Tag Archives: Elementary Teachers

Sas Carey: International health educator and 2nd grade teacher

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One of the most amazing chalkboard champions I have heard of is Sas Carey, a former elementary school teacher with a degree in nursing who has worked as an international health education consultant.

Sas, born in Washington state in 1945, possesses an impressive educational background. She studied at Western Connecticut University and at Keen State College, where she earned her degree in elementary education in 1965. She then taught 2nd grade at Weybridge Elementary School in Vermont.

As interested in medicine as she was in education, Sas returned to school, earning a Bachelor’s in Science, Nursing, at the University of Vermont in 1983. She also earned her Master’s in Education in 1988.

Dedicated to improving the lives of others internationally, Sas has worked as a health education consultant for the Mongolian office of the United Nations Development Programme. She also founded the nonprofit Nomadicare, which provides health services to nomadic herders in Mongolia. Her book Reindeer Herders in My Heart: Stories of Healing Journeys in Mongolia, describes some of her experiences in Mongolia. Additionally, you can check out her fascinating videos on You Tube.

Sas has invested her considerable talent in helping youth. She founded the Alternatives for Teens program, where young people are given opportunities to discuss issues important to them. The program organizes group events that offer alternatives to drug and alcohol use. The organization earned an Exemplary Prevention Program Award from the US Department of Health and Human Services. In 1989, Sas authored the book Life Skills for Teens (currently out of print).

Sas Carey, now in her early 70’s, has accomplished so much in her life. She traces her drive to her Quaker upbringing. “As a Quaker,” she once said, “you listen for your calling for what you’re supposed to do. And it’s a changing kind of thing. You do a thing ’til you’re done with it. Then you do the next thing ’til you’re done with it.”

America’s Wild West tamed by frontier schoolmarms

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America’s Wild West was tamed in part due to the talented and dedicated women who served as frontier schoolteachers. The pioneering women who became teachers during this period of our nation’s history were indeed a special breed. At the turn of the century, females were expected to be dependent upon their husbands, fathers, or other male relatives. It was extremely unusual, and not at all encouraged, for a woman to support herself and function independently. Nevertheless, many intelligent and self-reliant women in search of personal freedom and adventure joined the Westward movement as schoolmarms.

The stereotype of a frontier schoolteacher was that of an unattractive spinster or a prim and proper young miss. In reality, she was often neither of those. Many of these ladies came from influential and affluent Eastern families. A few were filled with burning ambition, and others were seeking a better life, and perhaps some were seeking a husband of like mind. In general, though, they were dedicated practitioners of their profession. Despite primitive working conditions, uninviting classrooms, low wages, and overwork, these stalwart women introduced literacy, culture, and morality to the roughneck communities they served. A few of these teachers became missionaries, others became suffragettes, and one of them—Jeannette Rankin of Montana—even went on to become the first woman to be elected to the United States House of Representatives!

Our society owes these frontier schoolmarms a great debt. Read more about pioneering teachers in my book, Chalkboard Champions, available through amazon.com or Barnes and Noble. Click on the link to find out how to get a copy of the book. Enjoy!

Chalkboard Champions and Hurricane Harvey: Wading into Rising Waters

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As empathetic Americans look for ways to help fellow citizens forced to cope with the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, Texas teachers are undoubtedly wondering what they can do to help ease the distress of their precious kids when they return to the classroom.

As usual when I hear news stories about storm damage, I am reminded of a book I read which tells the tale of a remarkable teacher who opened a school for New Orleans evacuees following Hurricane Katrina.

When surging flood waters from Hurricane Katrina forced thousands of families to flee from their homes, New Orleans residents had their minds more on survival than on whether their children would be missing school. But when a group of evacuee parents who landed in New Iberia, Louisiana, realized they would not be returning to their homes any time soon, they knew they had to find a strategy to help their children cope with their enforced and unexpected exile. They pooled their financial resources and hired a fellow refugee, teacher Paul Reynaud, to establish a one-room school for their children in an abandoned office building. The story furnishes valuable lessons for dealing with this latest example of nature’s fury.

The book is entitled Sugarcane Academy: How a New Orleans Teacher and His Storm-Struck Students Created a School to Remember.The author of this intriguing true story is journalist Michael Tisserand, and the volume was published in 2007 by Harcourt. You can find the book on amazon.com at the following link:

For other intriguing stories about remarkable teachers in America’s sometimes turbulent history, check out my book Chalkboard Champions. You will find it on the web site for Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Ten-year-old Dalton Sherman asks the question, “Do you believe in your students?”

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As educators all over the country ready for another school year, we are undoubtedly contemplating our role as a teacher, advocate, and role model for our kids. Here is a keynote speech from a young man just ten years old who asks the question, “Do you believe in your students?” You’ve got to see this!

Colyn Fischer: Middle school music teacher and award-winning Scottish Fiddler

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imgresThere are many examples of talented musicians who go on to become exemplary music educators. This is certainly true of Colyn C. Fischer, an award-winning violinist from Pennsylvania who now works as a middle school music teacher.

Colyn was born in 1977 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He began to play the violin at the tender age of three, concentrating on Scottish fiddling since the age of five. While just a teen, he studied under a number of notable American Scottish fiddlers, including John Turner and Bonnie Rideout, and several celebrated fiddlers from Scotland, including Ian Powie and Alasdair Hardy.

Following his graduation from Penn-Trafford High School in Harrison City, Pennsylvania, Colyn enrolled at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. There he earned his bachelor’s degree in music performance in violin from Wheaton College in 1999. He completed the requirements for his teaching credential at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, in 2005.

In 1993, Colyn garnered the first-place title in the American National Scottish Fiddling Championship, Junior Division. In 2005 he won in the open category in Texas, a title which he captured again in 2006 in Ohio.

Colyn first taught music in grades three through eight in the Silver Valley Unified School District in California’s San Bernardino County. He worked there from 2006-2009. Currently, Colyn teaches orchestra at Central Middle School in the San Carlos School District located in San Francisco, California. He also teaches the annual Jink and Diddle School of Scottish Fiddling, and gives private violin and fiddle lessons.