Tag Archives: English Teachers

ME teacher Nancie Atwell, first recipient of the Global Teacher Prize

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English teacher Nancie Atwell of Maine became the first recipient ever of the Global Teacher Prize. Photo credit: Nancie Atwell

One of the most inspirational teachers in American history is Nancie Atwell, an English teacher from Maine who was named the first teacher ever to win a Global Teacher Prize.

Nancie discovered a love of books as a child, when she became bedridden with rheumatic fever. As an adult, she became an English teacher, inaugurating her career at a middle school in New York State in 1973.

In 1990, Nancie founded the Center for Teaching & Learning (CTL), a non-profit demonstration school she  organized to develop and disseminate effective classroom practices. The center’s faculty conduct seminars, write professional books and articles, and invite teachers from across the US and other countries to spend a week at the school. There they experience the center’s methods firsthand and expose students to other culture groups. So far, 97% of CTL graduates have matriculated to university.

Nancie is also a published author. Her book, In the Middle, describes her innovative reading-writing approach to reading. She also developed the curriculum for a related workshop, where her students were given the freedom to choose the subjects they write about and the books they read. The students, who may not have been readers before taking her workshop, created an average of 20 pieces of publishable writing and read 40 books each year. They also engaged in writing practice that leads to improvement in their writing and reading skills. To learn more about the Center for Teaching & Learning, examine their website at CTL.

Since 1976 Nancie has written nine books on teaching (with praise from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education), edited five collections, and delivered 120 keynote addresses on her teaching. In addition, Nancie has won awards from the Modern Language Association, the International Reading Association, and the National Council of Teachers of English. In 2011 she received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of New Hampshire.

In 2015, Nancie became the first recipient of the Global Teacher Prize, a $1 million award presented by the Varkey Foundation to “one innovative and caring teacher who has made an inspirational impact on their students and their community.” To learn more about the Varkey Foundation, click here.

Sandra Adickes: Legacy of a Freedom School teacher

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New York City English teacher Sandra Adickes with a group of her Freedom School students in 1964. Photo credit: Sandra Adickes

Thirty-year-old Sandra Adickes was an energetic and idealistic high school English teacher from New York City the year she ventured south into Mississippi to teach in a Freedom School. The goal of the summer program was to empower the black community to register to vote and to help bridge some of the gap of educational neglect that had long been a tradition in that Jim Crow state. Both blacks and whites realized that only through education and participation in the democratic process could African Americans ever hope to improve their lot.

The enterprise was not without danger. On the first day of Freedom Summer, three workers involved in the program disappeared while investigating the firebombing of the church facility designated for their voter recruitment activities. Six weeks later, as Sandra Adickes conducted her classes in Hattiesburg, the badly beaten and bullet-ridden bodies of the three missing men were discovered buried in an earthen dam in nearby Neshoba County.
At summer’s end, Sandra accompanied her fearless students when they decided to integrate the Hattiesburg Public Library. Sandra was arrested in the effort. Read her riveting story, and what became of her courageous students, in her book Legacy of a Freedom School. You can also find a chapter about this remarkable teacher in my book, Chalkboard Champions., available from amazon.

 

Former public school teacher and music icon Roberta Flack passes away

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Americans were sad to learn that former public school teacher and Grammy-winning singer Roberta Flack passed away yesterday. Photo Credit: IMDB

Music fans all over the county were sad to learn yesterday of the passing of Grammy Award-winning songwriter and singer Roberta Flack. Her best-known songs are “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” and “Where Is the Love?” Did you know that this celebrated jazz, folk, and R&B icon was once a public school teacher?

Roberta Cleopatra Flack was born February 10, 1937, in Black Mountain, Buncombe County, North Carolina. She was raised in Arlington, Virginia. Her mother was a church organist, so of course Roberta grew up in a musical household. At the age of nine, Roberta began to study classical piano, and by the time she was fifteen, she’d earned a full scholarship in music from Howard University. Howard is a traditionally Black college located in Washington, DC.

Roberta completed her undergraduate work, and then her student teaching at an all-white school near Chevy Chase, Maryland. She was the first African American student teacher to work at that school. After her college graduation, Roberta accepted a position teaching music and English in Farmville, North Carolina, a gig which paid her only $2,800 per year. During her career as a public school teacher, she also taught in Washington, DC, at Browne Junior High and Rabaut Junior High School. While she was teaching, Roberta took a number of side jobs as a night club singer. It was there that she was discovered and signed to a contract for Atlanta Records. The rest, as they say, is music business history.

Over the course of her music career, the former teacher has been nominated for a Grammy 13 times, winning on four occasions. On May 11, 2017, Roberta received an honorary Doctorate degree in the Arts from Long Island University. In 2009 she was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame, and in 2022, she was honored with the Women in American History War by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

In recent years, Roberta continues to contribute to education came when she founded an after-school music program entitled “The Roberta Flack School of Music” to provide music education free of charge to underprivileged students in the Bronx borough of New York City. The program is offered through Hyde Leadership Charter School. You can learn more about this program at this link: Roberta Flack School of Music.

Roberta Flack suffered from a number of serious health issues towards the end of her life. She suffered a stroke in 2018, and she was diagnosed with ALS in 2022. The iconic singer passed away on February 24, 2025, in New York City, the victim of a heart attack. She was 88 years old. The world will surely miss this exceptional teacher and musician.

 

Kelley Cusmano named Michigan’s 2025 Teacher of the Year

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High school English teacher Kelley Cusmano has been named the Michigan State 2025 Teacher of the Year. Photo credit: Bridge Michigan

There are many exemplary teachers work in America’s public schools. One of these is Kelley Cusmano, a high school English teacher from Michigan. She has been named her state’s 2025 Teacher of the Year.

Kelley teaches at Rochester High School in Rochester, Michigan. She teaches Language Arts courses to sophomores and in Elements of Composition to juniors who read below grade level in a diverse student body. She also provides instruction in Student Leadership on her campus. In a career as an educator that has spanned 20 years, she has spent nearly 17 of them at Rochester.

Since 2022, she has also served as the Secondary English Language Arts Curriculum Consultant for Rochester Community Schools. She was selected a of Klawe Fellow for 2020-2021. In addition, in 2018 Kelley served as a member of a committee of educators who organized the Governor’s Education and Talent Summit. And currently, she serves as an at-large representative for the Michigan ASCD organization and serves on the CEO Teacher Cabinet for the Teach Plus organization. Her selection as her state’s Teacher of the Year is not the only recognition Kelley has earned. In March, 2017, she was named Adviser of the Year by the Michigan Association of Student Councils. In 2016, she was selected Emerging Leader by the Association for Curriculum Development.

It is not a surprise that Kelley chose a career in education. “From a young age, I knew that I wanted to work with kids,” she remembers. “I was inspired by spending a lot of time in my mom’s classroom—she taught kindergarten in Concord, Michigan—and my identical twin sister and I would spend hours reading books to kids, playing on the playground with them, etc.,” she continues. “However, as I got older, I actually became interested in writing/journalism as a career, so I entered Michigan State University as a journalism major. I knew I still wanted to work with kids, so I blended both of my loves and decided to become a high school English teacher,” she concludes.

Kelley earned her Bachelor’s degree in English with a Minor in History from Michigan State University in 2005. In 2009, she earned her Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction, also from Michigan State.

 

Elise Boutin named Louisiana’s 2025 State Teacher of the Year

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High school English teacher Elise Boutin of Louisiana has been named her state’s 2025 Teacher of the Year. Photo credit: The Acadiana Advocate

It is always my pleasure to share the news that an exceptional educator has received recognition for their work with young people in America’s public classrooms. Today, I am pleased to announce that Elise Boutin, an English teacher from Louisiana, has been named her state’s 2025 Teacher of the Year.

Elise teaches seniors at Rayne High School in Acadia Parish, Louisiana. She also serves as the school’s Interact Club Advisor and the Cross Country coach. In a career that spans 14 years, she has spent the last 10 of them at Rayne. Prior to her service at the high school, she taught at the junior high school level.

As part of her work at Rayne, Elise resurrected the Rayne, Alive! program, a student-produced YouTube channel. The program has become an important part of the school’s culture. While producing this program, Elise’s students have worked with crews from news stations in Lafayette, and they have even met celebrities and enlisted their aid in creating introductions for episodes of the show. 

Elise says the secret of her success in the classroom is to be real. “I’m authentically myself, and then I give permission for them to be themselves, and I feel like that’s kind of the most unique thing about me,” Elise says. “I really do encourage my students to find their voice and be themselves and not fit a mold of any kind.”

In addition to her Teacher of the Year honors, Elise has been named this year’s recipient of the Norma Hunt Super Bowl Champion of Education award, which includes two tickets to this year’s Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans.

Elise earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2009. She earned her Master’s degree in Teaching from McNeese State University in 2013. In addition, she is working on a graduate certificate in professional writing at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette.