Missouri’s Jan Alderson: an exemplary high school science teacher

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Jan Alderson

Missouri’s Jan Alderson: an exemplary high school science teacher.

I always enjoy sharing the awe-inspiring stories of exemplary educators. One of these is Jan Alderson, a high school science teacher from Overland Park, Kansas.

Jan earned her Bachelor’s degree in Education from the University of Central Missouri in 1969 and her Master’s degree in Biology from the University of Missouri at Kansas City in 1973.

Now retired, Jan has taught such courses as life science, earth science, physical science, biology, and human anatomy and physiology. She has worked at both the junior high school and high school levels, teaching at Pittman Hills Junior High School, Raytown South High School, and at Shawnee Mission South High School. In all, her career as an educator spanned an impressive 45 years.

Jan’s work has earned a great deal of praise from her distinguished colleagues. “Mrs. Alderson’s classroom is a carefully designed studio of experiments, research, and meaningful information intentionally organized to educate, not overwhelm,” says School Board member Joan Levens. “She is constantly growing, learning, and mentoring. We are all beneficiaries of her quest to grow the next generation of well-rounded scientists.” Dr. Charles Wurrey of the University of Missouri at Kansas City agrees. “In all of her teaching efforts, she emphasizes ‘hands-on’ and ‘minds-on’ learning by involving student research and ‘learning by doing’ by having her students tutor and mentor others and provide service to the community,” he says.

For her work in the classroom, Jan has earned many accolades. In 1975, she was named Outstanding Missouri Conservation Educator by the Conservation Federation of Missouri. In 1991 she garnered a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Teaching. In 2011, Jan earned the Burroughs Audubon Outstanding Educator Award. She was even named an alternate from Missouri for the NASA Teacher in Space program! In 2014, this chalkboard champion was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame.

Jan Alderson: a truly exemplary educator.

 

Educator Septima Poinsette Clark championed the Civil Rights Movement

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Educator  Septima Poinsette Clark championed the Civil Rights Movement

Septima Poinsette Clark was an integral part of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Martin Luther King, Jr., often called her “The Mother of the Movement.” In fact, this remarkable educator earned the Martin Luther King, Jr., Award in 1970, the Living Legacy Award in 1979, and the Drum Major for Justice Award in 1987.

Septima was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on May 3, 1898. Her father was born a slave, and her mother, although born in Charleston, was raised in Haiti and never experienced slavery. After Septima graduated from high school in 1916, she didn’t have the money to finance her college education. Nevertheless, she landed a position as an elementary teacher in a school for African American Gullah children on John’s Island in South Carolina’s Sea Islands. By 1919, Septima returned to Charleston to teach sixth grade at Avery Normal Institute, a private academy for Black children. Before long, Septima became involved with Charleston’s NAACP, which inaugurated her involvement in Civil Rights activities. In the 1940s, Septima was finally able to return to school, taking summer school courses to earn her college degree. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from Benedict College and her Master’s from Hampton University.

In the 1950s Septima found herself working at the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee. She was instrumental in fighting against Jim Crow laws by organizing citizenship schools to teach underprivileged African Americans basic literacy skills, voter registration techniques, and the history of the Movement. At Highlander, Septima served as the director of workshops, trained teachers, and recruited students.One of the participants in her workshops was Rosa Parks. Shortly after participating in the Highlander workshops, Rosa helped launch the now-famous Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Septima Clark passed away on John’s Island on December 15, 1987, of natural causes. This talented and dedicated teacher was 89 years old.

Michigan’s Gary Koppelman earns national recognition for his environmental life lab

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Gary Koppelman

Fifth grade science and math teacher Gary Koppelman from Blissfield, Michigan, shows his students some of his favorite creatures that inhabit his Blissfield Environmental Life Lab.

It is always a joy to write about chalkboard champions who have earned national recognition for their hard work in the classroom. One such teacher is Gary Koppelman, a fifth grade science and math teacher from Michigan who established an environmental life lab, and for this work has earned numerous prestigious awards.

Gary attended Eastern Michigan University, where he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Science in 1973 and his Master’s degree in Elementary Education in 1976. He inaugurated his career in education with Deerfield Public Schools, where he taught fifth and sixth grades from 1973 to 1976. In 1976, he transferred to Blissfield Community Schools, where he taught fourth and fifth grades until 1982. Next, Gary took a position at the New Life School, where he taught kindergarten through eighth grade until 1993. Finally, he taught fifth grade for Blissfield Community Schools in Blissfield, Michigan. In all, Gary has devoted 45 years of his life to the teaching profession.

For his work in the classroom, Gary has garnered numerous awards. Among these are the Michigan State Special Tribute Teacher Award in 2003 and 2012; the Golden Apple Teacher Award from Channel 24 TV in Toledo, Ohio, in 2004; the “Closing the Gap in Education Award” from the Chrysler Corporation in 2008; and the Shell Science Teaching Award from the Shell Oil Company in 2013. In 2014, Gary was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame in Emporia, Kansas. That year, he also received a Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching from President Barack Obama.

Gary would probably say that his biggest accomplishment is establishing the Blissfield Environmental Life Lab, abbreviated BELL. “Since our school is in a northern climate, it is sometimes difficult for students to observe and experiment year-round with plants and animals and witness all stages of development from young to adult without interruption,” explains Gary. “The BELL has become an arboretum and terrarium, furnished with various habitats and biomes for observation and experimentation, allowing the entire district to use as an extended classroom,” he continued. The BELL contains a 1,500 gallon fresh water pond, a butterfly house, a 1,500-gallon salt water ecosystem, a bird aviary, a herpetile area, and an invertebrate zoo. “Students are now doing experiments and obtaining knowledge as they make predictions about life science and our environment,” says Gary. “Knowledge is deeply set as children invest part of themselves in exploring plants, animals, or various habitats found within the climatically controlled greenhouse,” he concludes.

Rock on, Gary.

 

Expanding the ability to teach the Holocaust through a visit to the Verzets Resistance Museum

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Verzets Museum

Author Terry Lee Marzell visits the Verzets Resistance Museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to learn more about Dutch resistance to the Nazis during World War II.

My most recent post discussed how visiting a historical site or museum can immeasurably improve the teacher’s ability to teach a topic. Specifically, I was talking about how a visit to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam would be invaluable to instruction about the Holocaust. In my opinion, any study of the victims of the Holocaust is greatly improved when paired with a discussion about resistance movements and rescuers. Therefore, if you get the opportunity to travel to the Netherlands, I  recommend pairing your visit to the Franks’ hiding place with a visit to the Verzets Resistance Museum, a museum entirely devoted to describing the various ways the Dutch people resisted the Nazi occupiers.

The connection between Jewish asylum-seekers such as the Frank family and Dutch resistance workers is a strong one. On the day that Anne Frank and her family were arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Auschwitz, two of the ten individuals that were deported from the secret annex were resistance workers who had been aiding the Frank family over the two-year period they had been in hiding.

Verzets Museum

The Verzets Museum displays a printing press used by Dutch resistance workers to create underground newspapers.

The Verzets Museum offers a wealth of information about the German Occupation and Nazi domination in the Netherlands during World War II, and how the Dutch people collectively responded to their occupation. During the years of 1940 to 1945, nearly every Dutch citizen faced moral dilemmas which required difficult and dangerous choices. The museum explores covert or more open strategies used by those who chose to resist. Most often these strategies included hiding Jewish neighbors or aiding those in hiding, forging documents, publishing underground newspapers, or conducting counter-intelligence. But a few chose to become involved in strikes, armed resistance, or domestic sabotage. All of them faced the possibility of deportation to the death camps or immediate execution if caught.

The Verzets Resistance Museum is housed in the handsome Plancius building, a structure originally constructed in 1876. The house previously served as a Jewish music hall, a Jewish cultural center, and a synagogue. The space was converted into the Verzets, also known as the Museum of Dutch Resistance, in 1999.

The Verzets Museum is open seven days a week. Tickets cost 11 Euros per adult, and come with a free audio tour in English. For more information, check out their website at Verzets Resistance Museum.

 

Anne Frank Museum visit expands the educator’s ability to teach the Holocaust

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Anne Frank

A visit to the Anne Frank Museum located in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, expands the educator’s ability to teach students about the Holocaust.

Like many of my fellow educators, during my 36-year career I was frequently faced with the task of teaching my students about the Holocaust. To approach this sensitive topic, teachers often introduce young people to The Diary of Anne Frank, a true story about a Jewish teenager in Amsterdam who went into hiding to escape capture and deportation by the Nazis. On a recent vacation to the Netherlands, I was able to visit the place where Anne and seven others were concealed for more than two years, until their heartbreaking discovery, arrest, and deportation. A visit to this historic site is a valuable experience for the teacher who shares Anne’s story with students.

Visiting the secret annex allowed me a deeper understanding of the experiences Anne and her family shared as they attempted to escape the Nazis’ persecution: the darkness of the rooms and the closeness of the walls, the provisions for daily human needs (how do eight people use a toilet all day without the ability to flush it until after nightfall?), and the ever-present fear of discovery.

As I passed through the hinged bookcase that camouflages the entrance to the hiding place and stepped from one covert room to another, it was sobering to realize that my footsteps fell directly on top of those of the ill-fated asylum-seekers. Of the eight people who went into hiding, Anne’s father was the only one to survive their deportation. I found it especially sorrowful that after the war, he had to live with the knowledge that even after his Herculean efforts to rescue his family, he wasn’t able to save them. And throughout the entire museum, Anne’s own words, taken directly from her diary, projected as a reminder of the resiliency of the human spirit.

It is these expanded understandings, experiences, and emotions that make a visit to a historic place like this so worthwhile. The action makes the teacher a better teacher.

Anne Frank

Author Terry Lee Marzell at the Anne Frank House Museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

If you are committed to making a pilgrimage to the Anne Frank house, you can only visit the museum by buying tickets for a specific day and time ahead of time. Tickets are released two months in advance, and you must buy your tickets online. The cost is 10 Euros for adults. To learn more, visit the website at the Anne Frank House Museum for additional information.