Category Archives: Education

Lin Manuel Miranda pays tribute to his 8th grade teacher

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Talented playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, and singer Lin Manuel Miranda was visibly moved yesterday when he received a special message from his eighth grade teacher Dr. Rembert Herbert. After watching the message, the Golden Globe Award winning Miranda paid tribute to his former teacher.

“Dr. Herbert’s the reason I’m sitting here talking to you,” Miranda confessed to David Begnaud of CBS News. “I wrote a musical instead of doing my homework for his class in eighth grade. He said, ‘You could be good at this, and you should stop hibernating in my class, and you should be doing this.’ Because we had a student-written theater club at my high school and Rembert’s the one who nudged me in that direction and he sort of changed my life forever with that,” Miranda remembered.

You can watch the segment from CBS This Morning below.

Read more about yesterday’s interview of Lin Manuel Miranda at the following link: www.cbsnews.com.

Author Terry Lee Marzell speaks to Delta Kappa Gamma Society in Highland, CA

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Terry Lee Marzell

Author Terry Lee Marzell speaks at the monthly meeting of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society in San Bernardino.

Author Terry Lee Marzell made an appearance yesterday (January 10, 2019) at the monthly meeting of the San Bernardino Chapter of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International. The meeting was held at St. John Bosco Church Hall at 28991 Merris Street in Highland, California.

Terry shared some of her favorite stories about remarkable teachers that are contained in her two published books, Chalkboard Champions and Chalkboard Heroes. She also shared information about the book she is currently working on, tentatively titled Chalkboard Politicians.

The Delta Kappa Gamma Society International is an international organization that promotes excellence in education, and supports professional and personal growth of women educators. The organization boasts members in 17 countries.

The Delta Kappa Gamma Society International was founded May 11, 1929, at the Faculty Women’s Club at the University of Texas, Austin. Instrumental in founding the organization was Dr. Annie Blanton, who was a member of the faculty of the University of Texas and a former Texas State Superintendent of Pubic Instruction. Dr. Blanton was passionate about the idea of an organization that provided peer support for women educators. The organization’s Alpha Chapter was installed later that year.

Following the meeting, chapter members assembled Jared boxes, activity boxes for children who are hospitalized.

Unnamed teacher earns Marzell’s (very informal) Kindness Towards Animals Award

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I found this amazing photo online: A teacher passing out graded essays while holding a stray cat she found wandering around her campus earlier that day. I have no idea who this teacher is or what school she teaches in, but she gets my vote for my (very informal) Best Modeling of Kindness Towards Animals while Teaching Award. If anyone can identify her, I’d love it if you would drop me a message!

An unnamed teacher in an unnamed school holding stray cat.

Bennie Berry: The compassionate teacher who adopted her student

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English teacher Bennie Berry, a dedicated and compassionate English teacher in Beaumont, Texas, went above and beyond for one of her former students a year ago last November. She adopted him.

Anthony Berry was 16 years old when he entered Bennie’s classroom at Pathways Learning Center, an alternative school for troubled students. Feeling like no one on earth cared about him, the teenager had started to display some discipline problems. Anthony had been a foster child since he was 9 years old, and he had come to the conclusion that he may never be adopted. But when he casually suggested to his kindhearted teacher that she could adopt him, she actually considered the idea seriously.

Early in 2018, Anthony’s foster mother told the state she would no longer care for him. That’s when the teacher knew she needed to speak up. “Every kid deserves a chance to be loved,” Bennie says. She secretly filled out the paperwork, and by March, the youngster moved into her home. In November, 2017, on National Adoption Day, the adoption process was finalized, and she legally became his mother.

Bennie brings a lot to the table when she works with her students at Pathways. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in English in 1996 from Lamar University in Beaumont. She earned a Master’s degree in Special Education in 2004, and a Master’s in Counseling in 2006, both from Lamar. And she earned her Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Administration from Capella University in 2014. Capella is an online university headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Bennie Berry: Living proof that teachers change lives.