Educator and NASA astronaut Joseph Acaba
Public school science and mathematics teacher Joseph Acaba was also a NASA astronaut. Photo credit: NASA
As an astronaut, Joseph Acaba has logged a total of 306 days in space on three flights, first as a mission specialist on the space shuttle Discovery, and twice aboard the International Space Station. But did you know that this accomplished individual was once a public school science and mathematics teacher?
Before his selection by NASA in 2004 as one of three “educator astronauts,” an initiative intended to build upon the legacy of Challenger astronaut Christa McAuliffe’s Teacher in Space program, he spent his first year, 1999-2000, as a full-time teacher at Melbourne High School in Florida. There he taught freshman science before moving on to teach math and science in Dunnellon Middle School in Florida, where he remained for four years.
And that is not all of this Chalkboard Champion’s impressive employment history. Joe was a member of the United States Marine Corps Reserves. He also worked as a hydro-geologist in Los Angeles, California, primarily on Superfund sites. And he spent two years in the United States Peace Corps as an Environmental Education Awareness Promoter in the Dominican Republic. In addition, he worked for a time as the manager of the Caribbean Marine Research Center at Lee Stocking Island in the Exumas, Bahamas.
Joe once said that, as an educator astronaut of Hispanic heritage, he hoped to reach out to minority students. On March 18, 2008, he traveled to Puerto Rico, where he was honored by the island’s senate. During his visit, Joe met with school children at the capitol and at Science Park located in Bayamon. Science Park boasts a planetarium and several surplus NASA rockets among its exhibits. Joe made a second trip to Puerto Rico on June 1, 2009. On that trip he spent seven days on the island and came into contact with over 10,000 citizens, most of them school children.
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Honoring Educator Astronaut Barbara Morgan
Educator Astronaut Barbara Morgan of Montana served as the alternate to the first Teacher in Space. Photo credit: NASA.
Educator Barbara Morgan is probably best-known for being named as Christa McAuliffe’s alternate for the Teacher in Space Program in 1985. Following Christa’s untimely death in the space shuttle Challenger explosion, Barbara continued her training as an astronaut. She became a mission specialist, becoming a full-time astronaut in 1998, and flew into space in 2007, completing an assignment aboard the International Space Station.
Barbara was born in Fresno, California, on Nov. 28, 1951. After her graduation from Herbert Hoover High School in 1969, she enrolled at Sanford University. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Human Biology there in 1973. She earned her teaching credential in 1974 from Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California.
Once she completed her education, Barbara began her career in education as a remedial reading and math teacher at Arlee Elementary School located on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Arlee, Montana. From 1978 to 1979, Barbara taught science and English to third graders at the Colegio americano de Quito located in Quito, Ecuador. She has also been a teacher of second, third, and fourth graders at McCall-Donnelly Elementary School in McCall, Idaho. Her career there spanned from 1979 to 1998.
After working extensively with NASA, Barbara accepted a teaching position at Boise State University in 2008. Later that year, she took a full-time position as a Distinguished Educator in Residence. There she represented the university in policy development, advocacy and fund-raising in science, technology, engineering and math.
On July 4, 2008, Barbara was honored with the “Friend of Education” award from the National Education Association. The following month, an elementary school named for the Chalkboard Champion was inaugurated in McCall, Idaho. The same year, she garnered the Women in Space Science Award from the Adler Planetarium.
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Remembering Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher in space
New Hampshire history teacher Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher in space, was lost during the launch of the space shuttle Challenger on January 26, 1986. Photo credit: NASA.
One of the saddest days of my teaching career was the day our nation lost the first educator to go into space, New Hampshire history teacher Christa McAuliffe. In only my fifth year of teaching, I was so proud that a fellow teacher had been selected as the first civilian in space. I was more than a little star-struck by the professionalism, intelligence, and infectious enthusiasm of the chosen candidate, who was selected from among 11,000 other highly-qualified applicants.
Christa was born on Sept. 2, 1948, in Boston, Massachusetts. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Education and History from Framingham State College in 1970, and her Master’s degree in Bowie State University in 1978.
During her mission in space, Christa planned to write a journal of her experiences as an astronaut from the perspective that even an ordinary citizen can take center stage in the making of history. She was to have been the perfect example of that. In addition, the intrepid educator was scheduled to perform lessons and simple scientific experiments aboard the space shuttle which would be viewed by students in classrooms all over America.
Tragically, Christa was one of seven astronauts killed when the space shuttle Challenger exploded on January 28, 1986, just 73 seconds after lift-off. The journal she never got to finish was replaced by A Journal for Christa: Christa McAuliffe, Teacher in Space, written by Grace George Corrigan, Christa’s grief-stricken mother. This book is a tender tribute to an extraordinary teacher. A Journal for Christa can be ordered form amazon. I have also included a chapter about Christa McAuliffe in my second book, Chalkboard Heroes: Twelve Courageous Teachers and their Deeds of Valor, also available on amazon.
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Adelaide Cumming, the iconic face of Betty Crocker, was also an English teacher
The image of Betty Crocker, an American icon in the 1950’s, was actually Adelaide Cumming, an English teacher who taught English as a Second Language learners. Photo credit: General Mills
Betty Crocker was an icon of America womanhood in the 1950’s, but did you know the marketing image of the famous housewife was actually that of Adelaide Hawley Cumming, an English teacher?
This remarkable educator portrayed the fictional Betty Crocker on a weekly half-hour television show called The Betty Crocker Show. She also starred in walk-on commercials on the Burns & Allen Show, where comedian George Burns would say to his wife, “I don’t know how to bake a cake, Gracie, but here is Betty Crocker to show us how.”
Adelaide was born in 1905 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. A vaudeville performer and broadcast pioneer, Adelaide majored in piano and voice at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, New York. Following her graduation from college, she taught music for two and a half years at the Alabama College School of Music in Montevallo, Alabama.
From 1937 to 1950, the talented teacher was the host of the Adelaide Hawley Program, first on NBC radio and then on CBS. At the height of her career, Adelaide was a nationally recognized figure, second only to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. According to Adelaide’s daughter, Marcia Hayes, the teacher and actress was a feminist in her private life, and was not especially fond of cooking. “I am merely the manifestation of a corporate image,” she once told autograph-seeking fans. She practiced her autograph as Betty Crocker by copying the signature from the top of the cake mix box.
When General Mills replaced her with a more updated image in 1964, Adelaide went back to school, earning a doctorate in speech education from New York University in 1967. She taught English to second-language learners in Washington state until her death at age 93 in 1998, a career as an educator that spanned nearly thirty years.
To read more about the marketing of Betty Crocker, see this article entitled Betty Crocker: A Brief Biography.
