Here’s an inspirational sign that does a great job of reminding kinds about what really matters: Learning to be a good person. With a minor adjustment in wording, it could be great for any age group.
Matinga Ragatz: Globally educated and global educator
Matinga Ragatz: Globally educated and global educator
It’s always a pleasure to share stories about exceptional educators. One of these is Matinga Ragatz, a former high school social studies teacher who is globally educated, who has become a global educator.
Even as a youngster, Matinga traveled the world. Born in Spain, she was an elementary student in such places as Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Morocco, and Spain. She earned her high school diploma from Black Forest High School in Kandern, West Germany.
As an adult, Matinga earned her Bachelor’s degree at Messiah College in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1988. She completed the requirements for her teaching credential at Spring Arbor University in Spring Arbor, Michigan, in 1989. She earned her Master’s degree in Teaching at Marygrove College, in Detroit, Michigan, in 2015.
After earning her undergraduate degree, Matinga accepted her first teaching position at Lansing Christian Schools in Lansing, Michigan. She taught social studies and world language there until 1993. That’s when she moved to a position at Grand Ledge High School in Grand Ledge, Michigan, where she taught until 2011. Matinga spent the next year in Arusha, Tanzania, working as a Curriculum Development Specialist in Flood Garden School. When she returned to the United States, she worked for three years in professional development at the Eaton Regional Education Service Agency. Currently, this chalkboard champion works as an Instructional Innovation Specialist and Learning Coach at Communications by Design. She has led instructional activities in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Lain America, and she has been an innovator in developing online learning spaces. In all, Matinga has spent 22 years as a professional educator.
For her outstanding work in classrooms around the world, Matinga has earned many honors. In 2008, she garnered a Microsoft Partners in Learning Innovative Teacher Award, and in 2010, she was named the Michigan Association of Computer Users in Learning Outstanding Educator Award. In 2011, she was honored as Michigan’s State Teacher of the Year, and in 2017, she was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame. She has been honored at the White House by both President Obama and President Trump.
To learn more about this remarkable teacher, her teaching philosophy, and her work, view this three-minute YouTube video below:
Share this:
Accolades to special ed teacher Ashli Skura-Dreher of New York
High school special education teacher Ashli Skura-Dreher of New York
It’s always a pleasure to learn about a colleague who has earned special recognition for his or her work in the classroom. Today, the spotlight falls on Ashli Skura-Dreher, a high school special education teacher from Youngstown, New York.
Ashli earned her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, in 1995. She received her Master’s degree in Special Education from D’Youville College in Buffalo in 1998. In addition, she completed the requirements for a Certificate of Advanced Study from the State University of New York at Buffalo in Educational Leadership in 2002, and she earned her national certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards the same year. In 2017, Ashli was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame in Emporia, Kansas.
Currently Ashli directs the life skills program in the Special Education Department of Youngstown’s Lewiston-Porter High School. She has worked there since 1998. Between 2002 and 2015, she also taught special education and reading at Ulster Community College. Since 2004, Ashli has served as a coordinator for the Education and Learning Trust, which provides professional development courses to teachers across the state. In total, her career as a professional educator has spanned 21 years.
“She handles each individual child with a caring, fair approach by taking time to listen and to be a proactive voice for her students,” declares Andrew Auer, Ashli’s principal at Lewiston-Porter High School. “Her professionalism, effectiveness as a teacher, and her love and concern for students are traits that are certainly worthy of emulating.”
Parent Jennie Welder agrees. “Ashli Dreher has become more than just a great teacher. She’s also a mentor and a great friend,” says Jennie. “She is loved so much by all of her students and their families because of her awesome way of teaching, her caring ways, and her perseverance of never giving up on any child,” Jennie concludes.
Share this:
Biology teacher Joseph Ruhl: A 2017 National Teachers Hall of Fame inductee
Biology teacher and 2017 NTHF inductee Joseph Ruhl features individualized instruction, hands-on projects, and technology in his courses.
I truly enjoy sharing stories about hardworking and dedicated educators. Today I’d like to share the story of Joseph Ruhl, a biology and genetics teacher from Lafayette, Indiana, who was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame in 2017.
Joseph attended Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, where he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Biology in 1977 and his Master’s degree in Biology Education in 1980.
His career in the classroom spanned a total of 38 years in the classroom. During this long career, he has taught at Lanier B High School in Macon, George, at LaCrosse High School in la Crosse, Indiana, at North White high School in Monon, Indiana, and at Jefferson High School in Lafayette, Indiana. “Teaching is one of the most important jobs in the world,” declares Joseph. “It’s also one of the most difficult, but teaching is a profession that will being authentic joy and satisfaction.”
Joseph offers a unique teaching style, which features individualized instruction, hands-on projects, technology, and what he calls a “smorgasbord menu” that allows students to make their own choices.
For his outstanding work in the classroom, Joseph has been singled out for many honors. In 1988 he was awarded a Golden Apple Teaching Award by the Lafayette, Indiana Chamber of Commerce. In 1989, he garnered the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Teaching. In 2012, he won the Shell National Science Teaching Award, and in 2015, he was given the Robert E. Yager Foundation Excellence in Teaching Award. In 2017, he earned the Sagamore of the Wabash Award presented by the Governor Indiana. That same year, he was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame.
The TED Talk YouTube video below is almost 18 minutes, but it provides an inspirational speech from this distinguished chalkboard champion. Enjoy!
Share this:
Former teacher and acclaimed author Maxine Hong Kingston
Former teacher and acclaimed author Maxine Hong Kingston
Many people are familiar with the famous author Maxine Hong Kingston. She wrote The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, a critically-acclaimed autobiographical account in which Maxine details the conflicting cultural messags she received as the daughter of Chinese immigrants growing up in America in the 1950s. She also wrote China Men, Tripmaster Monkey, The Fifth Book of Peace, and Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace. But did you know that this talented writer is also a teacher?
Maxine was born on October 27, 1940, in Stockton, California. Her parents were first-generation Chinese immigrants. In order to immigrate to the United States, her father had to give up a career as a professional scholar and teacher in his home village of Sun Woi, near Canton. Maxine was the third of the couple’s eight children, and the eldest of the six children born to them in the United States.
Maxine earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1962, and then obtained her teaching credential. She taught high school in the city of Hayward for a year, and then moved to Hawaii where she taught in various positions. From 1970 to 1977 she taught at Mid-Pacific Institute, a private boarding school. In 1990, she was invited to join the faculty of her alma mater, UC Berkeley, as a senior lecturer in the English department.
This remarkable educator has earned many awards. She garnered the Writers Award from the national Endowment for the Arts in 1980 and again in 1982. She was honored by President Bill Clinton with a National Humanities Medal in 1997. She has also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Asian American Literary Awards (2006), and a Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation (2008). In 2013 this former English teacher was honored by President Barack Obama with a National Medal of Arts award.
