England’s Andria Zafirakou garners 2018 Varkey Global Teacher Prize

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In 2018, teacher Andria Zafirakou of London, England, was awarded the Global Teacher Prize by the Varkey Foundation. She teaches arts and textiles at Alperton Community School. The school is located in one of the UK’s poorest boroughs, Brent, where crime rates are high and gang presence is a huge problem.

Brent is one of the most ethnically diverse places in England. Officials count 130 languages are spoken in its schools. Students come from some of the poorest families in Britain, many sharing one house with five other families. The area has the third highest murder rate in the United Kingdom. Children arrive at the school with limited skills. They already feel isolated from staff and each other, making engaging with them all the more difficult and all the more vital.

The odds of succeeding with these kids are slim, but Andria defied them daily. Working as an art and textiles teacher and as a member of the senior leadership team tasked with earning the trust of her students and their families, she redesigned the curriculum across all subjects. She helped a music teacher launch a Somali school choir, and she created alternative timetables to allow girls-only sports that would not offend some of the more conservative communities.

No wonder Andria garnered the international award. She’s a true Chalkboard Champion. To learn more about her and her school, view the brief video below.

Kimberly Dickstein named New Jersey 2019-2020 Teacher of the Year

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High school English teacher Kimberly Dickstein named New Jersey’s 2019-2020 Teacher of the Year.

Congratulations are in order for high school English teacher Kimberly Dickstein, who has been named New Jersey’s 2019-2020 Teacher of the Year.

Kimberly teaches at Haddonfield Memorial High School. Her career at Haddonfield has spanned 11 years. During these years, the indefatigable educator advises the school’s Model United Nations, Shakespeare Troupe, and Stand With Camden. She also serves on the Community Advisory Board and advises the Youth Leadership Council. And as if all that wasn’t enough, she also contributes her many talents to her community’s Urban Promise, Cathedral Kitchen, Book Smiles, the Camden Rescue Mission, Camden Reads, and Camden Printworks.

Kimberly says she teaches her students to embrace her own spirit of volunteerism. She strives to help them understand that social justice begins with listening to others and standing together. “I have always felt the call to public service,” the teacher once confessed. “I can think of no better way to serve than in the classroom,” she said.

Over the years, Kimberly has earned many accolades. In June, 2019, Princeton University recognized her as a Distinguished Secondary School Teacher. For her contributions to her community, Camden County honored her with their Martin Luther King, Jr., Freedom Medal in 2019. To earn this honor, the hardworking educator inaugurated an advocacy campaign with her students in 2018. The group helped a former child soldier from South Sudan achieve his educational goals. The effort received local and national attention.

And that’s not all. South Jersey Magazine named Kimberly a South Jersey Super Woman in November, 2017. In 2017, the Victorious Foundation nominated the stellar educator for the L’Oreal Woman of Worth Award program, which recognizes women who make an extraordinary impact on their communities.

This amazing woman grew up in Camden County, New Jersey. There she attended Voorhees Township Public Schools. The honored educator earned her Bachelor’s degree in English and Political Science in 2008, and her Master’s in English Secondary Education in 2009, both from Rutger’s University. She has also completed courses in Shakespeare studies at the Folger Shakespeare Library and Oxford University. In addition, Kimberly has furthered her understanding of her course material by participating in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Utah Shakespeare Festival.

Kimberly Dickstein: A true Chalkboard Champion!

To read more about Kimberly, see this online article posted by the State of New Jersey Department of Education.

High school teacher, explorer, cartographer, and writer  Prentice G. Downes

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High school teacher, explorer, cartographer, cultural anthropologist, and writer  Prentice G. Downes.

Many fine educators have distinguished themselves in areas outside the field of education. One such individual was high school teacher Prentice G. Downes, known to his friends by the nickname “Spike.” In addition to his career as an educator, Prentice made a name for himself as an explorer, cartographer, cultural anthropologist, and writer.

Prentice was born 1909 in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of an Episcopal clergyman. After his 1928 graduation from Kent School in Kent, Connecticut, Prentice enrolled at Harvard University. Once he was ready to begin his career as a teacher, he accepted a position at Belmont Hill School, a prestigious New England prep school for boys located in Belmont, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston.

Prentice was well-known for hurrying back to class in unkempt condition each fall. Between 1936 and 1947, the native of Concord, Massachusetts, made several summer-long expeditions into the sprawling uncharted wilderness of subarctic Canada. Working on a shoestring budget, Prentice would round up a canoe, gear, food, and a local traveling associate. Then he would set out for the great unknown. He was notorious for cutting trips close to the wire, rushing back to Boston bearded, tanned, and garbed in threadbare bush clothes just in time for the beginning of school.

This intrepid teacher traveled by canoe to explore subarctic areas in the Great Barren Lands and learn about the lifestyles of the Native American tribes. During his travels, Prentice kept extensive journals recording a disappearing people and a landscape unknown to all but the Canadian natives at that time. He recorded not only daily events, but also the stories and traditions of the peoples he encountered, particularly people of the Cree and Dene tribes.

In 1939, Prentice traveled from the Brabant Lake area to the Cochrane River, starting at the town of Brochet on Reindeer Lake. Without the aid of maps, the intrepid teacher relied completely on local legend to find his way to the Thlewiaza River and his final destination, the Hudson Bay outpost on Nueltin Lake. Based on this trip, Prentice wrote the travelogue Sleeping Island: The Story of One Man’s Travels in the Great Barren Lands of the Canadian North. First published in 1943, this classic adventure story received a stellar review from the New York Times for its engaging descriptions of the expedition across a rugged landscape of lakes and rivers in northern Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and present-day Nunavut. Besides the polished and captivating writing style, Sleeping Island stands out because it documented ways of life that no longer exist.

In his later years, Prentice delivered lectures about his travels for Harvard’s Institute of Geographical Exploration. Additionally, he was commissioned by the US government to map portions of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. He also became a member of the prestigious Royal Geographical society.

This chalkboard champion passed away in 1959 at the young age of 50.