Tag Archives: African American Teachers

Carter Godwin Woodson: The teacher who established Black History Month

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Carter Godwin Woodson was an American school teacher who created Black History Month, an annual celebration of the many outstanding contributions African Americans have made to our country. Photo credit: Public Domain

This February, socially conscious teachers all over the United States are launching their classes into Black History Month, an annual celebration of the many outstanding contributions African Americans have made to our country. But did you know that Black History Month, itself, was the brainchild of a brilliant American teacher?

Educator Carter Godwin Woodson is credited with organizing and advocating annual Black History Month celebrations in American schools. He is also recognized as the first African American born of enslaved parents to earn a PhD in History. Admittedly, these are noteworthy accomplishments. But there is so much more to this brilliant man’s life story than is usually publicized.

Did you know that, as a youngster, Carter was forced to work on the family farm rather than attend school? Nevertheless, he taught himself to read using the Bible and local newspapers. He didn’t finish high school until he was 20 years old. Did you know that Carter once worked as a coal miner in Fayette County, West Virginia, and then later went back there to teach school to the children of Black coal miners, serving as a model for using education to get out of the mines? Did you know that Carter taught school in the Philippines, and then became the supervisor of schools, which included duties as a trainer of teachers, there? And did you know that he was one of the first to study African American history, to collect data, oral histories, and documents, and to publish his findings in a scholarly magazine he published, The Journal of Negro History? 

To read more about this fascinating historical figure, check out my book, Chalkboard Champions.

Janet Damon named Colorado state’s 2025 Teacher of the Year

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High school history teacher and Teacher Librarian Janet Damon has been named Colorado’s 2025 Teacher of the Year.  Photo credit: Colorado League of Charter Schools

I am always excited to share the story of a superlative teacher who has received recognition for their work with young people. Today I share the story of Janet Damon, a high school Social Studies teacher and Teacher Librarian who has been named the 2025 Teacher of the Year for her home state of Colorado.

Janet has worked as a teacher, literacy interventionist, and teacher librarian in the Denver Public School District. She has taught in the district for more than 25 years. Currently, she teaches history at DELTA High School. 
 
Her lessons focus on inquiry, research, and digital storytelling. In her courses, students create solutions to problems faced by their communities. For example, they create podcasts to advocate for issues such as homelessness, gun violence, incarceration, inflation, immigration, racism, health care, and drug addiction. 
 
In addition to her work in the classroom, Janet founded a nonprofit she calls Afros and Books. The organization supports access to books for marginalized individuals in her community. Through this program, young people participate in family reading adventures in the Colorado outdoors. In these adventures, young people engage in hiking, kayaking, archery, yoga, fly–fishing, and birding while receiving new books for summer reading. Janet founded the organization in 2015.

In addition to all this, Janet writes a blog for multicultural mothers which she hopes helps promote cross-cultural experiences and support friendships and community among women in diverse communities. She calls this blog MixMomma. Read more about this at Voyage Denver.

Janet’s selection as her state’s Teacher of the Year is not the only recognition she has earned. She received the CorePower Yoga Teacher Scholarship and the Extraordinary Teacher Award from Suntec Concrete in 2024; the African Americans Who Are Making a Difference Award in 2023; the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award in 2022 and the inaugural Making Our Futures Brighter Award in 2022; and the Library Journal Mover and Shaker Award 2020. She has also earned the Facing History fellowship and Fund for Teachers fellowship.

Janet earned her Bachelor’s degree in History from Metropolitan State University in 2000. She earned her Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Denver in 2005. She also completed the requirements for her Educational Specialist’s degree in Leadership for Educational Organizations from the University of Colorado at Denver in 2010. 

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!