Tag Archives: African American Teachers

Maryland educator Jessica Nichols garners honors

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High school Social Studies Jessica Nichols has been named the 2025 Howard County Public Schools System Teacher of the Year. Photo credit: Jessica Nichols

I am always eager to share the story of an outstanding educator who works in one of our nation’s public schools. Today, I share the story of Jessica Nichols, a high school Social Studies teacher from Eldridge, Maryland. She has been named the 2025 Howard County Public Schools System (HCPSS) Teacher of the Year.

Jessica teaches at River Hill High School in Clarksville, Maryland. In a career that was inaugurated in 2001, she has spent the last ten of them at River Hill. There she serves on the school leadership team, sponsors clubs, coaches speeches and debates, and organizes professional development workshops.

Before Jessica accepted her position at River Hill she taught at Wilde Lake High School. There many of her students came from impoverished homes. “At Wilde Lake, I used to have a food closet because I would have kids who wouldn’t eat over the weekend,” remembers Jessica, “and I knew when they came to my class you have to do a hierarchy of needs. You have to meet the basic needs before they are going to want to care about AP economics, and government, and psychology,” she says. “No questions asked; if you needed something, you went in the food closet and picked up something to eat and then you jumped right back into the lesson,” she continued.

Her selection as the 2025 HCPSS Teacher of the Year is not the only honor Jessica has earned. In 2024, she was named the Coca Cola Teacher of Distinction, and she was named the Teacher of the Year at River Hill High School. In 2019, she garnered a 

Jessica earned her Bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education from the University of Maryland in 2001. She completed the requirements for her Master’s degree in Human Resource Development from Towson University in 2020. In addition, she is a National Board Certified Teacher.

 

North Carolina teacher and principal Louise Archer

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North Carolina teacher Louise Archer taught core academic subjects and life skills in a segregated rural one-room schoolhouse. Photo Credit: Louise Archer Elementary School

Our nation’s students are indeed fortunate to have so many dedicated and hardworking educators teaching in our public schools. One of these was Louise Archer, an elementary school teacher from North Carolina.

Louise was born on Oct. 23, 1893, in Fayetteville, North Carolina. As a young woman, she attended Livingston College, a historically Black Christian college located in Salisbury, North Carolina. She married Romulus Archer, Jr., in 1915. The couple relocated to Washington, DC, in 1922, and Louise continued her education at Morgan State College, a historically Black college in nearby Baltimore, Maryland. There she earned her Bachelor’s degree.

Louise inaugurated her career as an educator at the Oak Grove School in Southampton, Virginia, in a one-room schoolhouse for African American children. She taught there two years. In 1924, she became both the teacher and the principal for another one-room segregated school, the Vienna Colored School, located in Vienna, Virginia. The camped, unheated facility was the first in Fairfax County to educate African American students in fifth through seventh grades. For many, this was the only education they would receive.

The first boys who were the first to arrive at the rural school each morning chopped wood for the fire to keep the schoolhouse warm. Students brought water each day from a nearby spring and stored it in buckets in one corner of the classroom. Louise taught her students using tattered, secondhand textbooks, but she supplemented these with lessons in music and poetry. In addition, she taught her students life skills such as cooking, sewing, embroidery, cabinet-making, and rug-hooking.

In addition to her work in the classroom, Louise established a 4-H Club for African Americans in Fairfax County. Through this club, her students planted a garden and raised vegetables to add to a soup that was cooked each day on a potbelly stove.

By all accounts Louise was devoted to her young charges. For example, if they needed help getting to school, she drove them to the schoolhouse herself. She invited students to her home in Washington, DC, so they could experience a big city, and she let students use her home address when they enrolled in a DC high school so they could continue their education without paying expensive tuition fees.

Later in her career, Louise organized a Parent Teacher Association to raise money to buy much-needed classroom supplies. The group also raised money to construct a new schoolhouse, this one with three rooms, which opened in 1939. In 1941, she spearheaded fundraising efforts to pay for electric lighting, a music teacher, kitchen supplies, and bus transportation for the students.

Sadly, Louise suffered a heart attack and passed on April 1, 1948. In 1950, her school was renamed the Louise Archer Elementary School in her honor.

Astral Battiste named 2024 Teacher of the Year for the US Virgin Islands

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Teacher Astral Battiste has been selected the 2024 Teacher of the Year for the US Virgin Islands. Photo credit: The Virgin Islands Consortium

I am always excited to share the news that an outstanding educator has been honored for their work with young people. Today, I share the news that elementary school teacher Astral Battiste has been selected the 2024 Teacher of the Year for the US Virgin Islands.

Astral teaches kindergartners at the Pearl B. Larsen Elementary School in the Saint Croix District in the US Virgin Islands. She instructs students in the subjects of reading, language arts, math, social studies and science.

In addition, Astral leads several committees at her school site, coaches VI History Quiz Bowl, helps plans Hispanic Heritage Month, and organizes the school’s Christmas programs. And as if all that were not enough, she has led the Girl Scouts and participates in after school programs to benefit students.

It seems that Astral was meant to be an educator. As a teenager, she found herself mentoring children at 4H summer camps and volunteering at St. Croix Central High School. But she officially launched her career in education when she accepted a position as an aide at St. Mary’s Catholic School. Her career as an educator spans 20 years.

A background in reading instruction led her to be an advocate for literacy. By implementing a weekly parent class at her school, her platform is to promote literacy in early childhood education. Her goal focuses on empowering parents and students with the tools necessary to increase student reading achievement and success.

The recognition she earned from the US Virgin Islands Department of Education is not the only honor Astral has received. She was named the 2022-2023 Pearl B. Larsen Teacher of the Year, and she was also recognized as the 2022-2023 Saint Croix District Teacher of the Year.

Astral earned her Bachelor’s in Elementary Education with a minor in Social Sciences in 2006, and she earned her Master’s degree in Education with a Concentration in Reading Instruction in 2013, both from the University of the Virgin Islands.

Congratulations, Astral!

 

Texas teacher Jasmine Thomas earns recognition

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Here is a teacher you simply must meet: Jasmine Thomas of Houston, Texas. She has been named the 2024-2025 Teacher of the Year for Humble Independent School District.

Since 2022, Jasmine has taught fourth grade there at Autumn Elementary School. In addition to teaching, Jasmine is also a part of the Autumn Creek Elementary Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (PBIS) team. Pouring positivity into the students and staff of Autumn Creek Elementary is part of her daily routine.

Jasmine earned her Bachelor’s degree in Theater and Communication Studies from Southwestern University in 2012.

The title of Humble ISD 2024-2025 Teacher of the Year comes with a check for $10,000.

Comfort Baker overcame adversity to become a respected teacher

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Comfort Baker over came family tragedy and adversity to become an educator in Omaha, Nebraska and elsewhere. Photo Credit: North Omaha History

I always enjoy shining a spotlight on outstanding educators. Educators such as Comfort Baker, an African American orphan from North Carolina who became a teacher in Arkansas, Texas, and Arizona. Her story is one of commitment, resilience, and perseverance.

Comfort was born in New Bern, North Carolina, on Feb. 15, 1870. Sadly, she became an orphan at the age of 13, and so she was sent to Omaha, Nebraska, to live with an aunt and uncle. She did well in school there, even earning recognition for her outstanding attendance.

When she was 15, Comfort enrolled at Omaha High School. Unfortunately, that same year her uncle also passed away, and her aunt became confined to a mental hospital.

Faced with the necessity of supporting herself, Comfort secured a job as a domestic in the household of Colonel Watson B. Smith and his wife, Fanny. In 1889, after three years of hard work, Comfort finally graduated from high school. She was the first female African American student to graduate from high school in Omaha, Nebraska. In a graduating class of 50 students, Comfort earned her diploma with honors.

Following her high school graduation, Comfort determined to enter the profession of teaching. She enrolled in Fisk University, a historically Black university located in Nashville, Tennessee. She was able to attend college with the financial assistance of Belle H. Lewis, a high school mathematics teacher in Omaha. Comfort earned her diploma, with honors, from Fisk in 1893. During her years in Omaha, Comfort also became a published author. She wrote numerous articles that were published by the Omaha newspaper, The Enterprise.

Comfort accepted her first teaching position when she became a summer school teacher for African American students in Newport, Jackson County, Arkansas, but by 1896 she was teaching in the town of Corsicana in Texas, and by 1905, she was teaching in Gainesville, Texas. A decade later she was teaching seventh and eighth grade at Frederick Douglas Grammar and High School in El Paso, where she was employed from 1914 to 1917.

In 1917, Comfort married, and with her husband she relocated to Phoenix, Arizona. There she instructed courses in history, algebra, geometry, Latin, civics, and penmanship. She was the first African American teacher in the Phoenix Union High School District, where she taught for 21 years, serving several years as the principal of the school. During these years, Comfort continued to improve her professional techniques by completing courses at the University of Southern California and the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Comfort Blazer retired in 1940. In all, her career as an educator spanned 52 years. This highly-respected and distinguished trailblazer passed away on June 5, 1946, in Phoenix.