Former New Mexico teacher and politician Retta Ward

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Former high school biology teacher Retta Ward of New Mexico also served her state as a capable politician. Photo credit: Washington Times.

Many fine classroom teachers also earn success in political positions. Former high school teacher Retta Ward of New Mexico was one of these. After she left the classroom, she served as the State Secretary of the New Mexico Department of Health.

Retta was born on May 4, 1953, in New Mexico. As a young girl, Retta grew up in the southeastern New Mexico town of Hagerman. As a high school student, Retta served her school as the editor of the yearbook, and she also claimed Homecoming Queen honors. When she graduated, she was named as the school’s valedictorian.

Retta earned her Bachelor’s degree in Health Education from the University of New Mexico, and her Master’s degree in Public Health from the University of Arizona.

After earning her degrees, Retta inaugurated her career as a teacher when she accepted a position as a high school biology teacher in Cave Creek, Arizona. Later she served in middle schools in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In all, her career in education spanned ten years.

Retta was appointed to the position of State Secretary of New Mexico Department of Health in 2013 by Governor Susana Martinez. Retta served in the position until her passing in 2016. Previously, she served as Secretary of the state’s Aging and Long-Term Services Department. Before that, she managed the arthritis program for the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Sadly, Retta suffered a medical emergency while driving alone near Santa Fe, New Mexico. When her car was found, emergency personnel discovered that she had succumbed to a condition that was not an automobile accident. This was on March 3, 2016. Later it was determined that Retta had suffered an aortic dissection. She was 62 years old.

To read more about this Chalkboard Champion, click on this link to an article published in the Albuquerque Journal.

Mississippi teacher La’Keshia Johnson featured in Time Magazine

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For her work in and out of the classroom, Mississippi kindergarten teacher La’Keshia Johnson was featured in an article by Time Magazine. Photo credit: Okolona Municipal School District.

So many of our nation’s educators have gone above and beyond the call of duty to provide for their students during the pandemic—not just meeting their educational needs, but providing meals for those who needed food, helping with housing, acquiring clothing, and assisting with emotional support. One of these is La’Keshia Johnson, who teaches kindergarten at Okolona Elementary School in Okolona, Mississippi.

For much of last year, teacher La’Keshia made it her mission to ensure her kindergarten students in the rural town of Okolona, Mississippi, received their breakfasts and hot lunches, even in the midst of the pandemic. She never missed a day of delivering meals to them, even though it meant assembling them and riding the bus to deliver them herself. “We wanted to make sure every student was taken care of,” she explained. “You’re so accustomed to seeing their smiling faces up and down the hall. The pandemic kind of took that away.”

Because her students were isolated at home, La’Keshia penned and mailed letters to her kids modeled after the Flat Stanley books. She encouraged them to write back and include pictures with their “Flat Ms. Johnson” cutouts.

When Okolona schools returned to in-person instruction, La’Keshia drew satisfaction from watching her students enter the classroom unable to recognize the letters of the alphabet, but leave with the ability to read a book out loud.

For her outstanding work within and beyond her classroom, La’Keshia Johnson was featured in the Time Magazine article entitled “Educators who Saved a Pandemic Year” published in September, 2021. She truly is a chalkboard Champion.

Patricia Eshelman named New York’s 2021 Agriculture Teacher of the Year

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Science educator Patricia Eshelman of Bolivar, New York, has been named the 2021 NYAITC Teacher of the Year. Photo credit: New York Agriculture in the Classroom.

Congratulations go to New York teacher Patricia Eshelman, who was recently honored by the National Agriculture in the Classroom Organization and the National Food Institute of Food and Agriculture, which is part of the US Department of Agriculture. Patricia has been named the 2021 New York Agriculture in the Classroom Teacher of the Year. She earned this honor for her unique lessons in the classroom that get students outside of a normal classroom setting.

Patricia teaches biology and a course entitled Sustainable Living and Agriculture at Bolivar Richburg High School in Bolivar, New York. The course covers a broad range of agricultural topics from botany to ethics, and allows students valuable hands-on learning experiences and community-engagement.

Patricia has created lessons she calls “Farmer Fridays,” where she invites guest speakers to talk to her classes. In addition, the innovative educator directs her students in building, planting, and maintaining a garden as part of her school’s Wolverine Environmental Education Center (WEE). In their garden, the students have planted garlic, asparagus, blueberries, black raspberries, fruit trees, perennial flowers, and tomatoes. The food the students grow is given away or sold to the community, to teachers on campus, or to the school cafeteria. In addition to the garden, the students conduct studies about food waste which led them to explore composting and vermicomposting food from the school cafeteria.

Patricia was one of eight teachers across the country who was honored with a 2021 National Excellence in Teaching about Agriculture Award. The group was honored at the 2021 National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference “Fields of Dreams” in Des Moines, Iowa, last summer.

To read more about Patricia Eshelman, see this article published about her by the Daily Reporter.

Fanny Allen: Schoolteacher and reknowned photographer

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Frances Stebbins Allen, popularly known as Fanny Allen, was a Massachusetts schoolteacher and nationally-renowned photographer. Photo credit: Mary Allen

Many excellent educators earn success in fields outside the classroom. One of these is Fanny Allen, an elementary schoolteacher from Deerfield, Massachusetts, who became a nationally-renowned photographer.

Fanny, whose birth name was Frances Stebbins Allen, was born on August 10, 1854, in Deerfield, Franklin County, Massachusetts. She was the oldest of four children born to local farmer Josiah Allen and his wife Mary Stebbins Allen. Deerfield is a small farming town and early colonial outpost founded in the late 1600s in the western part of the state.

As a young girl, Fanny attended the local school, Deeerfield Academy. After she graduated from Deerfield, she enrolled in State Normal School in Westfield, Massachusetts. After earning her degree, Fanny launched her career as a schoolteacher. From 1876 to 1886 she taught in schools in the Massachusetts counties of Greenfield and Worcester. Her younger sister, Mary, also became a schoolteacher.

Sadly, both sisters lost their hearing in their thirties, most likely due to a hereditary condition. Fanny and Mary were forced to leave the classroom, and they needed a new way to support themselves. Together, the former schoolteachers took up a new career in photography. As photographers, they captured images that idealized their town’s colonial history. Many of their photographs depicted Deerfield’s picturesque farms and its one leafy street lined with stately 18th-century houses. The amazing thing is, the sisters were self-taught!

The Allen sisters set up a salesroom for their work in their ancestral home, and were soon supporting themselves with their sales. By 1895, they enjoyed commercial success, and even enjoyed national acclaim. In the July, 1941 issue of Ladies Home Journal, the former teachers were hailed as two of the “Foremost Women Photographers of America.”

Many of the Allen sisters’ photographs were attributed to “The Misses Allen,” rather than to one sister or the other. In 1899, the Allen sisters joined the Arts & Crafts Movement in their home city, and spent their energy documenting the works of the local members. In 1907, Fanny Allen was elected the Director of Photography of the Society of Deerfield Industries. In addition, their work has been added to the collection of the Library of Congress.

Fanny Allen passed away on February 14, 1941. She was 86 years old. She is interred in Laurel Hill Cemetery, Franklin County, Deerfield. To read more about this Chalkboard Champion, click on this link to Deerfield Arts & Crafts.