Tag Archives: English Teachers

English teacher Brittney Miller also serves in the Nevada State Assembly

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Middle School English teacher Brittney Miller also serves her community in the Nevada State Assembly. Photo Credit: Brittney Miller

Many talented classroom teachers also serve as successful politicians. One of these is Brittney Marie Miller, a middle school English teacher who currently serves in the Nevada State Assembly.

Brittney was born in 1974 in Detroit, Michigan. Her father, a former Marine who served in Viet Nam, was a police sergeant in Detroit. Her mother, a former civilian employee for the US Army Tank Arsenal, was a registered nurse.

Brittney earned her Bachelor’s degree in 1996 in Criminal Justice from Saginaw Valley State University located in University Center, Michigan. In 1999 she earned her first Master’s degree, in Public Administration from Oakland University located in the cities of Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills, Michigan. In 2011 she earned her second degree, in Teaching from Sierra Nevada College, Incline Village, Nevada.

For several years after earning her degrees, Brittney channeled her considerable energy in prisoner re-entry programs, training programs, and employment services. But for the past 11 years, she has been teaching Language Arts at Canarelli Middle School in the Clark County School District in Nevada. “After years developing programs in public schools, work force development, and prisoner re-entry, I knew that becoming a teacher was one more way I could serve,” Brittney once said. “Indeed, I reduced my salary by over a third when I became a teacher, but that’s how passionate and devoted I am to service. I believe strongly in education. To build a future, we must invest in our children first,” she added.

In 2017, Brittney was elected to represent District 5 in the Nevada State Assembly, where she still serves. She succeeded Republican Assemblyman Erv Nelson who resigned from his post to run for the Nevada State Senate. As a representative, Brittney is a member of four committees: Education; Corrections, Parole, and Probation; Health and Human Services; and Judiciary.

To learn more about this accomplished Chalkboard Champion, check out this interview by Nevada Public Radio or her website at Miller4ThePeople.

NH teacher Sara Casassa named her state’s Teacher of the Year

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Middle school teacher Sara Casassa has been named the 2022 New Hampshire State Teacher of the Year. Photo Credit: Barnard School

It is always a pleasure to share stories about talented educators who have earned accolades for their work in the classroom. One of these is Sara Casassa, a middle school teacher from New Hampshire. Sara has been named her state’s 2022 Teacher of the Year.

Sara’s career as an educator spans more than three decades. Since 2009, she has taught Language Arts and Social Studies courses to students in grades 6 through 8 at Barnard School in South Hampton. She also serves as the cross county coach and the yearbook advisor. As if all this were not enough, the indefatigable educator has also worked as a technology integrator and as her school’s webmaster. She has presented inservice on technology and literacy at a variety of workshops and conferences.

It was due to her innovative work with technology that Sara became the first choice for New Hampshire’s top teacher honors, says South Hampton School Board Chair Jim Kime. He praised the middle school English teacher for “leveraging technology,” even before Covid-19 forced widespread school closures. Kime noted that before the pandemic, Sara created a virtual classroom for a student who was forced to leave school for three to four weeks because of an illness. The virtual classroom she created became the prototype once COVID hit, and her expertise was invaluable to both the students and staff.

Despite this success, Sara insists that establishing and maintaining strong relationships are still at the heart of her teaching. “While teaching pedagogy has changed and needs of students and families are much different then they were 20 years ago, the importance of creating relationships, engaging in meaningful learning opportunities, and meeting students where they are has remained constant,” she declares.

Sara earned her Bachelor’s degree with a dual major in English and History and her Master’s degree in English, both from Boston College. She has also completed courses on her Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study in curriculum and instruction.

To read more about Sara Casassa, see this article published by the New Hampshire Union Leader.

Missouri teacher and author Ellen Gray Massey shared her love of the Ozarks

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Ellen Gray Massey, English teacher and prolific author of juvenile fiction, expressed her profound love of the Ozarks in her classroom and in her novels. Photo Credit: ellengraymassey.com

Many talented authors have also worked as dedicated educators. Ellen Gray Massey, a high school English teacher from Missouri, is one of these. She has published numerous award-winning novels and publications with settings in her beloved Ozarks.

Ellen was born on Nov. 14, 1921, in Nevada, Missouri, although she was raised in Washington DC. As a youngster, she spent her summers at the family farm, Wayside, near her birth town of Nevada. While there, she fell in love with the Ozarks, a lifelong appreciation which was reflected in her later writings.

After she graduated from high school, Ellen earned her Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Maryland. After she married Lane Massey in the 1940s, the couple settled on a farm in Laclede County and started their family. Unfortunately, Lane died while he was still a young man. After his passing, Ellen and her three children ran the farm by themselves.

When Ellen decided she was ready to go into the classroom, she accepted a position as an English teacher at Lebanon High School in Lebanon, Missouri. For ten of the years she taught there, Ellen led her sophomores, juniors, and seniors into the writing and publishing of their own periodical, Bittersweet Magazine. Through this project, her students interviewed older residents around the Ozarks in order to preserve in writing and photographs the history and stories that were dying off with their generation. “She sent those kids out into the boonies interviewing old time Ozarkians about how rough it was, how they made do with what they had, how they embraced the culture. It was wonderful,” remembered friend and fellow author Veda Jones.

After retiring from Lebanon High, Ellen continued to share her vast knowledge of the writing process and her love of the Ozarks at Drury University, where she taught graduate education courses.

Over the course of her lengthy career as an author, Ellen earned numerous accolades for her writing. She won 15 First Place awards from The Missouri Writers Guild and was awarded their annual Best Book Award five times. She also earned three finalist awards from the Western Writers of America. In 2014, she garnered the Western Spur Award in the Juvenile Fiction category for her novel Papa’s Gold. In addition, in 1995, she was one of the charter inductees into the first Writers Hall of Fame of America.

Sadly, Ellen Gray Massey passed away on July 13, 2014, in Lebanon, Missouri, at the age of 92. To learn more about this Chalkboard Champion, visit her website at ellengraymassey.com.

Teacher Mary Edly-Allen also served in the Illinois State House of Reps

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Mary Edly-Allen, an English as a Second Language teacher from Illinois, also served in her state’s House of Representatives. Photo Credit: Mary Edly-Allen

Many fine educators have also shown expertise in the political field. One of them is Mary Edly-Allen, a teacher from Illinois who has also served in her state’s House of Representatives.

When Mary decided to become an educator, she was following the lead of a good role model. Her mother was an educator. Her father was a maintenance worker and Korean War Navy veteran. As a young woman, Mary earned her Bachelor’s degree in Education from Northeastern Illinois University in 1993 and her Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction with Bilingual Certification from National Louis University in 2017.

For the past 17 years, Mary has worked as an English Second Language teacher in the Grayslake Public School District, working primarily with young children of immigrant families. In addition, she is the co-founder of an educational non-profit, Foundation46, and she is a founding member of the Community Consolidated School District 46 Diversity Committee. Furthermore, Mary has been involved for many years with Illinois Science Olympiad as a coach, and she serves on its Board of Directors. She is active in many Lake County community organizations.

In 2018, Mary was elected on the Democratic ticket to the Illinois State House of Representatives. There she represented the 51st District from 2019 to 2021. While in the House, she was a member of the committees for Elementary & Secondary Education School Curriculum Policies; Adoption & Child Welfare;  Mental Health; Human Services; State Government Administration; and Energy & Environment. During her years in the legislature, Mary worked to restore vocational and technical education courses in high schools. She was also a champion for diverse communities.

Former Florida English teacher Susan Bucklew serves as US District Judge

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Former high school English teacher Susan Bucklew currently serves as a US District Judge in her home state of Florida. Photo Credit: openjurist.org

Many fine classroom teachers have earned acclaim in professions other than education. One of these is Susan Cawthorn Bucklew, a former English teacher from Florida who currently serves as a US District Judge.

Susan was born on May 12, 1942, in Tampa, Florida, and she grew up in Seminole Heights. She graduated from Hillsborough High School in 1960. As a young woman, she earned her Bachelor’s degree with a major in English and a minor in Education from Florida State University in 1964. She earned her Master’s degree from the University of South Florida in 1968.

In her senior year of college, an internship at Plant High School in Tampa turned into a full-time job as an English teacher after her graduation. She also taught at Seminole High School in Tampa from 1965 to 1967, and at George D. Chamberlain High School in 1969. From 1974 to 1975, Susan taught at Hillsborough Community College. In all of her teaching posts, Susan had a reputation for being a very demanding teacher with h high expectations of her students.

In 1977, Susan completed the requirements for her Juris Doctorate from Station University College of Law in gulfport, Florida. She then left the classroom to work as corporate legal counsel for the Jim Walter Corporation, a position she held from 1978 to 1982. For the next four years she worked as a county judge in Hillsborough County Court, the first female judge to work in that county. From 1986 to 1992 she served as a circuit judge for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit of Florida. In 1993, Susan was nominated by President Bill Clinton to a seat on the US District Court for Middle District of Florida, and the next month she was confirmed to the position by the US Senate.

To read more about former teacher and judge Susan Bucklew, click on this link to read an interview with her published by Scholar Commons.