Tag Archives: English Teachers

High school English teacher and Pulitzer Prize winning author Frank McCourt

Posted on by

High school English teacher and Pulitzer Prize winning author Frank McCourt.

Many people have heard of Frank McCourt, the author of the blockbuster Angela’s Ashes. But did you know that Frank was a high school English teacher in New York?

Frank McCourt was born in Brooklyn, New York, on August 19, 1930. His parents were immigrants from Ireland. They came to America to escape the poverty, hoping to make a success of their lives. But when the Depression hit, the McCourt family returned to Limerick, Ireland, where they sank even further into poverty. Frank was forced to quit school at 13 to work a series of odd-jobs (and engage in some petty crime) to help feed his family. At 19, Frank was able to return to the United States on his own.

In 1951, he was drafted by the US Army to serve in the Korean Conflict. He was stationed in Germany for two years, where he worked first training dogs and then as a company clerk. Once he was discharged from the military, Frank returned to New York City, where he was employed at a series of low-paying jobs. He worked on the docks, in warehouses, in a grocery store, and in a bank.

As a veteran, Frank was eligible for benefits provided by the GI Bill. He used these benefits to enroll at New York University. There he earned his Bachelor’s degree in English in 1957. He completed the requirements for his Master’s at Brooklyn College in 1967, and he later completed some post-graduate courses at Trinity College in Dublin.

Following his college graduation, Frank accepted a teaching position at McKee Vocational and Technical High School in Manhattan. His students were teenage mechanics, beauticians, taxi drivers, and gang members. They were a tough crowd. They let him know right away they weren’t interested in Shakespeare. In fact, they didn’t want to be in school at all. Frank once recalled that one of his students threw a baloney sandwich at him in class one day. But the teacher who was saw his boyhood self in his students knew exactly how to respond. He picked up the sandwich, ate it, and told the class it was delicious. The stunt won over the recalcitrant kids.

Over his 30-year career, Frank taught at several other schools in New York City, including Ralph R. McKee High School in Staten Island, Stuyvesant High School, Seward Park High School, Washington Irving High School, and the High School of Fashion Industries. During these years, the veteran teacher told his students stories of his impoverished childhood in Ireland. He wanted the kids to know that education was the ticket out of poverty.

Frank eventually published these childhood stories in his memoir Angela’s Ashes (2006). The volume won much acclaim, including a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Critics Circle Award, and an LA Times Book Award. Frank also garnered the prestigious Ellis Island Family Heritage Award for Exemplary Service in the Field of the Arts (2006). The same year he was honored with the United Federation of Teachers John Dewey Award for Excellence in Education.

Sadly, this amazing educator suffered from cancer and meningitis and passed away on July 19, 2009. He was 79 years old. He is buried in Great Oak Cemetery in Roxbury, Litchfield County, Connecticut. To learn more about him, read this obituary published in 2009 by the Guardian.

Meghan Hatch-Geary named Connecticut State’s 2020 Teacher of the Year

Posted on by

Meghan Hatch-Geary named Connecticut State’s 2020 Teacher of the Year.

Congratulations to English teacher Meghan Hatch-Geary, who has been named the Connecticut State’s 2020 Teacher of the Year. Meghan teaches World Literature and Advanced Placement English Language Competition at Woodland Regional High School in Beacon Falls.

Meghan was raised in Meriden, Connecticut. After she graduated from Maloney High School, she enrolled in the Tisch School of the Arts in New York City. There she studied musical theater. Ten years later, she earned her Bachelor’s degree at Hunter College, where she majored in Black and Latino Studies. She also minored in English literature. Once she earned her degree, Meghan traveled to Ghana where she served as a volunteer teaching primary school. She also completed a stint as an outreach educator in Ecuador.  When she returned to the United States, she pursued a graduate degree in education from the University of New Haven.

The honored educator’s career at Woodland Regional has spanned 11 years. In that time, she has garnered recognition for her work with Woodland Worldwide, an extracurricular organization she founded to empower young women. Through the organization, the students develop their leadership skills through service projects that raise awareness about gender discrimination, media bias, and human traffricking. The projects benefit others both locally and globally.

“I’m fortunate to have maintained strong relationships with students, many of whom have graduated college and are pursuing careers centered on activism, social justice, service, and education,” Meghan declared. “I see the direct results of our impact not only in their choice of profession, but when they return to Woodland to present workshops, perform in our awareness-raising cabaret show, or speak to our classes,” she continued.

“Sometimes the most powerful and lasting lessons happen after school,” asserted Meghan. “Working with our students and watching them find and use their voices to take action in their lives and communities has been immeasurably rewarding. It is the reason I became a teacher, and the reason I believe teaching is the most powerful profession in the world,” she concluded.

To read more about Meghan, read this article published on Nov. 1 by the Connecticut Educators Association.

Teacher Tim Staples killed during a search and rescue mission for a lost hiker

Posted on by

Chalkboard Hero Tim Staples, tragically killed on Sat., Dec. 14, during a search and rescue mission for a lost hiker.

When the community is in desperate need of volunteers, it is often the teachers who respond. They often give their all to help wherever they are needed. This is certainly true of Tim Staples, a beloved Social Studies and English teacher from La Verne, California. This Chalkboard Hero tragically lost his life on Sat., Dec. 14 while conducting a search and rescue mission for a lost hiker.

Tim volunteered for the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department search and rescue team for nine years. His lifeless body was found on Saturday night at the bottom of an ice chute. It is believe his death was the result of a bad fall in the snow and ice. The accident occurred while Tim and 125 other volunteers were searching Mt. Baldy for Sree Mokkapati of Ivine, who went missing in the area a week ago. The conditions under which this search was conducted were described as extremely dangerous.

The intrepid educator taught Social Studies and English at Damien High School, an all-boys Catholic school in La Verne. Tim also coached track and was an avid supporter of the debate team. Prior to his two and a half years at the Damien, Tim taught for five and a half years at St Lucy’s Priory High School in Glendora, California.

To read more about this chalkboard hero, read this article published by the Los Angeles Daily News.

Andrea Carson Johnson: Virginia State’s Teacher of the Year

Posted on by

Andrea Carson Johnson: Virginia State’s Teacher of the Year.

I love to tell stories about outstanding classroom teachers who have earned recognition for their hard work. One of these educators is Andrea Carson Johnson, who has been named the 2020 Virginia State Teacher of the Year.

Andrea teaches 12th grade English at Salem High School in Salem, Roanoke County, Virginia. Her career has spanned 12 years. She inaugurated her teaching career in 2011 at Lakeland High in Suffolk. In 2014, she transferred to Andrew Lewis Middle and Salem High in Salem. She now teaches just at the high school level, where she has served as the Chairperson of the English Department since 2017.

The honored educator earned a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia. She earned her Master’s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University.

“I am looking forward to being the ambassador for my school system, for the teachers that I work with, and for all of the teachers of Virginia,” Andrea said. “I tell my students that anything worth doing is worth doing well, and teaching is perhaps the most important thing worth doing well.”

As the Virginia State Teacher of the Year, Andrea qualifies for the 2020 National Teacher of the Year which will be announced next spring at a ceremony at the White House.

To learn about more outstanding teachers in Virginia. click on this online press release from the Virginia Department of Education.

Composer, playwright, actor, and former teacher Lin-Manuel Miranda

Posted on by

Composer, lyricist, singer, actor, playwright, and producer Lin-Manuel Miranda is also a former English teacher.

Almost everyone has heard of composer, lyricist, singer, actor, playwright, and producer Lin-Manuel Miranda. He’s probably best known for creating and starring in the Broadway musical Hamilton. But did you know that he was once a junior high school English teacher?

Lin-Manuel was born Jan. 16, 1980, in New York City, the son of Puerto Rican parents. His father, Luis Miranda, Jr., was a political consultant father. His mother, Luz Towns-Miranda, was a clinical psychologist. Lin-Manuel has one sister, also named Luz. The family lived in the Hispanic neighborhood of Inwood in Manhattan.

The Miranda children were raised in a musically-oriented family. Both siblings took piano lessons. The music of Broadway featured prominently in the home, but Lin-Manuel also developed an appreciation for hip-hop, including the music of the Beastie Boys, Boogie Down Productions, and Eric B. & Rakim.

During his pre-teen and teenage years, Lin-Manuel attended Hunter College’s elementary and high schools. During these years, he performed in student stage productions. Once he graduated from high school, he enrolled at Wesleyan University, where he majored in theater studies.

After college, Lin-Manuel accepted a teaching position. He taught seventh grade English for one year. Then he became a substitute teacher at his alma mater, Hunter College High School. That’s where he was working when his musical In the Heights caught the interest of Broadway producers.

“Hunter had asked me to stay on to continue to teach part time,” the former teacher remembered. But here came a chance to follow his dreams on Broadway. He asked his father, “What should I do? Should I keep teaching or should I just kind of sub and do gigs to pay the rent, and really throw myself into writing full time?”

His father responded with a heartfelt letter. “I really want to tell you to keep the job — that’s the smart ‘parent thing’ to do — but when I was 17, I was a manager at the Sears in Puerto Rico. I basically threw it all away to go to New York, [and] I didn’t speak a lot of English. It made no sense, but it was what I needed to do,” Lin-Manuel recalled the letter said. “It makes no sense to leave your job to be a writer, but I have to tell you to do it,” the elder Miranda advised. “You have to pursue that if you want.” The former teacher’s success is, as they say, history.

Since then, Lin-Manuel has garnered three Grammy Awards, three Emmy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, a MacArthur Fellowship. He was also honored at Kennedy Center in 2018. But one of his favorite trophies is the one he earned when he was a junior in high school. “Because I got straight C’s in math all through high school,” he once confessed. The award, he said, “is on my shelf next to my Grammy.”

To read more about the life of Lin-Manuel Miranda, follow this link to Biography.