Category Archives: Education
Texas educator Akash Patel recognized as 2018 Global Teacher Finalist
Texas middle school teacher Akash Patel has been named a 2018 Global Teacher Finalist by The Varkey Foundation. The nonprofit Foundation recognizes outstanding teachers from all over the world each year who have made an outstanding contribution to their profession. Of the 50 finalists, the winning teacher receives a cash prize of $1 million.
Akash, who speaks five languages, teaches Spanish at Thomas J. Rusk Middle School, a Title I school located in Dallas, Texas. The school’s student population is 100% socio-economically disadvantaged. His students come from backgrounds that include gang activity, drug addiction, and juvenile offenders.
Akash inaugurated his teaching career in 2015 in small rural communities in Oklahoma. In his first year, he was recognized by the State Department of Education as their January Educator of the Month, and the Multicultural Education Institute as their Multicultural Teacher of the Year.
To promote global citizenship, Akash connects his classroom with professionals from around the world using social media platforms such as Skype, Google Hangout, and Adobe Connect. Over 1,000 volunteers from over 150 countries have joined his Global Connect database at the World Experiences Foundation, a charitable organization Akash founded.
In addition to his classroom duties, Akash is a frequent speaker at local and national conference, and he has trained over 5,000 teachers in Oklahoma to use his Global Connect database and other multicultural programs.
Learn more about this remarkable teacher by viewing the YouTube video below:
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Michigan’s Nita Nicholie: Science teacher extraordinaire
Nita Nicholie, science teacher at St. Joseph High School in St. Joseph, Michigan.
Ever wonder if what you do in the classroom truly makes a difference in the lives of your students? Well, here is a story that proves that it does. This story is about Nita Nicholie, a science teacher at St. Joseph High School, a public school located in St. Joseph, Michigan.
This amazing educator earned her Bachelor’s degree in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics from Michigan State University in 1985. When Nita started inaugurated her career in the classroom, she thought she’d teach for only a few years. That was 32 years ago. “I went into teaching because I love science, but I stayed in teaching because I love the kids,” Nita confesses.
Former student Autumn Roth, who took an Honors Physics with Nita before heading off to college, remembers, “On the first day of class she burst into the room singing show-tunes at the top of her lungs. I knew right then that this was going to be a good class.”
Nita’s influence on the lives of her students extends beyond her classroom. Over the years, this compassionate educator and her family have taken in over 20 students to live with them. “A lot of times they just needed a safe place to sleep, to have a warm shower in the morning and food before they go to sleep at night,” the chalkboard champion remarks. Nita even has an alarm set on her phone to remind her to text some students to make sure they’re awake and heading to school. It’s all part of connecting with her students, and doing whatever she can to help them be successful in school. For her efforts, Nita has earned special recognition. In 2010, she was nominated for Michigan Teacher of the Year.
“There’s no formula about how to be a great teacher,” Nita asserts. “If I really truly love what I do, the kids know it.”
Nita Nicholie: truly an inspiration.
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Sandra Adickes: Legacy of a Freedom School teacher
Thirty-year-old Sandra Adickes was an energetic and idealistic high school English teacher from New York City the year she ventured south into Mississippi to teach in a Freedom School. The goal of the summer program was to empower the black community to register to vote and to help bridge some of the gap of educational neglect that had long been a tradition in that Jim Crow state. Both blacks and whites realized that only through education and participation in the democratic process could African Americans ever hope to improve their lot.The enterprise was not without danger. On the first day of Freedom Summer, three workers involved in the program disappeared while investigating the firebombing of the church facility designated for their voter recruitment activities. Six weeks later, as Sandra Adickes conducted her classes in Hattiesburg, the badly beaten and bullet-ridden bodies of the three missing men were discovered buried in an earthen dam in nearby Neshoba County.
At summer’s end, Sandra accompanied her fearless students when they decided to integrate the Hattiesburg Public Library. Sandra was arrested in the effort. Read her riveting story, and what became of her courageous students, in her book Legacy of a Freedom School. You can also find a chapter about this remarkable teacher in my book, Chalkboard Champions., available from amazon.
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Rosie Reid named California Teacher of the Year, 2019
Congratulations to Rosie Reid, an outstanding educator from Walnut Creek, California, who has just been named a California Teacher of the Year for 2019.
Rosie’s career has spanned 16 years, the last two at Northgate High School in the Mt. Diablo Unified School District. She was the first in her family to go to college. She credits this achievement to her teachers, and says she decided to become a teacher to pay this forward.
Rosie, a Language Arts teacher, is a member of the English Learner Review Team which monitors English-language learners and mentors ESL teachers. Most recently, Rosie founded and leads an equity task force at her high school. “I strive to be a status quo disruptor and an agent of social justice, while engaging in a rigorous, standards-based English curriculum,” declares Rosie. “So often teachers feel that if they are thinking about issues of equity and implicit bias, they must compromise rigor in order for all students to be successful; in fact it is by helping our most socially marginalized students develop literacy (and numeracy) skills that we may achieve social equity,” she asserts.
Rosie employs a number of strategies to achieve success in her classroom. She uses standardized test data to view individual student progress, identify patterns with groups of students, and remediate achievement gaps for marginalized students. In addition, she invites guest speakers to come to her classroom, and she designs real world projects to give her students a broader perspective. In order to encourage participation from all students, Rosie requires daily practice of language skills. To ensure inclusivity, she selects materials from a diverse range of authors and articles about relevant and compelling social issues so that every student sees themselves in the coursework, feels the work is important, and realizes how much their voices matter.
Rosie Reid: a true chalkboard champion.
