Heather Whitaker named 2020 Teacher of the Year for Maine

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Heather Whitaker of Gorham Middle School in Gorham, Maine, has been named the 2020 Teacher of the Year for the state of Maine.

I love to tell stories about classroom educators who have earned honors for their work in the classroom. One of these is Heather Whitaker, a middle school teacher who has been named the 2020 Teacher of the Year for her home state of Maine.

Heather has taught at Gorham Middle School for nearly 20 years. During that time, she co-founded a backpack program in her school district to provide meals for underprivileged students to eat on weekends and vacations. In addition, Heather inaugurated a school garden. Over the last 15 years, the garden has produced an average of 800 pounds of produce per year for the Gorham Community Food Pantry.  Students in her alternative education classes are active volunteers for both programs. Recently the program was awarded a State Farm Community Assist grant in the amount of $25,000.

The process by which Heather was selected for the 2020 honors was lengthy. She was chosen from more than 300 teachers who were nominated by a member of their community earlier this year. She was then named the 2019 Cumberland County Teacher of the Year. Next she was named one of three state finalists before finally being named the 2020 Teacher of the Year.

“It was an honor to be selected, and it’s extremely exciting because it helps highlight the work of alternative learners and how hard they work to get to school and to stay in school,” Heather expressed. “I think it also gives other alternative education teachers a platform and a voice, through me, to bring attention to the needs of youth who are at risk within our schools.”

The honored educator earned her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education with Moderate Special Needs from Boston College in 2000. She completed the requirements for her Master’s degree in Literary Education from the University of Southern Maine in 2005.

To read more about Heather, see this press release from the University of Southern Maine.

Oregon’s Jeremy Hurl: Outstanding Teacher of American History

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Congratulations to Oregon educator Jeremy Hurl. He has just been named his state’s Outstanding Teacher of American History by the DAR.

Congratulations are in order for Oregon educator Jeremy Hurl. He has just been named his state’s Outstanding Teacher of American History by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). Jeremy teaches at Duniway Middle School in McMinnville, Oregon.

The honor was awarded to Jeremy in a ceremony on May 20, 2020, in Wilsonville. Jeremy earned a commemorative pin, a certificate, and a check for $500. Jeremy says he plans to use the cash award to fund a summer field study trip. He’ll follow portions of the Oregon Trail, re-create parts of the Lewis and Clark journey, and explore some national parks.

The DAR bestows the annual award to a teacher currently in the classroom who fosters a spirit of patriotism and who successfully relates history to modern life and events. Jeremy earned the award in recognition for his efforts to provide active learning experiences for his students, by creative collaborative problem-solving tasks, and the re-enactments, field trips, and guest speakers he organizes.

Jeremy graduated from McMinnville High School in 1994. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from Oregon State University in 1999. After college, he inaugurated his teaching career by accepting a position at Patton Middle School in McMinnville in 2006. He is currently teaching history, geography, civics and government at Duniway.

To read more about Jeremy, follow this link to an article about him published in the News Register.

Iowa’s Agnes Samuelson: The teacher that worked for better education for all students

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Iowa educator Agnes Samuelson

Many purposeful educators work to improve society as a whole. This is true of Agnes Samuelson, a teacher from Iowa who dedicated herself to improving education for all students.

Agnes was born on April 14, 1888, in Shenandoah, Iowa. Her parents were immigrants from Sweden. Agnes was the eldest of their seven children. By the time she graduated from high school in 1904, she had already determined to become a teacher. She came to this decision as a result of the many hours she spent helping Swedish immigrants in her community learn American culture and the English language.

After graduation, Agnes enrolled in a one-year program at Western Normal College in Shenandoah. In 1906, she inaugurated her career as an educator at a one-room country school house in Page County, two miles from Shenandoah. Over the next two years, the neophyte teacher instructed in several school in southwest Iowa. Eventually she landed at a high school in Silver City, Iowa, where she was both a teacher and the principal.

By 1913, Agnes had completed numerous courses at the University of Nebraska. That year, the ambitious educator was named Superintendent of Public Schools in Yorktown, Iowa. Two years late she was selected  to the position of Page County Superintendent of Schools. During her tenure, she updated the curriculum in rural schools, ensured that all schools in the country were equipped with textbooks, and established a program of professional development for the teachers in her district.

In 1923, Agnes accepted a position as a professor of extension courses at Iowa State Teachers College. She also pursued graduate courses at the State University of Iowa. There she earned a Bachelor’s degree in 1925 and her Master’s degree in 1928.

Eager to be of even further service, Agnes ran for State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1926. She won! She served 12 years in the position. During those years, she campaigned for the adoption of a school-aid formula that provided equal education for all Iowa children, regardless of the property wealth in their home district.

In 1935, Agnes decided to shift gears. She left public office to become the Executive Secretary of the Iowa State Teachers Association, in 1945, she became the president of the National Education Association. To fulfill her responsibilities in this role, she relocated to Washington, DC.

For her lifetime of work improving the educational experiences of students in her state, Agnes was inducted posthumously into the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame in 1976. In addition, an elementary school in Des Moines has been named in her honor. In addition, she was a charter member of Delta Kappa Gamma (DKG), an organization for educators that was formed in 1929 to address issues of equality for women professionals in education.

This amazing Chalkboard Champion retired in 1952. In retirement, she authored several books and a school manual. She passed away on May 12, 1963, following a one-year battle with cancer. She was 76 years old.

To read more about Agnes Samuelson, follow this link to the Biographical Dictionary of Iowa.

Willa Brown Chappell: She taught Tuskegee Airmen how to fly

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Many exceptional teachers use their instructional expertise to work with students outside of the classroom. Willa Brown Chappell, the first African American woman licensed to fly in the United States, is an excellent example of this.

Willa was born January 22, 1906, in Glasgow, Kentucky. She earned her degree in education from Indiana State Teachers College in 1927. She also completed the requirements for an MBA from Northwestern University in 1937. Following her college graduation, Willa was employed as a high school teacher at Roosevelt High School in Gary, Indiana, and later as a social worker in Chicago.

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Willa Brown Chappell

Willa was always seeking challenges and adventures in her life, especially if they could be found outside the limited career fields normally open to African Americans at that time. She decided to learn to fly, studying with Cornelius R. Coffey, a certified flight instructor and expert aviation mechanic at a racially segregated airport in Chicago. Willa earned her private pilot’s license in 1938. Later, Willa and Cornelius married and founded the Coffey School of Aeronautics at Harlem Airport in Chicago, where together they trained black pilots and aviation mechanics. Willa conducted the classroom instruction and Cornelius conducted the in-flight practice.

In 1939, Willa, Cornelius, and their friend Enoch P. Waters founded the National Airmen’s Association of America. Their goal was to secure admission for Black aviation cadets into the US military. As the organization’s national secretary and the president of the Chicago branch, Willa became an activist for racial equality. She persistently lobbied the US Government for integration of Black pilots into the segregated Army Air Corps and the federal Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP), a system established by the Civil Aeronautics Authority just before the outbreak of World War II. The CPTP’s purpose was to provide a pool of civilian pilots for use during national emergencies. Willa was given the rank of an officer in this first integrated unit.

In 1948, when Congress finally voted to allow separate-but-equal participation of African Americans in civilian flight training programs, the Coffey School of Aeronautics was one of a select few private aviation schools selected for participation. Later, her flight school was selected by the US Army to provide Black trainees for the Air Corps pilot training program at the Tuskegee Institute. Willa was instrumental in training more than 200 students who went on to become Tuskegee pilots. Eventually, Willa Brown became the coordinator of war-training service for the Civil Aeronautics Authority and a member of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Women’s Advisory Board. She was the first Black female officer in the Civil Air Patrol and the first Black woman to hold a commercial pilot’s license in the United States.

This remarkable educator and pioneer aviatrix passed away on July 18, 1992. In 2010, Willa was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award by the Indiana State University Alumni Association. She was inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame in her native Kentucky in 2003.

To find out more about this remarkable Chalkboard Champion, you can read a chapter about her in my book, Chalkboard Heroes, which is available on amazon.com and the website for Barnes and Noble.

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