Illinois educator Mark Peterson: Superb football coach and teacher

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Mark Peterson of chesterton, Illinois, has earned a reputation as a superb football coach. He’s also a terrific science and physical education teacher.

Many excellent educators also distinguish themselves as athletic coaches. One of these is Mark Peterson of Chesterton, Illinois. Mark is a science and physical education teacher who has earned a reputation as a superb football coach.

Mark asserts that the responsibility of an athletic coach is to inspire the team and make sure the players perform well. “I’m positive about all of our opportunities and being able to succeed in those as the season progresses,” Mark declares. “As a coach, seeing the team succeed is what I want. Everyone wants to win, but I, being the coach, am gonna see to it that we do,” he says.

Mark’s career as a football coach is great, but he is egually impressive as an educator. For the past eight years he has taught at Chesterton High School, a public high school in the Greater Chicago area. Currently he teaches Freshman Biology and Environment Science (2011 – present). Previous to his tenure at Chesterton, he taught physical education at Portage High School (2007 – 2011). Before accepting his position at Portage, he worked at Bishop Noll Institute for three years (2004 – 2007). The school is located in Hammond, Indiana. There he taught health courses and filled the position of Directory of Admissions.

This Chalkboard Champion earned his Bachelor’s degree in Biology in 1989 from Iowa Wesleyan College. The college is located in Mt. Pleasant, Henry County, Iowa. He earned his Master’s degree in Liberal Studies from Valparaiso University in 1993. Valparaiso is a private co-educational Lutheran university located in Valparaiso, Porter County, Indiana.

Read more about Chesterton HIgh School at this link from ValpoLife.

Elementary teacher Mallory Rivard crowned Miss Michigan 2019

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Educator Mallory Rivard, crowned Miss Michigan 2019, teaches first grade in Bay City, in her home state.

There are many fine educators who have earned recognition in fields outside of the classroom. One of these is Mallory Rivard, an elementary school teacher from Michigan who garnered the beauty pageant title of Miss Michigan 2019.

Mallory graduated from Bay City Western High School in Bay City, Saginaw County, Michigan. Following her graduation, she enrolled at Saginaw Valley State University. There she completed a dual Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education and Elementary Education in 2017. Currently she is working toward her Master’s degree in Early Childhood Education.

The beauty queen has been teaching first grade at MacGregor Elementary in Bay City, Michigan, for the past two years. “I’ve known I wanted to be a teacher ever since the third grade,” Mallory confessed. “I’m really passionate about educating young people.”

Mallory asserts there is a literacy crisis in Michigan. She declares her goal is to empower parents to ensure that their children develop the tools they need to succeed in school. To achieve this goal, she founded an organization called Raising Readers Academy. “This past year, as Miss Great Lakes Bay, I partnered with the Read Association of Saginaw County and I started a program call the Raising Readers Academy,” Mallory revealed. “It was a 12-week course where I met with parents and their children and we taught them strategies on how to best support their students. For example, we taught them how to blend letters together,” she continued. “The tools that we gave these kids will last them a lifetime,” she concluded.

In addition to competing in the Miss Michigan pageant, and then the Miss America pageant in December, Mallory has been involved in many other fascinating activities. She has taught in India, completed a year of service as an AmeriCorps member, and performed in the 2008 Olympics.

To read more about Miss Michigan 2019, click on this link: Mallory Rivard.

We Rode the Orphan Trains by Andrea Warren

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Have you ever heard anything about America’s orphan trains? Not many have, but orphan trains are a fascinating solution to a problem of homeless children.

During the early years of the 20th century, there were literally thousands of homeless children roaming aimlessly on the streets of New York City. The Children’s Aid Society (CAS), an organization which still exists to benefit children today, developed a method for finding loving and wholesome homes for many of these children. The CAS organized small groups of children to be transported to states in the Midwest and the West. These children were placed in foster homes or adoptive homes on farms and in rural communities. To care for the children, the CAS recruited teachers to escort them, conduct background checks on the prospective caretakers, and make periodic checks on the children’s progress.

Andrea Warren has documented the phenomena of the Orphan Trains very diligently in her book, We Rode the Orphan Trains, available through amazon.com. You can also read a chapter about one of the CAS teachers, Clara Comstock, in my first book, Chalkboard Champions.

Choosing the stories of remarkable teachers to share

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Author Terry Lee Marzell speaks about her work to recognize and celebrate great teachers.

Whenever I give author talks, one question that often comes up is how did I select the teachers that I wrote about in my book, Chalkboard Champions.

Two of the twelve were easy: Anne Sullivan, the teacher who worked with Helen Keller, and Jaime Escalante, the teacher who was the subject of the movie Stand and Deliver. Any book about outstanding teachers must include these two. It helped that Anne Sullivan worked with handicapped students and Jaime Escalante worked with inner city Latino youth, since the thrust of this book is teachers who worked with disenfranchised student populations.

After I selected these two, I began to think about other groups of disenfranchised students. I thought about minority groups such as Native Americans and African Americans, which led me to Elaine Goodale Eastman, Charlotte Forten Grimke, Carter Godwin Woodson, and Sandra Adickes. I specifically looked for a teacher in Hawaii, and discovered Gladys Kamakakuokalani Brandt. I have to say, the chapter I wrote about Gladys is among my favorite chapters. I stumbled across Eulalia Bourne, the Arizona teacher who worked with Mexican American students, and couldn’t resist her.

Next I considered underprivileged students such as the poor, orphans, and newly-arrived immigrants. Researching these groups led me to Julia Richman, Clara Comstock, and Leonard Covello. And then I specifically looked for a teacher who was working with students in World War II Japanese internment camps, and after much effort found Mary Tsukamoto.

When selecting the teachers I wrote about, I tried to include a good cross section of ethnic groups, both as teachers and with regards to the student groups they served. I strove to include both men and women, although frankly it is easier to find women teachers to write about because there are so many more of them. I also attempted to include representation from a variety of geographic regions within the United States. Lastly, I tried to select teachers that came from different time periods in American history, starting from the Civil War era and continuing through to more contemporary times.

I love to tell stories about remarkable teachers, and although I selected twelve very extraordinary teachers to write about, there were, of course, many more that I did not have room to include in the volume. That led me to my second book, Chalkboard Heroes.