Tag Archives: African American Teachers

PA dance teacher LaDeva Davis successful in Show Biz

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Beloved dance teacher LaDeva Davis of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, also earned fame in Show Biz. Photo Credit: The Philadelphia Inquirer

Many excellent educators have also earned fame in the entertainment industry. One of these was LaDeva Davis, a dance teacher and choreographer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who was also successful in Show Biz.

As a young woman, LaDeva studied at the Philadelphia Musical Academy. Once she completed her education, she accepted a position as a junior high school teacher in 1965 in the Philadelphia School District, where she taught her entire professional life. In 1978, she became a member of the inaugural staff of the famous Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA). She worked there as a full-time teacher for 44 years. In all, her career as an educator spanned 57 years.

Without exception, her students report that she genuinely cared about them. She made sure her kids got to their classes on time and checked up on their academic progress. And if one of them couldn’t afford new ballet shoes, she bought them a pair from her own pocket. She had a reputation for being a stickler for perfect grammar, good posture, and respect. And she helped them develop into accomplished performers. During her years at CAPA, LaDeva’s students performed in many Thanksgiving Day Parades, and in shows which she had choreographed in both California and Florida.

In addition to her work at CAPA, LaDeva taught at Swarthmore College, served two terms as President of the Board of Philadanco, and worked as a choreographer for commercials, local theater companies, and a Mummers fancy brigade.

In fact, LaDeva’s work in the entertainment industry began when she was very young. As a child, she made weekly appearances on the Parisian Taylor Kiddie Hour Radio Show. Later, she sang in supper clubs. In the 1970s, she hosted What’s Cooking?, which became so popular she became the first African American woman to have a nationally syndicated cooking show. Behind the camera, she co-produced the 2007 Dixie Hummingbirds album Keeping It Real: The Last Man Standing, and for her work on the album she was nominated for a Grammy. At various times in her life she performed with such notable entertainers as Josephine Baker, Pearl Bailey, Natalie Cole, Billy Dee Williams, Danny Thomas, Jamie Farr, Alan King, Jimmy Walker, and Gregory Hines.

For her work as an educator, the beloved teacher garnered several honors, including a Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, a prize given each year to Philadelphia’s best educators. In 2015, she earned the Mary McLeod Bethune Award for leadership, excellence, and achievement in education from the National Council of Negro Women.

Sadly, this Chalkboard Champion passed away on Sept. 8, 2022, after suffering a stroke. She was 78 years old.

NJ teacher, counselor, and politician Priscilla B. Anderson

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New Jersey history teacher and guidance counselor Priscilla B. Anderson also served in the New Jersey State General Assembly. Photo Credit: ourcampaigns.com

Many excellent educators have also earned success as politicians. One of these is Priscilla B. Anderson, a public school teacher and guidance counselor from New Jersey who once served as an elected member of her state’s General Assembly.

Priscilla was born on Sept. 14, 1935, and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After earning both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Education, she worked as first a history teacher and then a guidance counselor in public schools in Trenton, New Jersey. Priscilla was known to have a special interesting young people and their contributions to the community. In fact, to recognize their service, she established the Willingboro Youth Achievement Awards to honor them.

Priscilla inaugurated her career as a politician in 1981 when she was elected to serve on the Willingboro Township Council in Burlington County, New Jersey. Subsequently she was elected mayor of the Township in 1984 and again in 1991. At that time she was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly representing the 7th Legislative District, where she served from 1992 to 1994. Priscilla was the first African American to be elected to the New Jersey State Legislature from Burlington County.

Once her term in the Assembly was completed, Priscilla served as a Commissioner on the Burlington County Bridge Commission. During her tenure, the Commission collected nearly $30 million annually in bridge tolls, oversaw a $41 million capital budget, and handled the county’s economic-development projects.

The retired history teacher and guidance counselor also published a book of local history entitled The History and Contributions of Black Americans to the Development of Willingboro. The volume has become an important resource for historians and sociologists studying her town’s history.

Today, Priscilla B. Anderson is 87 years old, and she resides in Philadelphia.

 

AZ Special Ed teacher Kareem Neal inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame

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Congratulations to Special Education teacher Kareem Neal of Phoenix Arizona, who has been inducted into the 2022 National Teachers Hall of Fame. Photo Credit: AZEDNews

It is always a pleasure to share the story of an exceptional teacher who has been honored for his work in the classroom. One of these is Kareem Neal, a special education teacher in Phoenix, Arizona. He has been inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame (NTHF). In fact, he is the first educator from Arizona to be so honored.

Kareem teaches grade ninth through twelfth students with severe cognitive delays at Maryvale High School in Phoenix. In a career that has spanned 23 years, 15 of them has been spent at Maryvale. Prior to accepting his job at maryvale, he worked for six years at The Children’s Center for Neurodevelopmental Studies in Glendale, Arizona. Before moving to Arizona, he worked at The Developmental Learning Center of New Providence, New Jersey, a school that provided services for students with autism. He has also created and developed all of the curricula across all content areas used in self-contained Special Education classes within his district.

Kareem takes his work with young people very seriously. “When students leave my class, I want them not to have to rely on other people to do everything for them. That is number one,” declares Kareem. And his efforts are paying off. “Our work in my class is validated by the number of students who are currently working in the community near school or are doing sheltered employment rather than living in a group home, staying at home, or attending day programs,” he reveals. “My classroom community and structure allow for the students to thrive in roles that they wouldn’t traditionally thrive in,” he concludes.

In addition to being named in the NTHF, Kareem was named the Arizona state Teacher of the Year in 2019. In 2018, he garnered an Arizona Education Association Diversity Award, in 2017, he was named the Phoenix Union High School District Teacher of the Year. He has also earned The Educator Excellence Award by the Maryvale Revitalization Committee.

Kareem earned his Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Seton Hall University in 1996 and his Master’s degree in Special Education from Jersey City University in 1999.

The National Teachers Hall of Fame is a non-profit organization founded in 1998 in Emporia, Kansas. Nominees must be certified public or non-public schoolteachers, active or retired, with at least 20 years of experience in teaching grades preK-12. Since the inaugural induction ceremonies in 1992, 140 educators from 40 states and the District of Columbia have been inducted. Kareem is one of five inductees to be honored in 2022.

To learn more about Kareem Neal, click on this link to the Council of Chief State School Officers.

Grammy-winning music icon Roberta Flack is a former English teacher

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Music icon and Grammy-winning singer Roberta Flack was once an English teacher. Photo Credit: IMDB

Many people have heard of Grammy Award-winning songwriter and singer Roberta Flack. Her best-known songs are “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” and “Where Is the Love?” But did you know that this celebrated jazz, folk, and R&B icon was once a public school teacher?

Roberta Cleopatra Flack was born February 10, 1937, in Black Mountain, Buncombe County, North Carolina. She was raised in Arlington, Virginia. Her mother was a church organist, so of course Roberta grew up in a musical household. At the age of nine, Roberta began to study classical piano, and by the time she was fifteen, she’d earned a full scholarship in music from Howard University. Howard is a traditionally Black college located in Washington, DC.

Roberta completed her undergraduate work, and then her student teaching at an all-white school near Chevy Chase, Maryland. She was the first African American student teacher to work at that school. After her college graduation, Roberta accepted a position teaching music and English in Farmville, North Carolina, a gig which paid her only $2,800 per year. She also taught in Washington, DC, at Browne Junior High and Rabaut Junior High School. While she was teaching, she took a number of side jobs as a night club singer. It was there that she was discovered and signed to a contract for Atlanta Records. The rest, as they say, is music business history.

Over the course of her music career, the former teacher has been nominated for a Grammy 13 times, winning on four occasions. On May 11, 2017, Roberta received an honorary Doctorate degree in the Arts from Long Island University. In 2009 she was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame, and in 2022, she was honored with the Women in American History War by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

In recent years, Roberta continues to contribute to education came when she founded an after-school music program entitled “The Roberta Flack School of Music” to provide music education free of charge to underprivileged students in the Bronx borough of New York City. The program is offered through Hyde Leadership Charter School. You can learn more about this program at this link: Roberta Flack School of Music.

 

Chicago teacher Dwayne Reed greets kindergartners with a song

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While watching Today on television this morning commentators were doing a story on Dwayne Reed, an amazing teacher from Chicago, Illinois. He has written a “Welcome to Kindergarten Song” to share with students as they enter their classroom on their first day. I found the video on You Tube, and just had to share it with you, so here it is! And just in case you would like to read more about him, check out this link to a story about him on his website, Teach Mr. Reed.