Tag Archives: English Teachers

Florida teacher Jenny Torres Sanchez writes award-winning Young Adult novels

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Former Florida English teacher Jenny Torres Sanchez now writes award-winning Young Adult novels. Photo Credit; Jenny Torres Sanchez

Many excellent classroom teachers have earned fame as talented authors. One of these is Jenny Torres Sanchez. She is the author of young adult novels, several of which have won coveted awards.

Jenny was born in Brooklyn, New York. Her mother immigrated to the United States from Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, and her father immigrated from El Salvador. When she was ten years old, her family moved to Orlando, Florida. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in English Literature from the University of Central Florida.

Once she earned her degree, Jenny taught English Language Arts at the high school level. Later she left the classroom to care for her son, who was diagnosed with developmental delays. During this time, she began to write her first novel, The Downside of Being Charlie, The book was published in 2012. She followed this with Death, Dickinson, and the Demented Life of Frenchie Garcia in 2013; Because of the Sun in 2017; The Fall of Innocence in 2018, and With Lots of Love in 2022.

In her novels, Jenny often writes about challenging topics. She does this, she says, in the hopes that her books will help who young people who are facing challenging situations to “help them know that the human condition is one made up of so many things: love, pain, elation, tragedy. And no matter what your situation, there are others out there who probably understand, or empathize, with what someone is going through.”

Jenny’s work has earned a number of prestigious awards. In 2017, she earned a Florida Book Award for Young Adult Literature. In 2021, she garnered the Best Fiction for Young Adults award from the American Library Association and she was also named a finalist for the Pura Belpre Award. In 2024, she captured Michael L. Printz Award.

To learn more about Jenny Torres Sanchez, click on this link to her website.

 

Michele Dunaway: English teacher and author of popular romance novels

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Michele Dunaway, an English and Journalism teacher from St Louis, Missouri, has published more than 29 popular romance novels. Photo credit: Michele Dunaway

Students who were in the classes of Michele Dunaway, an English and Journalism teacher from Missouri, may be surprised to learn that their teacher is a popular author of romance novels. In fact, she has published over 29 romance novels and she has sold over 1.7 million books globally.

Michele was born on July 14, 1965, in St. Louis, Missouri. She says she decided she wanted to be a teacher and an author by the time she was in the third grade at Mary Queen of Peace School in Webster Groves. And she was writing, even at that young age. After she earned her diploma from Kirkwood High School in 1983, Michele launched into her college courses so she could achieve her goals. She earned her Bachelor’s degree at the University of Missouri at St. Louis in 1987. She earned her Master’s degree at Webster University in 1996.

Once she earned her degrees, Michelle accepted a position as a middle school teacher in Fenton, Missouri. She worked there from 1994 to 2000. Next she taught for one year at the high school level in Brentwood, Missouri, and then she relocated to teach English at Pacific High School in Pacific, Missouri.

Michele published her first novel, A Little Office Romance, in 2000. The volume was the first in a long line of romance novels. Many of her books have a setting in her native St. Louis.

In 2012, Michele was named the High School Journalism Teacher of the Year by the Missouri Interscholastic Press Association. She is a member of the Romance Writers of America.

With all this success, would Michele quite teaching? “Writing is a job and a hobby so I’m always working,” she declares. “I also know that I will teach for a long time—it’s a myth that writers can immediately quit their day jobs, not that I want to do that right now anyway,” she continues. “I love to teach and write, so I’m living the best of both worlds,” she concludes.

You can read more about this Chalkboard Champion at her website.

Pat Conroy’s award-winning memoir about his teaching experiences on remote SC island

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Periodically I come across a book about teachers that I’d like to share with you, and I have one to share today. The book is The Water is Wide by former teacher Pat Conroy (1945—2016). The award-winning memoir was published in 1972, the first of several acclaimed works he authored.

In 1969, Pat taught African American students in grades five through eight in a two-room school house on a remote island off the coast of South Carolina. He was a young, idealistic teacher, but not entirely inexperienced, since he had previously taught English and psychology courses at his high school alma mater, Beaufort High School, in Beaufort, South Carolina. And remember, he was teaching at the height of the Civil Rights Movement.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this memoir. I found it to be an interesting study in what were, in 1969, highly innovative instructional methods. Many of these methods have become accepted and commonplace in today’s classrooms, but in those days they were quite controversial. I was especially interested in Pat’s experiments with experiential learning (a topic which just happens to be the subject of my own Master’s thesis), student-driven curriculum, the introduction of speakers, and an informal classroom environment.

Most importantly, Pat treated his students with unconditional positive regard, and refused to utilize a paddle to maintain classroom discipline. By contrast, his principal, who taught the younger students in the two-room school house, espoused a more traditional teaching style, including textbook-driven instruction, drill tasks, and strict and rigid discipline—which included corporal punishment. And, quite frankly, she didn’t appear to even like her students. She certainly didn’t treat them with any respect. Naturally, Pat’s instructional style caused friction between himself and the school district bureaucrats. I’ll leave it to you to discover how this friction was addressed.

The Water is Wide garnered a humanitarian award from the National Education Association in 1974 and an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in 1973. Two movies based on the book, Conrack starring John Voight in 1974 and a Hallmark production in 2006.

Learn more about Pat Conroy’s life at his website, patconroy.com. You can purchase The Water is Wide on amazon.com.

 

Alabama teacher Angie Maples garners recognition

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I always enjoy sharing stories about outstanding teachers who have earned recognition for their work with young people. One of these is Angie Maples, a high school teacher from Alabama. She has been named the SuperStar Teacher of the Month for September, 2024, by the Decatur-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce.

Angie teachers English and Language Arts at Career Academies of Decatur (CAD) in Decatur, Alabama. Her career as an educator spans 24 years.

The SuperStar Teacher program celebrates educators who make a significant impact on their students and communities. Th recognition program is part of the Chamber’s ongoing commitment to recognizing and supporting outstanding educators in Decatur, Morgan County, and Hartselle. The honor comes with a $150 gift card for Angie’s classroom, a $50 gift card for her personal use, and a $1,000 grant for her school.

 

Virginia’s Symone Jenkins earns 2024 First Year Teacher Award

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Symone Keolani Jenkins of Alexandria, Virginia, is such a phenomenal first-year educator that she has earned a 2024 Outstanding Secondary School Teacher Award. Photo Credit: Fairfax County Public Schools

Like most professional educators, I really struggled to stay on top of things during my first year of teaching. But there are some first-year teachers who, from the very beginning, are so exceptional they even win awards! One of these is Symone Keolani Jenkins, a high school teacher from Alexandria, Virginia. She is so phenomenal that she has earned a 2024 Outstanding Secondary School New Teacher Award from Fairfax County Public Schools.

Symone teaches English and Language Arts courses to sophomores and juniors at West Potomac High School in the Fairfax County Pubic School District. In the classroom, this outstanding educator has a reputation for creating an environment where her students thrive, not only academically but also socially and personally.

Symone embraces diversity and inclusion, and she recognizes the value of considering a variety of different perspectives to the learning environment. In the future, she hopes to offer elective courses in Black Perspectives in Literature and LGBTQ+ Perspectives in Literature. These courses are intended to “assist with having an open mind and open perspective moving forward by looking at the struggles of others in our society and history,” the honored teacher explains.

In addition to working as a teacher, Symone has also devoted her energy to young people by serving them as a volleyball coach for the local Evolution Volleyball Club. In fact, she has served as the Head Coach there since 2021.

Symone earned her Bachelor’s degree in English and Cultural Studies in 2021 and her Master’s degree in Secondary Education and Teaching English in 2022, both from George Mason University, a public research university located in Fairfax, Virginia, not far from Washington, DC.

Congratulations, Symone!