Category Archives: Education

Herman Silas Pepoon: Medical doctor, scientist, and talented classroom teacher

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Herman Silas Pepoon

Herman Silas Pepoon, medical doctor and talented classroom teacher.

Many talented and dedicated educators came to the teaching profession after having first experienced success in some other career. This is true of Herman Silas Pepoon, a medical doctor who gave up his practice to became a high school science teacher.

Herman was born on January 21, 1860, in Warren, Joe Daviess County, Illinois. Herman earned his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Ubana-Champaign in 1881. After he earned this degree, he studied medicine, earning his medical degree in 1883 from Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago.

After earning his MD, Herman established a medical practice first in Nebraska, and later in Illinois. After ten years, in 1892, he gave up his medical practice and accepted a job as a science teacher at Lakeview High School, a public high school located on the north side of Chicago, Illinois. He taught there from 1892 to 1930. In addition to his classroom duties, Herman taught courses in botany for young people and local teachers at Chicago’s Academy. He also led field trips and gave public lectures. A prolific writer, in 1927 Herman published An Annotated Flora of the Chicago Area, an acclaimed identification source for local plants. He also published a botanical teaching manual entitled Studies of Plant Life: A Series of Exercises for the Study of Plants in 1900 with co-authors Walter R. Mitchell and Fred B. Maxwell. Over the years, Herman published numerous articles on botany, forestry, and ecology in respected scientific journals.

After he retired from teaching, Herman became a life member of the Chicago Academy of Sciences (CAS), which named him Honorary Curator of Botany for the institution in 1930. He also worked with the Illinois Natural History Survey helping with the collection and study of vascular plants.

This chalkboard champion passed away at the age of 81 on December 26, 1941. He is interred in Acacia Park Cemetery in Chicago.

Ann Clark: Teacher and author of books for Native American children

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Ann Clark

Ann Clark: Classroom teacher and acclaimed author of books for Native American children.

Throughout our country’s history, there have been many examples of dedicated educators who have worked with underprivileged student populations. One such teacher was Ann Nolan Clark.

Ann Clark was born in Las Vegas, New Mexico, on December 5, 1896. When she was 21, she graduated from New Mexico Normal School, known today as New Mexico Highlands University, located in Las Vegas, New Mexico.

After her college graduation, Ann inaugurated her teaching career as a professor of English at Highlands University. But the young educator wanted to work with younger students. In 1923,  she accepted a position teaching reading to Native American children in a one-room schoolhouse at the Black Rock School in Zuni. Later she taught in a school at Tesuque. Little did she know that this position would last twenty-five years.

While teaching in the Indian schools, Ann observed that the Native American children learned more easily when their primers were geared towards their own life experiences, so she began writing primers with characters and situations that honored the the Pueblo way of life. Many of these primers were later published by mainstream publishing companies. Eventually, Ann broadened her scope and wrote children’s books with Navajo, Sioux, Finnish, and Hispanic characters. In addition to these stories, the prolific teacher also published a number of professional articles under the pseudonym Marie Dunne.

Between 1940 and 1951, the US Bureau of Indian Affairs published fifteen of Ann’s books. Her book In My Mother’s House, illustrated by Pueblo artist Velino Herrera, earned a Caldecott Honor Book Award in 1942. During the 1940s, Ann also wrote multi-cultural books for the Haskell Foundation and the Haskell Indian Nations University at Lawrence, Kansas. One of them was The Slim Butte Raccoon, illustrated by Andrew Standing Soldier.

In 1945, the Institute for Inter-American Affairs funded an educational trip for Ann to travel to Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil. Her experiences on this trip led her to write such books as Magic Money, Looking-for-Something, and Secret of the Andes, which garnered her the 1953 Newberry Medal. Ann earned other awards as well. She was given the Distinguished Service Award by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1962, and the Regina Medial by the Catholic Library Association in 1963.

This remarkable educator passed away on December 13, 1995. During her lifetime, she published over forty books, 31 of them about Native American culture.

Matinga Ragatz: Globally educated and global educator

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Matinga Ragatz

Matinga Ragatz: Globally educated and global educator

It’s always a pleasure to share stories about exceptional educators. One of these is Matinga Ragatz, a former high school social studies teacher who is globally educated, who has become a global educator.

Even as a youngster, Matinga traveled the world. Born in Spain, she was an elementary student in such places as Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Morocco, and Spain. She earned her high school diploma from Black Forest High School in Kandern, West Germany.

As an adult, Matinga earned her Bachelor’s degree at Messiah College in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1988. She completed the requirements for her teaching credential at Spring Arbor University in Spring Arbor, Michigan, in 1989. She earned her Master’s degree in Teaching at Marygrove College, in Detroit, Michigan, in 2015.

After earning her undergraduate degree, Matinga accepted her first teaching position at Lansing Christian Schools in Lansing, Michigan. She taught social studies and world language there until 1993. That’s when she moved to a position at Grand Ledge High School in Grand Ledge, Michigan, where she taught until 2011. Matinga spent the next year in Arusha, Tanzania, working as a Curriculum Development Specialist in Flood Garden School. When she returned to the United States, she worked for three years in professional development at the Eaton Regional Education Service Agency. Currently, this chalkboard champion works as an Instructional Innovation Specialist and Learning Coach at Communications by Design. She has led instructional activities in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Lain America, and she has been an innovator in developing online learning spaces. In all, Matinga has spent 22 years as a professional educator.

For her outstanding work in classrooms around the world, Matinga has earned many honors. In 2008, she garnered a Microsoft Partners in Learning Innovative Teacher Award, and in 2010, she was named the Michigan Association of Computer Users in Learning Outstanding Educator Award. In 2011, she was honored as Michigan’s State Teacher of the Year, and in 2017, she was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame. She has been honored at the White House by both President Obama and President Trump.

To learn more about this remarkable teacher, her teaching philosophy, and her work, view this three-minute YouTube video below:

 

Accolades to special ed teacher Ashli Skura-Dreher of New York

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Ashli Dreher

High school special education teacher Ashli Skura-Dreher of New York

It’s always a pleasure to learn about a colleague who has earned special recognition for his or her work in the classroom. Today, the spotlight falls on Ashli Skura-Dreher, a high school special education teacher from Youngstown, New York.

Ashli earned her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, in 1995. She received her Master’s degree in Special Education from D’Youville College in Buffalo in 1998. In addition, she completed the requirements for a Certificate of Advanced Study from the State University of New York at Buffalo in Educational Leadership in 2002, and she earned her national certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards the same year. In 2017, Ashli was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame in Emporia, Kansas.

Currently Ashli directs the life skills program in the Special Education Department of Youngstown’s Lewiston-Porter High School. She has worked there since 1998. Between 2002 and 2015, she also taught special education and reading at Ulster Community College. Since 2004, Ashli has served as a coordinator for the Education and Learning Trust, which provides professional development courses to teachers across the state. In total, her career as a professional educator has spanned 21 years.

“She handles each individual child with a caring, fair approach by taking time to listen and to be a proactive voice for her students,” declares Andrew Auer, Ashli’s principal at Lewiston-Porter High School. “Her professionalism, effectiveness as a teacher, and her love and concern for students are traits that are certainly worthy of emulating.”

Parent Jennie Welder agrees. “Ashli Dreher has become more than just a great teacher. She’s also a mentor and a great friend,” says Jennie. “She is loved so much by all of her students and their families because of her awesome way of teaching, her caring ways, and her perseverance of never giving up on any child,” Jennie concludes.

Biology teacher Joseph Ruhl: A 2017 National Teachers Hall of Fame inductee

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Joseph Ruhl

Biology teacher and 2017 NTHF inductee Joseph Ruhl features individualized instruction, hands-on projects, and technology in his courses.

I truly enjoy sharing stories about hardworking and dedicated educators. Today I’d like to share the story of Joseph Ruhl, a biology and genetics teacher from Lafayette, Indiana, who was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame in 2017.

Joseph attended Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, where he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Biology in 1977 and his Master’s degree in Biology Education in 1980.

His career in the classroom spanned a total of 38 years in the classroom. During this long career, he has taught at Lanier B High School in Macon, George, at LaCrosse High School in la Crosse, Indiana, at North White high School in Monon, Indiana, and at Jefferson High School in Lafayette, Indiana. “Teaching is one of the most important jobs in the world,” declares Joseph. “It’s also one of the most difficult, but teaching is a profession that will being authentic joy and satisfaction.”

Joseph offers a unique teaching style, which features individualized instruction, hands-on projects, technology, and what he calls a “smorgasbord menu” that allows students to make their own choices.

For his outstanding work in the classroom, Joseph has been singled out for many honors. In 1988 he was awarded a Golden Apple Teaching Award by the Lafayette, Indiana Chamber of Commerce. In 1989, he garnered the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Teaching. In 2012, he won the Shell National Science Teaching Award, and in 2015, he was given the Robert E. Yager Foundation Excellence in Teaching Award. In 2017, he earned the Sagamore of the Wabash Award presented by the Governor Indiana. That same year, he was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame.

The TED Talk YouTube video below is almost 18 minutes, but it provides an inspirational speech from this distinguished chalkboard champion. Enjoy!