Tag Archives: Elementary Teachers

Teacher Dolores Huerta: The Champion of the Migrant Farmworker

Posted on by

thLike many people who have heard of farm labor leader and civil rights advocate Cesar Chavez, I have also heard of his right-hand woman, Dolores Huerta, vice president of the United Farm Workers Union. But did you know that she was also an elementary school teacher?

Raised in Stockton, California, Dolores graduated in 1955 with an AA and her teaching credentials from the College of the Pacific. After graduation, she accepted a teaching position in a rural Stockton elementary school. She had been teaching for only a short time when she realized she wanted to devote her talent and energy to migrant farm workers and their families. “I couldn’t stand seeing farm worker children come to class hungry and in need of shoes,” she once explained. “I thought I could do more by organizing their parents than by trying to teach their hungry children.” After one year, she resigned from her teaching position, determined to launch a campaign that would fight the numerous economic injustices faced by migrant agricultural workers.

Joining forces with the legendary labor leader Cesar Chavez, Dolores organized a large-scale strike against the commercial grape growers of the San Joaquin Valley, an effort which raised national awareness of the abysmal treatment of America’s agricultural workers, and she negotiated the contracts which led to their improved working conditions. The rest, as they say, is history.

Although there are several fairly good juvenile biographies of this extraordinary woman, there is no definitive adult biography about her. The closest thing to it is A Dolores Huerta Reader edited by Mario T. Garcia. This book includes an informative biographical introduction by the editor, articles and book excerpts written about Dolores, her own writings and transcripts of her speeches, and a recent interview with Mario Garcia. You can find A Dolores Huerta Reader on amazon.com I have also included a chapter about this remarkable teacher in my second book, Chalkboard Heroes: Twelve courageous Teachers and their Deeds of Valor.

Elementary teacher Geraldine Flaharty: She served in the Kansas House of Representatives

Posted on by

thThere are many talented teachers in our country’s history who have also served their communities as politicians. One superb example of this is Geraldine Flaharty, an elementary reading teacher from Kansas who also serves in her state’s House of Representatives.

A native of Kansas, Geraldine was born March 4, 1936, in Parsons, and she currently lives in Wichita. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Wichita State University in 1961, and completed the requirements for her master’s in education from the same school in 1971.

Geraldine worked as an elementary teacher for Wichita Public Schools from 1956 to 1957 and as a reading teacher at Oaklawn Elementary School in the Derby Public School District from 1966 until she retired after teaching after thirty-six years.

This talented educator was elected as a Democrat to the Kansas State House of Representatives for District 98, serving Sedgwick County, Kansas. She served there from 1995 to 2013. During her stint as a politician, Geraldine served on the committees for Education; Health and Human Services; Aging and Long-Term Care; Economic Development and Tourism; and the Joint Committee on Pensions, Investments, and Benefits. One of her legislative acts was to support a bill that would restore professional status to retired teachers who return to work. “Representative Flaharty has been a tireless advocate for the people of Wichita,” House Minority Leader Paul Davis once said. “She has been a champion for job creation, good public schools, and fair taxation.”

Throughout her long career, Geraldine has donated her talents to a number of community organizations, including the American Association of University Women, the International Reading Association, the Kansas National Education Association, the Sedgwick County Zoo, and the Wichita Center for the Arts. Geraldine Flaharty: a true Chalkboard Champion.

Former elementary teacher Alexis Krauss becomes noise pop band sensation

Posted on by

thThere are many examples of contemporary entertainers who were once school teachers. One of these is Alexis Krauss, a former elementary school teacher who is now best known as the vocalist of American noise pop band Sleigh Bells.

Alexis was born September 15, 1985, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York. She is the daughter of a professional musician, and as a child, she frequently performed in musical theater productions.

Once she graduated from high school, Alexis enrolled in college and majored in political science. “I was studying poli sci and international studies and was doing a lot of research on the right to education and children’s education,” Alexis once revealed. “I ended up joining Teach for America. I taught for two years in the south Bronx, and that was one of the most, probably the most, rewarding and challenging things I’ve ever done,” she expressed.

After two years of teaching, Alexis met Derek E. Miller, a restaurant server. The two discovered they shared an interest in music, and before long, they decided to form a band they called Sleigh Bells. The duo has just released their fourth record.

Has Alexis received any feedback about her music from her former students? “You know, I have,” she confesses. “They’re older now; they’re big, bad seventh-graders. But they’re way more interested in Demi Lovato and One Direction. You hear them trying to sound like they’re into it though! It’s so cute. They’re like ‘Ummmmm, Mrs. Krauss, your music is really good but it’s kinda weird!’”

Alaska State Senator Mia Costello publicly thanks her kindergarten teacher

Posted on by

getphotoThere are many fine examples of talented teachers who make a positive contribution to their community as a politician. Mia C. Costello, an educator from Alaska, is one such teacher.

Mia was born in Anchorage, Alaska, on January 11, 1968. As a teenager, she attended West High School, where she graduated in 1986. After her graduation, she enrolled at Harvard University. Mia earned her degree in government in 1990, and her teaching certificate and master’s degree in teaching from the University of Alaska Southeast in 1997.

Mia worked as an educator in both the Service High School in the Anchorage School District and Juneau-Douglas High School in the Juneau School District. For her accomplishments in the classroom she has been awarded the Alaska Humanities Forum Teacher Exchange to Sand Point, and she has been named a Co-Nect Schools Excellence in Education finalist.

After leaving the teaching profession, she became the owner of a public relations consulting business, worked as the Deputy Director of Communications for former Governor Frank Murkowski, completed a stint as the public information officer for the Media Support Center of the Office of then-Governor Walter Hickel, and also worked as an account executive for Bradley/Reid Communications. In addition, she served as an aide to state Representative Norm Rokeberg and as an instructor for Nine Star Education and Employment Services. In 2010, Mia was elected as a member of the Alaska State House of Representatives representing District 20, a post she held until 2014, when she was elected to the Alaska State Senate on the Republican ticket. She continues to serve in that capacity today.

Mia’s special interests are youth literacy, flying, swimming, and camping. She is married and has two sons.

Even though Mia no longer serves in the classroom, she appreciates great teachers. She has even publicly credited her former kindergarten teacher, Caroline Nishimura, with making an important contribution to her own success.  To view this, view the video at this link: Mia recognizes her kindergarten teacher.

Alaskan Teacher Etta Schureman Jones: She Was a WWII Prisoner of War

Posted on by

Chap 7 Etta JonesThere are times when extraordinary circumstances of history present already gutsy teachers with unexpected challenges. This is certainly true of the intrepid Etta Schureman Jones, an elementary school teacher and trained nurse from originally from Vineland, New Jersey.

Etta Schureman was over forty years old when she and her sister, Marie, ventured into Alaska Territory to teach Native American Eskimos in primitive rural schools. After one year, Marie  returned to the Lower 48, but Etta, who had met the love of her life and married, settled permanently in Alaska. The picture here is the happy couple on their wedding day.

Eighteen years later, Etta and her beloved husband, C. Foster Jones, were working together  in the remote Aleutian island of Attu when Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Empire of Japan on December, 7, 1941, “a day that will live in infamy.” The couple and their students were slated to be evacuated by the U.S. Navy when the island was invaded by Japanese troops. Although the couple were in their sixties, Japanese soldiers killed Foster and removed Etta to an internment camp in Japan, where she was incarcerated with a small group of Australian nurses who were also prisoners of war. The Attuan natives, about three dozen of them, were also taken to Japan, with the apparent intention of assimilating them into the Japanese population. Although Etta was rescued buy American troops after the war, and she and the surviving Attuans were eventually repatriated after the war, Etta never saw her students or their families again.

Etta’s intriguing tale of survival is told brilliantly by Mary Breu in her book Last Letters from Attu: The True Story of Etta Jones: Alaska Pioneer and Japanese POW. A fascinating read, to be sure. You can find this book at amazon at the following link: Last Letters from Attu. I have also included a chapter about this courageous teacher in my recently published book, Chalkboard Heroes: Twelve Courageous Teaches and their Deeds of Valor, also available at amazon at this link: Chalkboard Heroes.