Tag Archives: African American Teachers

DC PE teacher Alex Clark establishes bicycling program

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Health and physical education teacher Alex Clark has been named the PE Teacher of the Year for the Eastern District by  SHAPE America. Photo credit: SHAPE America

Today the Chalkboard Champion spotlight shines on an amazing physical education teacher: Alex Clark of Washington, DC. Alex teaches health and physical education courses at Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School in Washington, DC. He has been at the school for about nine years. But he is probably better known for his Prime Biking Program.

With the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, Alex became concerned with the health of students who were confined mostly indoors. To help them engage in physical activity, he founded his Stay Prime Biking Program. Through the program, students met with each other and cycled to different locations throughout the DC area two times each week.

Stay Prime has grown to serve over 300 students in the DC area. The program not only helps students stay healthy, but it also encourages young people to come together as a community. “The bike is just a tool to teach students about life,” declares Alex. The students repair and build bicycles not only for themselves, but also for local elementary students. “It has manifested into a way for us to give back to the community,” the teacher says. Alex’s accomplishments have been so successful that he has been featured in magazines, newspapers, and the Today Show—twice!

For this work, Alex has earned several accolades. In 2023 he was named a runner-up for the OSSE (Office of the State Superintendent of Education) Teacher of the Year. In 2024, he was honored as Shape America’s Physical Education Teacher of the Year for the Eastern District. He also garnered a DCPS (District of Columbia Public Schools) Standing Ovation Award.

Alex earned his Bachelor’s degree in Education from Central Connecticut State University in 2014.

Teacher of Tuskegee Airmen Willa Brown Chappell is part of Black History

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As part of the celebration of Black History Month, I share the story remarkable teacher and Chalkboard Champion Willa Brown Chappell. During World War II, this amazing educator was a pioneer in the aviation field, and she even became a teacher of Tuskegee Airmen. Watch the video below to learn more about her.

Carter Godwin Woodson: The Chalkboard Champion who founded Black History Month

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Carter Godwin Woodson

Educator and historian Carter Godwin Woodson was the founder of Black History Month. Photo Credit: Blackpast.com

This February, teachers all over the nation are sharing Black History Month with their students. The observance is an annual celebration of the many important contributions African Americans have made to American culture and society. But did you know that Black History Month was the brainchild of a brilliant African American teacher?

Carter Godwin Woodson (1875-1950)  is credited with organizing and advocating annual Black History Month celebrations in American schools, starting in 1926. Certainly this is an admirable accomplishment in and of itself, but there is so much more to learn about this outstanding educator.

Carter was born in Virginia, the son of former slaves who became cropsharers following the Civil War. Because of his family’s poverty, Carter was forced at a very young age 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. As a young man, Carter worked as a coal miner in Fayette County, West Virginia. Later he returned to that community to teach school to the children of Black coal miners, serving as a personal role model for using education as a means to get out of the mines. Carter also travelled to the Philippines where he first taught school, and then became the supervisor of schools. Eventually he became a trainer of teachers there.

This Chalkboard Champion 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 entitled The Journal of Negro History. For these accomplishments, and many more, Carter Godwin Woodson has been called the “Father of Black History.”

To read more about this fascinating historical figure, check out the chapter I have written about him in my first book, Chalkboard Champions.

Georgia’s Vanessa Ellis: Outstanding Social Studies teacher

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Middle school teacher Vanessa Ellis of Georgia is an outstanding educator. Photo credit: All On Georgia

I always enjoy sharing the story of an outstanding educator. Today, I am sharing the story of Vanessa Ellis, a middle school Social Studies teacher and Department Chair from Covington, Georgia.

Vanessa teaches at Veterans Memorial Middle School in Covington. She instructs courses in World Studies to seventh graders and Georgia Studies to eighth graders. The World Studies course includes geography, history, economics, and government of Africa and Asia. The Georgia Studies course includes geography, history, economics, and government of the state of Georgia. She also teaches her students a unit on personal money management choices with regards to income, spending, credit, saving, and investing. “This is a great way to introduce students to future financial responsibility,” Vanessa asserts.

This Chalkboard Champion says that becoming a teacher has always been her passion. “Someone once told me that the measure of a true educator is the impact that they have on students,” Vanessa says. “Years from now, I would hope that my students would say, first and foremost, that I loved them. That I honored their humanity—that even though they were kids, I treated them with kindness, dignity, and respect,” she continues. “I would also hope that they would say I believed in them—that I showed up for them, and I cared for them, not only as students, but as individuals. I challenge them and I push them to discover their capacity to learn is far greater than they ever can imagine,” she concludes.

For her work in the classroom, Vanessa has earned many accolades. In 2022, she was named the Muscogee County Teacher of the Year. In 2021, she garnered a competition for having the best Canvas course for students in Muscogee County. In 2018, she was named a Harvard Fellow and studied researched-based practices for a week at Project Zero Classroom. And in 2017, she was honored as Georgia Economics Teacher of the Year by the Georgia Council on Economic Education.

Vanessa was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and raised in both Sarasota, Florida, and Columbus, Georgia. Vanessa earned her Bachelor’s degree in History and Secondary Education in 2011 and her Master’s degree in Secondary Social Sciences in 2019, both from Columbus State University.

 

Teacher Mary Burrell worked tirelessly for women’s rights, prison reform, and civil rights

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Public school teacher Mary Burrell also worked as a suffragist and social reformer in the early 19th century. Photo credit: Newark Women

I have always believed that teachers are among the most active social reformers in our nation’s history. As an example, I offer Mary Burrell, a public school teacher who worked tirelessly as a suffragist, political organizer, and reformer.

Mary Burrell was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1866. to Lucy Cary. When she was a youngster, Mary attended public schools in Richmond up to the eighth grade. She graduated in 1883 from the Richmond Colored Normal School.

After her graduation, Mary worked as a public school teacher for two years, until her marriage in 1885 to William Patrick Burrell. To this union were born two sons, William Jr. and John Mercer. In 1913, the family moved to Essex County, New Jersey.

Mary had a reputation for being an outstanding pubic speaker. She worked diligently for such causes as women’s suffrage, holding meetings in her home, organizing political rallys, and canvassing door-to-door to earn votes for the cause. She also prison reform, fighting against race and sex discrimination. In addition, she founded the Richmond Hospital, organized Rosebud youth groups, and served as Chair of the Women’s Auxiliary and Secretary of the Virginia State Federation of Colored Women.

The former teacher worked with Assemblyman Dr. Walter Alexander to draft several pieces of legislation, including prison reform and civil rights bills that passed both the State Assembly and State Senate over the Democratic governor’s veto. In fact, because of her effectiveness as a lobbyist, the state legislature granted her floor privileges for an entire term.

In addition to this work, Mary Burrell held positions in national and state level inter-racial and civic and political organizations, including the National League of Republican Colored Women, the State Colored Republican Conference, the inter-racial National Republican Conference, the inter-racial Newark NAACP, the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, and the (NJ) State Migrant Commission. She remained an honored reformer and political organizer in the state of New Jersey until her passing in 1949.