Rhode Island’s Loren Spears: Teacher, essayist, artist, and tribal council woman

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Rhode island’s Loren Spears: Teacher, essayist, artist, and tribal council woman of the Narragansett Tribe. Photo credit: Rhode Island State Council on the Arts

Many talented and dedicated educators work diligently to foster an appreciation for the cultures of under-represented ethnic groups. One such educator is Loren Spears, a teacher, essayist, artist, and tribal council woman of the Narragansett Tribe in Rhode Island.

As a youngster, Loren attended Chariho Regional High School in her home town of Charleston, a rural village in southern Rhode Island. After her high school graduation, she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and Teaching at the University of Rhode Island, graduating in 1988. She earned her Master’s degree in Education at the University of New England in 2002.

Loren’s teaching career spanned two decades and included twelve years as a first grade and fourth grade teacher in the Newport Public School system working with at-risk children. Throughout her professional career, Loren has always been a strong advocate for integrating more Native American history and experiential learning into school curriculum. Loren says she remembers, “Being in a history class during my elementary days and actually reading that I supposedly didn’t exist, that my family didn’t exist, that my people didn’t exist.” She has spent much of her adult life correcting that misimpression.

In addition to her professional accomplishments as a teacher, Loren works as the executive director and curator of the Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museum in Exeter, Rhode Island. The museum was the site of a private, state-certified school, the Nuweetooun School, which this talented educator directed from 2003 to 2010. Nuweetooun, which translates as “Our Home” in the Narragansett language, was founded by Loren with the help of the Narragansett community and generous donations, including monies from a local charity, the Narragansett Tribe, and the Rhode Island Foundation. Though Loren is Narragansett, the school is not connected to any specific tribe. As the school’s director, Loren made sure that the Nuweetooun School provided Native American children from kindergarten through the eighth grade an experiential, collaborative curriculum based on Native American traditions and culture, as well as standard academic subjects, including mathematics, language arts, social studies, science, and health.

In June, 2005, Loren received the Feinstein Salute to Teachers, Teacher of the Month. In 2006, she earned the Native Heritage Gathering Award, and in 2010, Loren was chosen as one of eleven Extraordinary Women honorees for Rhode Island in the area of education. In 2016, First Lady Michelle Obama awarded a National Medal for Museum and Library Service to Loren Spears during a ceremony at the White House in Washington, DC. 

Today, this Chalkboard Champion lives in Providence, Rhode Island, and uses her vast energy to focus on educating the public on indigenous issues, arts, culture, and history through cultural arts programming, lectures, art classes, inter-generational programming, grant writing, exhibit development and design, curriculum development, school design, Native American education, and educational consulting.

To read a short interview of Loren see this link to the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts.

Coronavirus claims life of Florida teacher and coach Robert Shackelford

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Florida history teacher and former football coach Robert Shackelford succumbs to the coronavirus.

Sadly, the coronavirus has claimed the life of yet another beloved educator. Robert Shackelford, a Florida teacher and former football coach, passed away from the disease on July 22, 2020. He was 61 years old.

In a career that spanned 30 years, Robert taught social studies at Sarasota High School in Sarasota, Florida. Robert had planned to teach only one more year before retiring.

In addition to teaching, Robert earned some fame as a pro football player. He played football in the NFL as a free agent for the Packers in 1981, the Atlanta Falcons in 1982, and the Birmingham Stallions in 1983. He coached football with the US Army at Ft. Benning, Union College in Kentucky, and University of Central Flolrida. In 1994, he coached with the Tampa Bay Storm. Once he went to work at the high school level, Robert coached high school football in Manatee, Sarasota, and Charlotte Counties.

But it was his career as a classroom educator that really filled his life. “Teaching was not a profession for dad, it was not a job, it was a calling,” remembers Robert’s daughter, Kari Shackelford. “It was something he had a true gift for,” she said. Robert’s colleague Stella Karas agreed. “He really loved what he did,” she declared. “He had among the highest scores for US History, and just was an encyclopedia of knowledge when it came to all things history and government,” she commented. Karas said Robert had a way of capturing the attention of his students. He made a subject not many students were interested in fascinating. “He really made history come alive for his kids,” she said.

Robert Shackelford will be be missed by many. To read more about this amazing educator, see the story about him published online by WTSP-TV 10.

Mercedes Munoz: Oregon’s 2019 State Teacher of the Year

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High School special education teacher Mercedes Munoz has been named Oregon’s 2019 State Teacher of the Year. (Photo credit: Oregon Public Broadcasting)

I enjoy sharing stories about educators who have been recognized for their dedication and hard work in the classroom. One of these is Mercedes Munoz, a high school special education teacher who was named Oregon’s 2019 State Teacher of the Year.

Mercedes says some of her students have come from a rough place, and grounding them in education is her primary goal. “To be an anchor in someone’s life, and to tell them that they can make it, and there are other moments to look forward to, that is a special joy that I get in teaching,” she declares.

The honored educator speaks from personal experience. As a teenager, she only needed a few more credits to graduate when she decided to drop out of Portland’s Benson High School. She was one of those kids, she conceded, who needed just a bit of encouragement to stay in school.

Eventually Mercedes did go back to school. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in English/Language Arts from Portland State University in 2011. She earned her Master’s degree in Special Education and Teaching from the same university in 2013.

Once she graduated, Mercedes was hired to teach at Franklin High School in Portland. There she has been instrumental in the development and implementation of the special education “push-in model.” The model features close collaboration between the special education teacher and the general education teacher to maximize the student’s inclusion in general education classes. In addition to this work, Mercedes is a member of her school’s Equity Team, the Safety Committee, and the Poetry Slam Committee. She is also highly involved in the recruitment of historically under-served students in Franklin’s Advanced Placement Program.

To read more about this amazing educator, see this article published by Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Educator and philanthropist Margaret Brewer Fowler

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Educator and philanthropist Margaret Brewer Fowler of Chino, California.

There are many amazing educators who have made a major impact on their communities. One of these was teacher and philanthropist Margaret Brewer Fowler, who was a significant figure in the history of Chino, California.

Margaret was born in 1863 in San Francisco, California. Her mother’s family were among the earliest settlers of the Oregon Territory, and her father, a graduate of Yale University, was a prominent attorney in San Francisco. In 1882, Margaret and her parents immigrated to Hawaii, which was an independent kingdom in those days. In Hawaii, Margaret became a teacher in various Hawaiian schools, including the Kawaihao Seminary, the Punahou Preparatory School, and Honolulu High School. In fact, Margaret served as the principal at the Punahou School. In all, Margaret spent 14 years as an educator in Hawaiian schools.

When she left Hawaii, the experienced educator traveled east and enrolled in New York University, where she earned her Master’s degree in 1899, a rare accomplishment for a woman in those days. In 1902, Margaret married Eldridge Fowler of Detroit, Michigan. The couple moved with Eldridge’s daughter from a former marriage to a luxurious home in Pasadena, California. Two years later, Margaret’s husband passed away, leaving his young wife and daughter a considerable fortune.

After her husband’s passing, Margaret became a substantial donor to the Young Women’s Christian Association and its World Committee. Always interested in furthering education for women, she became a founding trustee of Scripps College, the women’s school at what is now known as the Claremont Colleges in Claremont, California. She also became a trustee of the California Institute of Technology. In Chino, Margaret was instrumental in establishing Boys Republic, a residential treatment center for troubled boys. She purchased the land, paid to have the buildings constructed. and financed the operating costs of the center. Boys Republic still exists today, helping adolescent boys to stay out of jail and to redirect their lives in more positive directions.

In 2001, Margaret Brewer Fowler was named to the Chino City Hall of Fame. To read more about this amazing educator, click on this link to the Boys Republic.