals so she could teach to her stuffed animals in her bedroom.

Sponsored by the Iowa State Department of Education, the Iowa Teacher of the Year award was established in 1958. The Iowa Teacher of the Year award recognizes exemplary teachers who demonstrate excellence in the classroom and have made a significant impact on student outcomes and fellow educators. She will represent her state at special events, such as the Space Camp and a week in Washington, DC. She will also take part in the virtual Learn and Launch Conference and the TED-Ed Educator Talks,

Stephanie earned her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Buena Vista University and her Master’s degree from Briar Cliff University in 2006. Her career as an educator spans 23 years.

To learn more about Stephanie Pritts, click on this link to an article published online by Briar Cliff University.

Visit to 9/11 Memorial and Museum offers opportunity to remember Chalkboard Heroes

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Today, the events of Sept. 11, 2001, are uppermost in our minds, as remembrances and memorial ceremonies take place all over the country. In the winter of 2024, my husband Hal and I traveled to New York City, where we visited the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. We spent several hours there, wandering among the exhibits and reliving our own memories of that tragic day. But an exploration of this place also offers an excellent opportunity to incorporate a history lesson about this important event into the classroom curriculum.

The photographs of 2,977 people who perished in the terrorist attacked of Sept. 11, 2oo1, are shown in an exhibit at the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City. Photo credit: Terry Lee Marzell

The 9/11 Memorial honors the 2,977 people who perished in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center site, near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon, as well as the six people who were killed in the World Trade Center bombing on February 26, 1993. The exhibits include a variety of authentic artifacts, media, and personal narratives.While we were there, I examined the exhibits for mention of the three teachers who perished in the crash of Flight 77, the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. The crash killed 125 souls on the ground and 64 souls on board the plane. Three of those individuals were Sarah Clark, Hilda E. Taylor, and James Debeuneure, teachers from Washington, DC. The three were selected by the National Geographic Society to escort a group of  elementary students on a field trip to Southern California. This field trip, known as the Sustainable Seas Expedition, gave underprivileged urban students the opportunity to spend time at the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, where they would work as junior marine biologists and study oceanic life. Tragically, the lives of all three exemplary educators and the students they were escorting were lost that day. I found the names of each teacher inside the museum in a display of the 9/11 victims, and also on the memorial outside.

At the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum in New York City,  author and retired educator Terry Lee Marzell examines the names of three Chalkboard Heroes who tragically lost their lives in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Photo credit: Hal Marzell

If you are fortunate enough to be able to escort your students on a field trip to New York City, you will find the museum on the former site of the Twin Towers at 180 Greenwich Street. Otherwise, you and your students can explore the resources about the event provided at the museum website at National 9/11 Memorial and Museum. Teachers can also consult the website Facing History & Ourselves for additional resources.

Teacher Elaine Goodale Eastman established a Native American day school

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Teacher Elaine Goodall Eastman, who described herself as a Sister to the Sioux, established a day school on a Sioux Indian reservation in the territory of South Dakota. Photo Credit: Public Domain

Many talented and dedicated educators have devoted themselves to working for disenfranchised groups of students. One of these was Elaine Goodale Eastman, who often described herself as a “Sister to the Sioux.”

When she was just a young woman, Elaine, originally from Massachusetts, established a day school on a Sioux Indian reservation in the territory of South Dakota. Contrary to prevailing opinion of her day, she believed very strongly that it was best to keep Native American children at home rather than transport them far away from their families to Indian boarding schools. She hadn’t taught on the reservation very long when she was promoted to the position of Superintendent of Indian Education for the Two Dakotas. In this capacity, she travelled throughout the five Dakota reservations, visiting the more than 60 government and missionary schools within her jurisdiction, and writing detailed evaluation reports on each school she visited.

It was because of her work that Elaine just happened to be visiting the Pine Ridge Reservation when the tragic Wounded Knee Massacre took place. As a result of this tragedy, more than 200 men, women, and children from the Lakota tribe were killed, and another 51 were wounded. In addition, 25 government soldiers were also killed, most by “friendly fire,” and another 39 were wounded. Following the massacre, Elaine and her fiance,  physician Charles Eastman of the Santee Sioux tribe, cared for the survivors and wrote detailed government reports to accurately describe what happened.

In her later years, when America was experiencing a back-to-nature revival, Elaine and her husband operated Indian-themed summer camps in New Hampshire. Read more of the life story of this fascinating educator in Theodore D. Sargent’s biography The Life of Elaine Goodale Eastman, or an encapsulated version in my book,  Chalkboard Champions: Twelve Remarkable Teachers Who Educated America’s Disenfranchised Students, both available on amazon.