Ellen Gray Massey: English teacher, author, and public speaker

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Ellen Gray Massey: High school English teacher and successful author.

I love to share stories about talented classroom teachers who make a name for themselves in professions other than teaching. One of these is Ellen Gray Massey, a high school English teacher who was also a successful author.

Ellen Massey was born November 14, 1921.  She was raised near Nevada, Missouri. Young Ellen earned her Bachelor’s degree in English at the University of Maryland. Following her college graduation, she returned to Missouri, where she settled in the small Ozarks town of Lebanon. There Ellen taught high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors. In addition, she served as the adviser for their school magazine, Bittersweet. Her career as a teacher spanned 23 years.

I love Ozarkers’ self-sufficiency, wit, and pioneer spirit,” Ellen once declared. “When I heard students say there wasn’t anything interesting in the area, I wanted them to appreciate their heritage,” she continued. Former student Kirk Pierce was one student who benefited from the effort. “She really got us interested in our family history,” he recalled. Kirk later wrote historical features for the local paper, Lebanon Daily Record.

Once Ellen retired from teaching in 1986, she published local color stories in a series of books that eventually numbered 29. She also published short stories and articles celebrating her home town. In addition, she became a sought-after public speaker. She delivered 428 public speeches, 120 of them for the Missouri Humanities Council. Most of her talks were given in Missouri, but she also spoke to groups in Arkansas, Illinois, Connecticut, Washington, DC, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Washington state. She also taught classes on Ozarks Heritage and Ozarks Adventures programs in Branson, Missouri. In addition, she taught 33 graduate education courses at Drury University of Springfield, Missouri.

For her work as an author, Ellen earned many accolades. She garnered the coveted Western Writers Spur Award in the Juvenile Fiction category in 2014. The Missouri Writers Guild honored Ellen with 12 first place writing awards in several categories. In 1995, she became one of the first inductees into the Writers Hall of Fame of America.

Ellen Massey passed away on July 13, 2014. She was 92 years old. She is buried in Mount Rose Memorial Park in Lebanon. To read more about this amazing chalkboard champion, click on this article about her published on the website of the Truman University.

Fanny Allen: School teacher and nationally renowned photographer

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Fanny Allen, school teacher, internationally renowned photographer, and member of the Deerfield Arts and Crafts Movement. Photograph by Mary Allen, c. 1906.

Many talented educators earn fame in fields outside the classroom. One of these is Fanny Allen, an elementary schoolteacher from Deerfield, Massachusetts who became a nationally renowned photographer.

Fanny, whose birth name was Frances Stebbins Allen, was born on August 10, 1854, in Deerfield, Franklin County, Massachusetts. She was the oldest of four children born to local farmer Josiah Allen and his wife Mary Stebbins Allen. Deerfield is a small farming town and early colonial outpost founded in the late 1600s in the western part of the state.

As a young girl, Fanny attended the local school, Deeerfield Academy. After she graduated from Deerfield, she enrolled in State Normal School in Westfield, Massachusetts. After earning her degree, Fanny launched her career as a schoolteacher. From 1876 to 1886 she taught in schools in the Massachusetts counties of Greenfield and Worcester. Her younger sister, Mary, also became a schoolteacher.

Sadly, both sisters lost their hearing in their thirties, most likely due to a hereditary condition. Fanny and Mary were forced to leave the classroom, and they needed a new way to support themselves. Together, the former schoolteachers took up a new career in photography. As photographers, they captured images that idealized their town’s colonial history. Many of their photographs depicted Deerfield’s picturesque farms and its one leafy street lined with fine 18th-century houses. The amazing thing is, the sisters were self-taught!

The Allen sisters set up a salesroom for their work in their ancestral home, and were soon supporting themselves with their sales. By 1895, they enjoyed commercial success, and even enjoyed national acclaim. In the July, 1941 issue of Ladies Home Journal, the former teachers were hailed as two of the “Foremost Women Photographers of America.”

Many of the Allen sisters’ photographs were attributed to “The Misses Allen,” rather than to one sister or the other. In 1899, the Allen sisters joined the Arts & Crafts Movement in their home city, and spent their energy documenting the works of the local members. In 1907, Franny Allen was elected the Director of Photography of the Society of Deerfield Industries. In addition, their work has been added to the collection of the Library of Congress.

Fanny Allen passed away on February 14, 1941. She was 86 years old. She is interred in Laurel Hill Cemetery, Franklin County, Deerfield. To read more about this chalkboard champion, click on this link to Deerfield Arts & Crafts.

Involving students’ parents and guardians in their learning

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I love this Best Practices suggestion from teacher Justin Parmenter and published on the Teacher2Teacher website. At his school’s recent Open House, he asked parents and guardians to respond to this prompt on a note card. He collected the note cards so he could share them with students who need encouragement at some time throughout the year. How do you involve your students’ parents and guardians in their learning?

Educator Donald Graves: Known internationally as a pioneer of teaching writing

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Former elementary school teacher Donald Graves became known internationally as a teacher of the writing process.

Many talented classroom teachers become excellent trainers for other teachers. One of these was Donald Graves, an elementary school teacher who became internationally known as a pioneer in teaching the writing process.

Donald Hillard Graves was born in September 11, 1930, in Fall River, Bristol County, Massachusetts. His father was a school principal, and his mother was a nurse.

Donald earned his Bachelor’s degree at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, in 1952. He earned his Master’s degree in Education from Bridgewater State University in Brdigewater, Massachusetts, in 1959. He completed the requirements for his Ph.D. in Education at the University at Buffalo in New York in 1973. Donald was also a veteran; he served four years in the US Coast Guard.

Donald launched his career as an elementary school teacher at East Fairhaven Elementary School, Fairhaven, Massachusetts, in 1956. Two years later he accepted a position as the school’s principal. Later he became the co-director of a teacher preparation program for urban educators. He also served as a professor of an early childhood program. In his later years, he became Professor Emeritus at the University of New Hampshire.

During his lengthy career as an educator, Donald pioneered new methods for teaching the writing process. In fact, he is known internationally as an expert in the field of teaching writing. In a career as an author that spanned 25 years, he published 26 books, most of them related to the topics of teaching and writing.

“Write yourself,” Donald often advised other teachers. “Invite children to do something you’re already doing. If you’re not doing it, ‘Hey,’ the kids say, ‘I can’t wait to grow up and not have to write, like you.’ They know,” he said. “And for the short term and the long term, you’ll be doing yourself a favor by writing. All of us need it as a survival tool in a very complex world,” he asserted. “The wonderful thing about writing is that it separates the meaningless and the trivial from what is really important. So we need it for ourselves and then we need to invite children to do what we’re doing. You can’t ask someone to sing a duet with you until you know the tune yourself,” he counseled.

Donald retired in 1992 and settled on his mountainside home in Jackson, New Hampshire. This Chalkboard Champion passed away on September 28, 2010, in Falmouth, Barnstable County, Maine. He was 80 years old.

For his work as an educator, Donald garnered many accolades. The National Council of Teachers of English established the Donald H. Graves Writing Award in his honor. To learn more about this amazing educator, read this interview about him that can be found at this link: Answering Your Questions about Teaching Writing.

Educator Ray King worked to help women teachers through DKG Society

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Educator Ray King worked to help fellow women teachers gain professional training and support through the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International.

Many talented classroom teachers are also devoted to assisting their colleagues in their efforts to become better educators. One of these was Ray Holden King, a junior high school history teacher from Texas. She worked to provide professional training and support to fellow women teachers through the organization Delta Kappa Gamma (DKG).

Ray was born on July 13, 1888, in Pilot Point, Texas. She was the third child of Joseph and Anna King. As a young girl, Ray attended Pilot Point High School. After her graduation, she enrolled in North Texas State Normal School in Denton, Texas. While there, Ray met Annie Webb Blanton, and the two formed a lasting friendship.

In addition to her courses at North Texas, Ray completed summer school classes at the University of Colorado, Texas Christian University, and the University of California in Berkeley, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree. Because of her impressive scholastic achievements, she was inducted into two honor societies: Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Kappa Alpha. For the next four summers, the young co-ed worked on her Master’s degree at Teachers College of Columbia University in New York City.

Ray inaugurated her career as an educator in Gordon, Texas. After teaching there for one year, she moved to Mineral Wells. The next year, Ray accepted a job in Fort Worth. In Fort Worth Ray initially taught fifth and sixth grades. Later she took a position teaching history to junior high school students. When Central High School was enlarged, she taught history there.

Ray loved to travel. She toured all over the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Along the way she collected a wealth of information which she used to enrich the history classes she taught. Her colleagues respected her so much that she became the Chairperson of the History Department at her school, a position she held until her retirement in 1954.

When Ray, her long-time friend from college, Annie Webb Blanton, and their colleagues founded the Delta Kappa Gamma Society (DKG) in 1929, Ray was elected their treasurer. In this role, she managed expenditures and receipts at both the state and national levels of the organization. She also threw herself into the expansion of the Society. Together with her sister Sue, Ray established the Delta Chapter in Fort Worth on October 29, 1929. They also founded the Beta Phi Chapter in Tarrant County, Texas, in February, 1936.

In addition to this work, Ray participated in many of the organization’s national committees, including the Permanent Fund (1930-1933), Auditing (1931-1934), Achievement Award (1932-1935), Initiation (1930-1933), Legislation (1936-1938), and Equal Opportunities for Women Teachers (1938-1942). During the 1954-1956 biennium, this chalkboard champion represented DKG’s founders on the Administrative Board.

Ray was also active in many of her community’s professional and civic organizations. Among these were the American Association of University Women, the Retired Teachers Association, the Women’s Club, the Fort Worth Civic Music Association, and the Symphony Orchestra. She also nurtured many creative hobbies, including needlepoint, hooking rugs, and cooking.

Ray King passed away on January 24, 1979, in Fort Worth. She is interred at Pilot Point Community Cemetery in Denton County, Texas.

To learn more about the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, click on this link: DKG.