Tag Archives: Elementary Teachers

Special Education and ESL teacher Debra Hurst of Austin, Texas

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Debra Hurst

Special Education and ESL teacher Debra Hurst of Austin, Texas

I always enjoy sharing stories about gifted educators. That’s what this blog is all about! Today I’m sharing the story of Debra Hurst, a retired elementary school teacher from Austin, Texas.

Debra earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She earned her Master’s degree at the University of Texas at Austin in 1986, and in 1997, she completed the requirements for her certification in English as a Second Language, also from University of Texas, Austin. In 2011, Debra earned her Master Reading Teacher Certification.

Debra has worked in classrooms for her entire 39-year career. She accepted her first position in Marshalltown, Iowa, where she worked with hearing impaired students from infants to high school students. She worked there from 1977 to 1982. In 1982 she moved to Austin, Texas, where she spent the remainder of her lengthy career. For six years she worked as an early childhood deaf teacher at Casis Elementary. From there, she transferred to Galindo Elementary where she worked as a Pre-K and Inclusion teacher. She stayed in that position for ten years. In 1998, Debra taught at Mills Elementary, and she spent three years as a literacy coach at Widen Elementary. From 2013 to 2015, this chalkboard champion worked at the Uphaus Early Childhood Center.

For her extraordinary work as an educator, Debra has earned many accolades. In 2004 she garnered both the University of Texas Excellence in Teaching Award and the Disney Teacher Award.  In 2005, she was given the national KIND Award, and in 2007 she won the HEB Excellence in Education Award. In 2016 she was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame in Emporia, Kansas.

The National Teachers Hall of Fame was founded in 1989 by Emporia State University to recognize dedicated educators throughout the country. The organization conducts an annual induction ceremony to recognize the five teachers selected that year. Located on Emporia State University campus in Kansas, the Hall of Fame honors teachers through a gallery of honorees, a Wall of Fame, a museum, and resource center that tell the history of education through antique textbooks, teacher contracts, and other artifacts. Learn more on their website at nthf.org.

 

Larisa Hovannisian, the Arizona special education teacher who founded Teach for Armenia

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Larisa

Larisa Hovannisian, the Arizona special education teacher who founded Teach for Armenia.

Sometimes a classroom teacher can make the most incredible strides for positive social change. One such educator is Larisa Hovannisian, an Arizona special ed teacher of Armenian descent who founded Teach for Armenia.

Larisa was born on October 21, 1988, in Yerevan, Armenia. Her mother is Armenian and her father is Irish American. When she was just a baby, Larisa’s family moved to California, where they lived for several years. Then the family spent several years living in Russia.

After her high school graduation in Moscow, Larisa returned to the United States, where she enrolled in St. Norbert College, a Catholic liberal arts college located in De Pere, Brown County, Wisconsin. There she earned her Bachelor’s degree in International Business and French, with a minor in Graphic Design. Her goal was to pursue a career in advertising.

But then the path of her life took a different turn. “My best friend from college, who graduated a year before I did, told me about a program called Teach for America,” Larisa once revealed. “Its goal was to recruit young and passionate college graduates and to place them for two years into the most disadvantaged schools in the country. That is how I ended up in Phoenix, Arizona,” she continued. There she worked with special education children with moderate to severe disabilities. Her placement lasted from June, 2010, until May 2012. While teaching, Larisa also earned a Master’s degree in Special Education from Arizona State University.

Once her two-year obligation for Teach for America was fulfilled, Larisa returned to her native Armenia. She became inspired to found a program similar to Teach for America in her homeland. Larisa founded and became the Chief Executive Officer for Teach for Armenia, a nonprofit organization that recruits college graduates and working professionals to serve as full-time teachers in Armenia’s poorest schools. “I have long believed that change—true, meaningful change—begins in our schools,” Larisa once declared.

Larisa Hovannisian: a true chalkboard champion.

 

The amazing Thelma Dewitty, first African American teacher in Seattle Schools

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Thelma Dewitty

Thelma Dewitty, the first African American teacher hired by the Seattle Public School System, reading to her second grade students at Cooper School in 1950.

Many excellent classroom teachers became pioneering groundbreakers in their time. This is true of Thelma Dewitty, a talented classroom teacher who became the first African American educator in Washington state’s Seattle Public School System.

Thelma was born in 1912 in Beaumont, Texas. As a young woman, she earned her Bachelor’s degree from Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, in 1941. Even before she earned her degree, Thelma inaugurated her career as a teacher in Corpus Christi, Texas, accepting her first position in 1942. She taught there for nine years, and then for another five years in Beaumont, Texas.

In 1947, Thelma moved to Washington State with her husband. There she attended graduate school at the University of Washington, and began writing a book about mathematics for children. When she expressed an interest in teaching in Seattle, she discovered that the city’s school system was not integrated. Although she was an African American, the NAACP, the Seattle Urban League, the Civic Unity Committee, and Christian Friends for Racial Equality encouraged the local school board to break the color barrier and hire her. The school board agreed, and Thelma was hired to teach at Frank B. Cooper School in the Delridge neighborhood of West Seattle. Throughout her long career as a teacher in Seattle, she also taught at several other elementary schools, including John Hay, Laurelhurst, and Sand Point, and she also completed a stint at Meany Junior High School.  After a career as an educator that spanned almost four decades, the dedicated classroom teacher retired in 1973.

In addition to serving as an educator, Thelma worked tirelessly for the Seattle branch of the NAACP, serving as its president in the late 1950s. She also served on the Washington State Board Against Discrimination, and she volunteered on the Board of Theater Supervisors for Seattle and King County.

This amazing educator passed away on August 19, 1976, in Seattle at age 63. She is buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Seattle, King County, Washington.

 

Kindergarten teacher Margaret Hamilton, the Wicked Witch of the West

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Margaret Hamilton

Margaret Hamilton, the kindergarten teacher who played the Wicked Witch of the West in Hollywood’s 1939 production of The Wizard of Oz. Photo credit: Public domain

Not many people would recognize the name or photograph of actress Margaret Hamilton, but just about everyone knows the iconic movie role she played. Bedecked in green make-up and a black pointed hat, this pleasant face was the Wicked Witch of the West in MGM’s version of The Wizard of Oz.

Margaret was born December 9, 1902, in Cleveland, Ohio. She was the fourth child of Walter and Mary Jane (Adams)  Hamilton. At an early age, Margaret was determined to make a career for herself in the theater. However, her parents insisted she get a college degree, so Margaret attended Wheelock College in Boston, Massachusetts. The institution was founded by Lucy Wheelock in 1888, and was known as Miss Wheelock’s Kindergarten Training School. The school offered undergraduate and graduate programs intended to improve the quality of early childhood education. In 2018, the college became part of Boston University’s School of Education.

It’s ironic that this very sweet and loving former kindergarten teacher is best known for her frightful disposition and her villainous behaviors, not to mention for scaring the daylights out of generations of little children. When asked about her role in The Wizard of Oz, the former teacher often said her greatest fear was that her monstrous film role would give young people a false impression of her true nature. The reality is that Margaret Hamilton cared deeply about children, and she was a lifelong advocate for educational causes, devoting much of her energy and money to benefit causes that improved the lives of children and animals. She served on the Beverly Hills Board of Education from 1948 to 1951, and she also taught Sunday school during the 1950s.

This amazing chalkboard champion passed away of a heart attack on May 16, 1985, at the age of 83. Her ashes were scattered in Amenia, New York.

Former teacher, coach, and pro basketball team co-owner Andre Levingston

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Andre Levingston

Former teacher, coach, and pro basketball team co-owner Andre Levingston

There are many classroom teachers who have also earned a name for themselves in an arena outside of the classroom. This is true for Andre Levingston, who at one time was a co-owner of a professional basketball team in Halifax, Canada.

Andre was born in 1965 and raised in a disadvantaged neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan. Once he graduated from high school, he attended California State University, Chico, where he played basketball at the NCAA Division III level. At Chico Andre earned his Bachelor’s degree in Child Psychology.

After his graduation, he became a fourth grade teacher at the Paul Robeson Academy in Detroit. Robeson Academy is a school where the enrollment is comprised primarily of young African American boys. At Robeson Andre also coached basketball. “It was an amazing school, one of the best things I’ve ever been a part of,” Andre once said. “We were losing too many Black boys to the streets, to violence, to jail. There were a lot of single parents, women ran homes, and when (kids) came to school it was all women. We wanted them to see positive men,” he continued.

When Andre decided to relocate to Ontario, Canada, he opened two businesses: a restaurant and a custom car shop. While living in Ontario, Andre was asked to help bring a basketball team to Mississauga. He wasn’t able to put that deal together, but later he heard that Halifax was eager to have a professional basketball team, so Andre went there to establish The Rainmen. His team played until 2015, when it was disbanded.

While he was associated with the Rainmen, Andre encouraged his players to become involved in some aspect of community service. Community service is obviously a passion for Andre. “I stumbled into teaching, but it was the best thing I’ve ever done because I had the opportunity to affect the lives of children,” the former educator once said. “And now basketball is an extension of that classroom. Instead of affecting 30 kids, I get to affect an entire community,” he concluded.