Special Ed teacher Alyssa Bohm, crowned Miss Wisconsin 2019, promotes inclusivity

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Special education teacher Alyssa Bohm, crowned Miss Wisconsin 2019, works with high school students to promote inclusivity.

Many fine educators also earn fame in arenas outside of the classroom. One of these is Alyssa Bohm, a high school special education teacher who garnered the title of Miss Wisconsin in the 2019 beauty pageant last July.

Alyssa was raised in Racine, Wisconsin. She graduated from J. I. Case High School in her home town. After her high school graduation, she enrolled at the University of Wisconsin, Parkside, in Kenosha. But because Parkside did not offer a teaching degree, she transferred to the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater, the next year. After she earned her college diploma, Alyssa returned to her alma mater to work as a special education teacher.

Throughout her one-year reign as Miss Wisconsin, Alyssa will work to promote her social impact initiative enhancing opportunities for individuals with special needs. Alyssa says her initiative was inspired by her Aunt Cindy, who has an intellectual disability. After Cindy’s parents passed away, she lived with family members, although she now lives in a group home in Milwaukee. “There just weren’t enough resources for her,” Alyssa remarked. “And I wanted to be part of something that was really going to provide opportunity.”

The young teacher has already put a lot of work into providing opportunities for individuals with disabilities. During her freshman year at University of Wisconsin, Whitewater, she served at Case High as the co-adviser for the Sparkle Squad, a cheerleading team for girls with special needs. Currently, she currently serves on the Board of Directors for Special Olympics, Wisconsin. To date, Alyssa has spearheaded many other initiatives to advance inclusivity, including co-creating the Special Olympics College Organization and developing the Special Olympics Football Camp at the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater. In the coming year, Alyssa hopes to expand the Special Olympics Unified Sports Program, which provides opportunities for those with disabilities and their non-disabled peers to collaborate in the creation of inclusive environments in schools.

Read more about this amazing educator at Special Olympics Wisconsin.

Art teacher Hirotaka Hamasaki of Japan inspires students through elaborate chalkboard drawings

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Art teacher Hirotaka Hamasaki of Nara, Japan, connects to his students through elaborate chalkboard drawings.

Art teachers have an exceptional opportunity to inspire the next generation of creative students. They use all kinds of strategies to connect with their students. One of these is Hirotaka Hamasaki, a fine arts teacher and graphic designer from Nara, Japan. He connects with young people through his elaborate chalkboard drawings, where he recreates a variety of the world’s great masterpieces and a wealth of pop art pieces. 

Instead of writing notes or homework assignments for his students, Hirotaka emulates great works of art that feature historically significant imagery. Examples include Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper or Pablo Picasso’s Guernica. Sometimes he recreates contemporary or pop art works, such as Disney’s The Little Mermaid.

In recent years, Hirotaka’s artwork has gone viral. His blackboard masterpieces have gone beyond his classroom, capturing the imaginations of millions of people all over the globe. But what many people don’t know is that he is not the only one who has shared a talent in blackboard art. In fact, there’s an actual blackboard art trend that has been sweeping Japanese schools for nearly a decade now. The trend can be traced back to at least 2012, when Kotaku East published an article about three students who spent a whole week decorating their classroom blackboard with an impressive chalkboard drawing inspired by the popular One Piece anime series. The following year, the internet magazine published another article, this time posting more amazing chalk drawings from the same three students. They also featured other creations from various schools around Japan.

See more of this amazing educator’s work on Instagram at Hirotaka Hamasaki.

Elementary teacher Kathy Pitt developed technique to reduce alienation and bullying

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Elementary school teacher Kathy Pitt has developed a technique to reduce alienation and bullying among her students.

Recently I read a fascinating article about an elementary school teacher who developed a great strategy for reducing bullying and feelings of alienation in her classroom. The teacher is Kathy Pitt, a retired fifth grade teacher from Sea Gate Elementary School in Naples, Florida.

Every Friday, Kathy gave each of her students an index card. She asked the students to write down who they would like to sit with the next week. And she invited the students to nominate one of their classmates they thought was “exceptional.”

After collecting the note cards, Kathy placed them in front of her on her desk and study them. She analyzed which students received the fewest nominations, and she looked for the patterns. Who never got requested by others as a seat partner? Who never got noticed enough to get nominated as “exceptional”? Who had tons of friends last week, but none this week? Who never gets noticed enough to be nominated? She also looked to see which students were unwilling or unable to nominate others. In this way, Kathy discovered clues to social issues that weren’t always visible to her as she moved through her daily curriculum.

The teacher was looking for lonely children, kids who were alienated and struggling to connect. She was identifying the youngsters who were falling through the cracks. The next week she would make a special effort to connect with those kids. Kathy was also able to detect which kids were being bullied and who was doing the bullying. Then she took steps to resolve those conflicts.

The innovative educator once revealed she developed the technique after the school shooting at Columbine. She had been using it every single Friday since that 1999 event. It was just her way of attempting to helping students feel less lonely, less alienated, and to help students get along with each other better.

To read more about this Chalkboard Champion, click on this blog post found on Lifestyle.

Chalkboard Champion Emma Hart Willard advocates for girls’ education

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Chalkboard champion, educator, and advocate of education for women Emma Hart Willard

One of the most influential educators in American history is Chalkboard Champion Emma Hart Willard, a teacher and women’s rights advocate from New England. In a time when most women were restricted to the role of homemakers, Emma advanced the cause of making higher education available for girls.

Emma was born on Feb. 23, 1787, in Berlin, Connecticut. Even at a young age, her intelligence was evident. Even though she was a female, her father nurtured her intellectual development. By the time she was 17 years old, Emma was teaching at the academy where she had been a student. By the time she was 19 she was the principal of the school.

In 1809, Emma married Dr. John Hart, and the couple had one son together. After her marriage, Emma and her family moved to Vermont. There she opened her own boarding school for girls. She taught her young students courses in science, mathematics, philosophy, geography, and history. The experience put her in a fine position to advocate for an institution of higher learning for female students.

In 1821, Emma persuaded the leadership of Troy, New York, to sponsor the founding of an institution of higher learning for girls. The school became known as the Troy Female Seminary, the first higher education institution for women in the country. The school was an immediate success, and upper class families began to send their daughters to Troy. Her example inspired other private institutions to open their doors to girls. Emma served as the principal of Troy Female Seminary until 1838. By that time, hundreds of graduates of the school—many of them teachers—had been shaped by her philosophy.

In addition to paving the way for advanced educational opportunities for girls in New York, Emma traveled widely throughout the country and in Europe, where she advocated more schools of higher learning be established. She founded an all-girls school in similar to the Troy School in Athens, Greece. She also wrote textbooks for American history and geography. In addition, she published a volume of poetry.

This Chalkboard Champion passed away on April 15, 1870, in Troy, New York. She is interred in Oakwood Cemetery in Troy. In 1905, this amazing educator was inducted into the Hall of Fame for Great Americans in Bronx, New York. She was also inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2013. The school that Emma Hart Willard founded in Troy still exists today, although it is now known as the Emma Willard School.

To read more about Emma Hart Willard, click on this link to Encyclopedia Britanica.