Tag Archives: English Teachers

Bennie Berry: The compassionate teacher who adopted her student

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English teacher Bennie Berry, a dedicated and compassionate English teacher in Beaumont, Texas, went above and beyond for one of her former students a year ago last November. She adopted him.

Anthony Berry was 16 years old when he entered Bennie’s classroom at Pathways Learning Center, an alternative school for troubled students. Feeling like no one on earth cared about him, the teenager had started to display some discipline problems. Anthony had been a foster child since he was 9 years old, and he had come to the conclusion that he may never be adopted. But when he casually suggested to his kindhearted teacher that she could adopt him, she actually considered the idea seriously.

Early in 2018, Anthony’s foster mother told the state she would no longer care for him. That’s when the teacher knew she needed to speak up. “Every kid deserves a chance to be loved,” Bennie says. She secretly filled out the paperwork, and by March, the youngster moved into her home. In November, 2017, on National Adoption Day, the adoption process was finalized, and she legally became his mother.

Bennie brings a lot to the table when she works with her students at Pathways. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in English in 1996 from Lamar University in Beaumont. She earned a Master’s degree in Special Education in 2004, and a Master’s in Counseling in 2006, both from Lamar. And she earned her Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Administration from Capella University in 2014. Capella is an online university headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Bennie Berry: Living proof that teachers change lives.

English teacher and Pulitzer-Prize winning photographer Alan Diaz

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Alan Diaz

Former English teacher and Pulitzer-Prize winning photographer Alan Diaz

I always enjoy sharing stories about teachers who have exhibited talents in addition to those they use in their classrooms. One teacher like this is Alan Diaz, a former English teacher who has also won a Pulitzer Prize for photography.

Alan was born and raised in New York City. He was the son of Cuban immigrants, who decided to return to their native island in 1964 when Alan was a teenager. When he grew to adulthood in Cuba, Alan became a school teacher, while at the same time studying photography.

In 1978, Alan returned to the United States, where he continued his career as an English teacher. He also pursued his passion for photography. In 1994, Alan worked as a freelance photographer for the Associated Press, and in 2000 he became one of their staff photographers.

Alan is best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of armed federal agents seizing a terrified Cuban refugee child, six-year-old Elian Gonzalez. The little boy’s mother had drowned off the coast of Florida as the two struggled to reach American shores. In the months preceding the seizure, Elian’s Miami-based relatives had been fighting for asylum for the child and his right to remain in the United States, despite the fact that his father in Cuba wanted him returned home. It was a battle the relatives ultimately lost, so the little boy was taken at gunpoint and sent back to Cuba. The gut-wrenching picture Alan took on that day earned him a Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography.

After a career for the Associated Press that spanned 17 years, Alan decided to retire in 2017. The former teacher still lives in the Miami area.

You can view his award-winning photograph and read more about this amazing educator and photographer at the Washington Times.

Former English teacher Joy Behar now uses The View as her classroom

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Joy Behar

Former teacher and current talk show hostess Joy Behar.

Success in the classroom often leads to success in other fields requiring performance in front of an audience. One former educator who proves this to be true is comedienne, actress, and talk show hostess Joy Behar.

Joy was born Josephine Victoria Occhiuto on October 7, 1942, in Williamsburg in the Brooklyn area of New York. Her mother earned a living as a seamstress and her father worked as a truck driver. Joy earned her Bachelor’s degree from Queens College in 1964, and her Master’s in English Education from State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1966.

After her college graduation, Joy accepted a position as an English teacher at Lindenhurst Senior High School in Long Island, New York. She worked there for five years.

At the age of about 40, Joy decided to leave her classroom to pursue a career as a stand-up comic. By 1996 she had established herself as a comedienne, playing all the major venues. She also hosted a talk show on WABC-Radio. She has appeared in several movies: Cookie, This Is My Life, and Woody Allen’s Manhattan Murder Mystery. In addition, she authored a book of humorous essays and stories called Joy Shtick — Or What is the Existential Vacuum and Does It Come with Attachments? She also wrote two children’s books about a dog named Sheetzucacapoopoo. But the former teacher is probably best known for her appearances on the daily talk show The View. She was hired for the program in 1997 after show creator Barbara Walters saw her perform at Milton Berle’s 89th birthday tribute.

Joy still has connections to the classroom. She is married to Steven Janowitz, a retired junior high school math teacher. And she sometimes is accused of treating her guests on The View as if she were their teacher. “Someone once told me I’m still teaching, only now I have a bigger classroom,” she once joked.

To read more about Joy Behar, click on ABC The View Co-Hosts

Mary Catherine Swanson: The Chalkboard Champion who Originated AVID

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img_lead_mcswanson[1]Many educators around the country are very familiar with AVID, a program designed to show minority and other under-represented students how they can succeed in a college environment. The acronym, which stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination, truly measures up to its hype.
The program was originated in 1980 by chalkboard champion Mary Catherine Swanson, who was an English teacher at Clairemont High School in San Diego, Southern California. At the time, her school, which had a predominately white student population, was preparing a slate of remedial courses to serve an influx of minority students in response to court-ordered integration. But Swanson insisted that with appropriate academic tools and support, minority and other under-represented students could thrive in a rigorous academic atmosphere, and she set about establishing a program that would prove her point. The AVID program she developed offers strategies for note-taking and test-taking, peer mentoring, tutoring, and cultural field trips. Her efforts have positively affected the lives of over 400,000 students since the program’s inauguration.
Since 1980, statistics have shown the overwhelming success of the program. Those statistics show that of those students enrolled in AVID, 95% go on to enroll in a four-year college, and 85% of them graduate. The program is so highly successful that it has been instituted in 4,500 high schools in 45 states and 16 countries around the world.
Mary Catherine Swanson, who refused to dummy-down a rigorous academic program and insisted her students were capable, is truly a chalkboard champion.