Arkansas teacher, coach Sean Fletcher succumbs to Covid

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With sadness another educator has been lost to Covid. Sean Fletcher, a German teacher and coach succumbed to the disease on Dec. 12, 2020. Photo credit: Legacy.

With great sadness I report the passing of yet another educator we have lost to Covid. Sean Fletcher, a high school German teacher and coach, succumbed to the disease on December 12, 2020. He was only 49 years old.

Sean was born on July 26, 1971, in Mountain Home, Arkansas. He graduated from Mountain Home High School in 1989. As a young man, he earned his Bachelor’s degree in German Language and Literature in 1993. While in college, he was involved in student government and Theta Chi, Order of Omega.

Sean taught German and History in the Yellville-Summit School District. His career was inaugurated in 1998. He also donated his time as an Assistant Coach for the Yellville-Summit Panthers Baseball team and the Pee-Wee basketball team. He retired in 2020.

This amazing educator will surely be missed by all who knew him.  “Mr. Fletcher was an amazing teacher and coworker,” recalls colleague Rebecca Gates. “He always had us laughing in class. When I started teaching, he welcomed me with open arms and was always willing to answer any questions I had. Parent Walter Severs agrees. “Sean was a very good and beyond good teacher. His influence will be felt through his students and their influences for generations,” asserted Severs. “I first met Sean through our daughter, who was one of his many students. She always told me that he was one of the best teachers she ever had,” Severs continued. “Above all, he sincerely cared about his students and their futures. Sean will always be remembered and talked about in so many good ways for as long as there are memories,” Severs concluded.

The stricken teacher was considered by those who knew him as a true Arkansan who faithfully supported the Arkansas Razorbacks. Sean also spent a large amount of time studying his family’s genealogy.

To see Sean’s obituary, click on this link to the Legacy.

Ohio’s Norma Marcere: African American trailblazer

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Norma Marcere of Canton, Ohio, was a trailblazer in her community. Photo credit: www.cantonrep.com

I enjoy sharing stories about African American teachers who have overcome obstacles to become trailblazers in their community. Norma Marcere of Canton, Ohio, was one such teacher.

Norma was born on Oct. 21, 1908, in Canton, Ohio. As a young girl, she attended Canton McKinley High School, where she graduated in 1926. As soon as she graduated, Norma enrolled at Kent State Normal University. There she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and her Master’s degree in Counseling.

Norma applied for a teaching position in her home town, Canton, but her application was denied because of she was African American. However, she was able to gain employment as an English teacher at Edmund A. Junior High School in the Massillon City School District in the neighboring city of Massillon. Later she accepted a position as a counselor and school psychologist in Akron City Schools.

In 1976, Norma retired from the teaching profession and penned two autobiographies. One was entitled Round the Dining Room Table and the other was entitled The Fences Between. In 1994, the events depicted in these books were re-written into play format which was performed before an audience of 12,000 people.

In 1979, the former teacher founded the Project for Academic Excellence, a weekend program that offered tutoring and assistance to underachieving students. The program evolved into the STRIVE (Study, Think, Read, Investigate, Volunteer, and Excel) program, which helped students deal with social issues and develop personal responsibility.

For her work in the classroom, Norma earned many accolades. She was named the Junior League Woman of the Year in 1973. Walsh University gave her an honorary doctorate in 1980. In 1991 she garnered the Norma Award, an honor named after Norma Sigler Atkins Rowlands. In 1998, the Office for Black Catholic Ministries of the Diocese of Toledo bestowed their Sister Thea Bowman Medallion on Norma. She was inducted into the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame in 1985.

This Chalkboard Champion passed away from natural causes on Aug. 10, 2004. She was 95 years old. She is interred at St. Peter’s Cemetery in Canton, Stark County, Ohio.

New York’s Brian P. Jones: Educator, author, and activist

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There are many great stories about remarkable African American teachers. One New York’s Brian P. Jones: Educator, author, and activist. Photo credit: www.gc.commons.cuny.edu

There are many great stories about remarkable African American teachers. One is New York’s Brian P. Jones: Educator, author, and activist.

Brian earned his Bachelor’s degree in Theater Arts from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1995. He earned his Master’s degree in Elementary Education from City College of New York, New York,  in 2006. He completed the requirements for his Ph.D. in Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center in 2018.

Brian inaugurated his career as an elementary school educator in New York City Public Schools, where he taught for the nine years between 2003 and 2012. During those years, he was a teacher at PS 125, PS 30, and PS 261.

Once he left the elementary classroom, Brian devoted his considerable energy towards educational pursuits. He is currently the Associate Director of Education at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. For many years he has been a member of the Board of Directors of Voices of a People’s History of the United States, an organization that telling nontraditional stories about American history. He worked with famous historian Howard Zinn on that project. He has also published extensively, in many periodicals, including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Journal of Negro Education, and Chalkbeat. He also served on the New York State Education Department Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Advisory Panel in 2018.
For his work in the field of education, Brian is the recipient of awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute for Museum and Library Services, the Lannan Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the City University of New York.
To read more about Chalkboard Champion Brian P. Jones, see this link to Academia.

Mary Aguirre of Arizona: Trailblazer, pioneer, and teacher

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During the taming of the Wild West, many educators became trailblazers. One of these was Mary Aguirre, a pioneer teacher in Tucson, Arizona. Photo credit: Arizona Historical Society.

During the taming of the Wild West, many talented educators became trailblazers. One of these was Mary Aguirre. She was a pioneer and teacher in Tucson, Arizona.

Mary was born Mary Bernard in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of a wealthy merchant. Her early years were spent in Baltimore, Maryland, but later her family moved to Westport, Missouri, where her father owned a large store. At the age of 17, she enrolled in college. When the Civil War erupted, Mary supported the Southern cause.

In 1862, Mary married Epifanio Aguirre, a Mexican freighting contractor. The union produced three sons. In 1863, Epifanio and Mary moved with their children to the Southwest, where they settled in Las Cruces, New Mexico. During her travels, Mary kept a detailed journal. The account is considered an important documentary record of the time. By 1869, the family had relocated to Tucson, Arizona. The following year, Epifanio was killed in Sasabe, Arizona, during an Apache raid of a stagecoach. Following her husband’s death, Mary was forced for financial reasons to return to her parents’ home in Missouri.

Mary returned to Tucson in 1874. For the next four years, she taught in public schools in the Tucson area, including the Tucson Public School for Girls. In 1878, she transferred to Arivaca, 60 miles south of Tucson, where she became one of the first teachers on the faculty at the newly-established University of Arizona (UA). There she became the first woman professor, and she went on to Chair of the Departments of Spanish Language and the English History in 1885.

Sadly, Mary was seriously injured in a Pullman train crash in San Jose, California, in 1906. Two weeks after the accident, on May 24, she passed away.

For her work as a pioneer teacher of the Southwest, the University of Arizona awards a Women’s and Gender Studies professorship in Mary’s name every year. In 1983, she was inducted into the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame.

To learn more about this trailblazer, pioneer, and teacher, see this online biography published by www.tucson.com.

NC Special Ed teacher Crystal Bennett succumbs to Covid

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Sadly, Crystal Bennett, a beloved high school Special Ed teacher from West Jefferson, North Carolina, succumbed to Covid on Jan. 13, 2021. Photo credit: Ashe Post and Times.

I often write stories about teachers who have won numerous awards and recognition for their work in the classroom, but there are many teachers out there who silently work day after day, year after year, quietly accomplishing amazing things with their students. Those teachers may not earn awards, but they certainly deserve honors, for they are the cornerstone of the teaching profession. One of these is Crystal Bennett, a high school teacher from West Jefferson, North Carolina. Sadly, this dedicated educator succumbed to Covid on Jan. 13, 2021. She was only 36 years old.

Crystal taught Exceptional Children, which is another name for special education students, at Ashe County High School. Her career there spanned seven years, the first five as a special education assistant and the last two as a classroom teacher. Although her career as an educator was short, it was enough to plant her in the hearts of her students, parents, and colleagues.

“Crystal was compassionate; she worried about her students and their well-being every day,” recalls former classmate, coworker, and close friend, Heather Phillips. “Crystal had a way with her students, she could sense when they’d had a rough day and when there were issues, issues that needed (and were) to be handled before educating could occur. One thing about Crystal, she took care of ‘her kids’ at school,” continued Phillips.

Parent Karen Ham agrees with Phillips. “My son had her as a teacher in high school. She impacted him so much, there were times that he would struggle or be having a bad day. Crystal would see this and stop what she was doing and take the time out of her day to talk to him. She would try to see what she could do to make his day better,” remembers Ham. “And when he graduated, she never lost touch with him. She would still send him messages to check on him to make sure he was OK and staying out of trouble. I know he is going to miss those messages from her,” Ham continued. “She never gave up on her kids and always wanted them to do the best that she knew they could do,” Ham concluded.

To read more tributes for Crystal, see this obituary published in the Ashe Post and Times.