Tag Archives: Foreign Language Teachers

Illinois educator Kimberly Radostits garners Teacher of the Year honors

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Kimberly Radostits, a Spanish teacher from Oregon, Illinois, has been selected her state’s 2022 Teacher of the Year and is one of five finalists for the 2023 National Teacher of the Year. Photo credit: Oregon Community District 220

It is always my pleasure to highlight exemplary educators who have earned honors for their work in the classroom. Today, the spotlight falls on Kimberly Radostits, a Spanish teacher from Oregon, Illinois. She was selected 2022 Teacher of the Year for Illinois, and is one of five finalists selected for 2023 National Teacher of the Year honors.

Kimberly teaches Spanish to students in grades eight through twelve at Oregon Junior/Senior High School at Oregon Community Unit District 220. She has worked there for the past 15 years.

In addition to her Spanish curriculum, Kimberly serves as the faculty advisor for a freshmen mentoring program known as “Hawks Take Flight.” The goal of the program is to give students the skills and support they need to stay on track for graduation. The program, which flags missing work, absences, and a lack of school connectedness in junior high, allows the school to identify incoming freshmen who are in need of additional support. The numbers prove her program is successful. In 2007-2008, the average number of “F” grades a year for a class of 130 freshmen was 273. By 2019-2020, there were only 16 failing grades in the freshman class.

What inspired Kimberly to develop this program? “In 2011, I left freshmen orientation in tears after having an interaction with a boy who said that he hated school and there was nothing I could do to change that,” she recalls. “The four years I spent trying to prove him wrong have strongly impacted me as a person and an educator and solidified the beliefs I have about education,” she says.

In addition this mentoring program, Kimberly co-directs a New Teacher Academy that provides support and professional development to all new hires in her district. The purpose of this Academy is to promote a connection to the district and achieve teacher retention.

Kimberly’s selection as the Illinois 2022 Teacher of the Year is not the only honor this Chalkboard Champion has earned. In 2015, she was named an Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development Emerging Leader.

Kimberly earned her Bachelor’s degree in Spanish Language and Literature from Northern Illinois University in 2007. She earned her a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from Aurora University in 2014. She was designated a National Board Certified Teacher in 2011.

Lydia Aholo taught traditional language to Native Hawaiian students

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Lydia Kaonohiponiponiokalani Aholo taught traditional language to Native Hawaiian students at Kamehameha School. Photo Credit: Kamehameha Schools Archives

I always enjoy sharing stories about educators who have worked with indigenous groups of students. One of these educators was Lydia Kaonohiponiponiokalani Aholo, a Native Hawaiian teacher who taught aspects of the traditional culture to other indigenous Hawaiian students.

Lydia was born on February 6, 1878, in the little town of Lahaina on the island of Maui. She was the third child born to mother Keahi Aholo, who died when Lydia was only six years old, and father Luther Aholo, the Secretary to John Owen Dominis, who was serving as the Governor of Maui at the time. Dominis was the husband of Queen Liliuokalani, the last reigning monarch of the Hawaiian Islands. The royal adopted Lydia, even over the strong objections of her husband and other members of her family.

As a young girl, Lydia attended first Kawaiahao Female Seminary, and then Kamehameha School, a private school for Native Hawaiian girls. In fact, she was a member of the first graduating class for girls in 1897. She then studied Music and Secretarial Sciences at Oberlin College, a private liberal arts college and conservatory of music located in Oberlin, Ohio.

Once she returned to the Islands, Lydia accepted a teaching position at her alma mater, Kamehameha School for Girls. She worked under Principal Ida May Pope. There Lydia taught the Hawaiian language. As a teacher, former students and family members described her as very strict about matters of etiquette and the proper way to conduct oneself in public. In addition to her classroom responsibilities, Lydia performed secretarial services as a stenographer and accountant, and she also worked for the Hawaiian Homes Commission and for the Federal Credit Union as a Secretary-Treasurer. She retired from the teaching profession at the age of 75.

All of her life, Lydia’s talent for. music was well-known, particularly in the area of traditional Hawaiian songs. She served as a mentor to her grand-nephew, Alfred Apaka, Jr, and instructed him in the proper enunciation, phrasing, and interpretation of traditional Hawaiian songs. In addition she became the Director of the Liahona Glee Club, which had been organized in the 1920s.

Lydia Aholo never married or had children of her own. She passed away on July 7, 1979. She was 101 years old. She is interred at Nuuanu Memorial Park. To learn more about this Chalkboard Champion, see this link to Kaiwakiloumoku Indigenous Institute.

Actress and comedian Lennon Parham is a former French teacher

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Actress and comedian Lennon Parham is a former French teacher from Georgia. Photo Credit: Hollywood Handbook

Anyone who has been up in front of a classroom knows that teaching is, in part, a performance. So it’s no surprise when talented teachers make a name for themselves in the entertainment industry. One teacher who has done this is former high school French teacher Lennon Parham, who now works as a celebrated actress and comedian.

Lennon was born on October 27, 1976, in Marietta, Cobb County, Georgia. Her parents named her after the musician John Lennon. As a young girl, she attended Parkview High School in Lilburn, Gwinnett County, Georgia.

After her high school graduation, Lennon enrolled at the University of Evansville, a small private university located in Evansville, Indiana, under the Teach for America program. There she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Theater. Once she completed the requirements for her degree, Lennon accepted a position as a French teacher at T.L. Weston High School in Greenville, Washington County, Mississippi, where she taught for two years.

After fulfilling her obligation for Teach for America, Lennon began her career in the entertainment industry in earnest. She began performing comedy with the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Aneles. She also starred in the two-person show The Adventures of Lock & Kay and the one-woman show She Tried to be Normal. Over the years, she has wracked up an impressive resume. She has made appearances in 26 episodes of the television show Playing House, 18 episodes of Accidentally on Purpose, 12 shows of Lady Dynamite, six episodes of Veep, six shows of Best Friends Forever, two episodes of Better Things, and 26 episodes of Bless This Mess. She also appeared in roles on Children’s Hospital, Parks and Recreation, Bad Judge, Arrested Development, Star Trek: Lower Decks, and Minx. Lennon also performed in the movies Pretty Bird, Confessions of a Splinterheads, Shopaholic, and Horrible Bosses 2.

Despite her success, the former French teacher has not entirely left the classroom. She has taught improv classes at the Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) training center. The UCB is the only accredited improv and sketch comedy school in the country. You can learn more about this organization at this link: UCB.

Maren Michelet: Teacher of Scandinavian culture and languages

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Educator Maren Michelet taught Scandinavian culture and languages in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Photo Credit: Public Domain

Many fine educators are well-known for sharing knowledge about their culture with their students. One of these was Maren Michelet, a teacher of Norwegian descent who promoted Scandinavian culture and languages in Minnesota’s public classrooms.

Maren was born on May 26, 1869, in Minneapolis. When she grew up, she became a teacher local schools. According to legend, she was the first teacher of Norwegian descent at South High School, located in what was then was the most Scandinavian neighborhood of the city. When she inaugurated her courses in Scandinavian languages, no textbooks and no curriculum guides available for the classes. She invented her own instructional strategies and tried a variety of strategies for engaging the interest of her students. She talked to them about the Viking period, discussed incidents in the history of Norway, and shared information about the nature of the land. She taught lessons about the country’s poets and assigned short Norwegian for the students to memorize.

Eventually, Maren authored materials to help with her instructional program. In 1914, she published First Year Norse, a Norwegian high school grammar textbook. In 1916, she published Glimpses from Agnes Mathilde Wergeland’s life, a translation of Glimt fra Agnes Mathilde Wergelands liv, the biography of Agnes Wergeland, a Norwegian American historian, poet, and educator, and the first woman to earn a doctorate in Norway. She also edited a version of Terje viken by Henry Ibsen. In addition, Maren made literary contributions to Norwegian and American newspapers and magazines.

In addition to these publications, this exceptional educator also served important roles in organizations that promoted the culture. In 1917 she served as an officer of the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study, and in 1923 she was elected the organization’s Education Secretary.

Maren Michelle passed away on Feb. 5, 1932. She was 62 years old.

Marilyn Johnson: Teacher, Diplomat, WWII US veteran

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Many talented classroom educators also exhibit exceptional talent in the diplomatic arena. This is certainly true of Marilyn Johnson, a high school foreign language teacher who also served our country as a diplomat. Ultimately, she became the US Ambassador to Togo.

Marilyn was born on June 19, 1922, in Boston, Massachusetts. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from Radcliffe College in 1944. As a young woman, she was quite athletic, and at one time considered pursuing a career as a physical education teacher, but chose liberal arts instead. Later, Marilyn completed courses at the University of Geneva and at the Sorbonne. Then she returned to the US and enrolled at Middlebury College in New England, where she earned her Master’s degree in French in 1952.

Marilyn was also a military veteran. During World War II, between the years of 1944 to 1946, she served in the US Navy. She trained as a midshipman, but ended up working in communications security in a job that focussed on breaking codes. She also worked for a time as a counselor at the Philadelphia Naval Hospital, where she provided occupational therapy and training to blinded servicemen.

Once she earned her Master’s degree, Marilyn accepted a position as a high school French teacher at Amherst Regional High School in Amherst, Massachusetts. There she taught French for the next seven years, while taking courses in educational psychology, the history of education, and methodology at both Harvard and Smith College. In 1960, she was selected to be part of the Fulbright teacher exchange program. Through the program, she traveled to Orleans, France, where she taught at the Lycée Jeanne d’Arc for two years. 1962, Marilyn traveled first to the African country of Cameroon and then to Mali, where she taught English as a foreign language in several schools. She left her last teaching position in 1964 when she became a diplomat in the Foreign Service.

In the Foreign Service, Marilyn accepted a position as a Cultural Affairs Officer, first in Bamako, Mali, and later in Tunis, Tunisia. She also served as a Public Affairs Officer in Niamey, Niger, and from 1971 to 1974 she served as the Deputy Assistant Director of the Information Centers Program. The following year she attended the Seminar in Foreign Policy, and after learning the Russian language, she was assigned to be a Cultural Affairs Officer in Moscow in the former Soviet Union. That was in 1976.

On Sept. 23, 1978, Marilyn was appointed to the position of Ambassador to Togo by President Jimmy Carter. She served in that position until July 29, 1981.

Today, Marilyn Johnson is 99 years old. She’s a true Chalkboard Champion!