Tag Archives: Foreign Language Teachers

New Mexico teacher Laura Escalanti succumbs to Covid-19

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With great sadness we report that yet another beloved educator has been lost to Covid-19. Laura Escalanti, a teacher at Pojoaque Valley Middle School in Santa Fe, New Mexico, succumbed to the disease on November 21, 2020. (Photo credit: Santa Fe New Mexican)

With great sadness we report that yet another beloved educator has been lost to Covid-19. Laura Escalanti, a teacher at Pojoaque Valley Middle School in Santa Fe, New Mexico, succumbed to the disease on Nov. 21, 2020. She was 69 years old.

For more than 20 years, Laura instructed courses in Spanish and the Tewa language at the middle school. In addition, she served on the planning team for Tewa Women United’s A’Gin Project.

The loss of this dedicated Native American educator has been keenly felt in the community, and in her Pueblo of San Ildefonso. “We lost a treasure,” remarked Joe Talachy, Governor of the Pojoaque Pueblo. “People like her are invaluable. It’s hard to find people with that kind of ambition, that kind of charisma and character that really gets through to our youth,” he declared.

As a young girl, Laura attended St. Catherine Indian School, where she graduated in 1968. She enrolled at the College of Santa Fe, but dropped out when she was a senior to get married. With her new husband, Laura moved to the Mescalero Apache Reservation, where she lived for 27 years. In 1995 she obtained a divorce and returned to her home town of Santa Fe.

When she returned to Santa Fe, Laura earned her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and her Master’s degree in Multilingual/Multicultural Education. She accepted her first teaching position at her alma mater, St. Catherine Indian School, where she worked until 1998. The next year she relocated to Pojoaque Valley Middle School. Later Laura earned a second Master’s degree in Education Administration from New Mexico State University.

To learn more about this Chalkboard Champion, see this article published in the Santa Fe New Mexican.

Educator Laura Escalanti, pictured in the back row, fourth from the left, with students from her Tewa Women United’s A’Gin Project. (Photo credit: Tewa Women United)

Coronavirus claims life of Wisconsin teacher Heidi Hussli

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The coronavirus has claimed the life of high school German teacher Heidi Hussli of Wisconsin.

We are sad to report that the coronavirus has claimed the life of yet another beloved educator. Heidi Hussli, a foreign language teacher at Bay Port High School in Green Bay, Wisconsin, passed away from the disease on Sept. 17, 2020. She was 47 years old.

Heidi taught German at Bay Port High School in the Howard-Suamico School District for the past 16 years. Two of the classes she taught were International Baccalaureate courses.

Those who knew her are already expressing thoughts about their loss. “People were just drawn to her. She definitely touched every soul she met in a positive way,” expressed former student Erin Froelich. Former student Emily Ross agrees.  “She’s definitely one of the teachers who stands out the most to me,” she remembers. “Her ability to reach kids made me realize that, as a teacher, your power to impact students is limitless. I think about that every day in my classroom.” Emily currently teaches special education in Minnesota.

Heidi was born on July 15, 1973, in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. She graduated from Beaver Dam High School in 1991. During a high school trip to Germany, Heidi became enamored of the country, and that affection was responsible for her future career as a teacher of the German language. After she graduated from high school, Heidi enrolled at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, where she studied German and secondary education. During her collegiate years, Heidi spent more time studying in Germany, and once she earned her degree in 1997, she returned to Germany to enroll at the Univeritat of Konstanz to study the German and Linguistics.

To read more about the passing of this beloved educator, see this story printed in the Green Bay Press Gazette.

Educator, activist, and member of New Mexico House of Reps Miguel P. Garcia

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Educator, activist, and member of the new Mexico House of Representatives Miguel P. Garcia.

Many fine classroom teachers have also been successful in the political arena. This is certainly true of Miguel P. Garcia, a Spanish teacher from Albuquerque, New Mexico who has served in his state’s House of Representatives since 1997.

Miguel earned his Bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education from Eastern New Mexico University, Portales, in 1973. He earned his Master’s degree in Elementary Education from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, in 1993.

While still an undergrad, Miguel became an active participant in the civil rights struggle of Chicano people in the late 1960’s, 1970’s, and early 1980’s. In 1972, he was arrested at a sit-in at the Office of the President while protesting discrimination in the employment of Latinos at his university. He also worked for the creation of a Chicano Studies Program at the school. He chaired the Chicano Student Organization (AHORA) for two years. In those two years, his group created tutorial programs in the barrio schools of North Portales, and they opened a community center operated by the North Portales community.

Miguel has taught Spanish in Albuquerque Public Schools since 1989. Prior to becoming an educator, he worked as a real estate broker from 1985 to 1992. He was also employed as the Director of Casa Armijo Community Center from 1979 to 1985.

In 1996, Miguel was elected to the New Mexico House of Representatives on the Democratic ticket. He continues to serve his constituents in District 14 there to this day. In the legislature, he is a member of the Labor Committee, the Veterans and Military Affairs Development Committee, and serves as the Chair of the Land Grants and Cultural Affairs Committees. To learn more about this Chalkboard Champion’s political activities, follow this link to a Q&A published in the Albuquerque Journal.

Dr. Ruth Flowers: Chalkboard Champion of Colorado

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Award-winning educator Dr. Ruth Flowers of Boulder, Colorado. (Fair Use Photo)

American history is rich with the stories of amazing Black Chalkboard Champions. One of these was Ruth Flowers, an award-winning educator from Boulder, Colorado.

Ruth was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on March 10, 1903. Her father was a bricklayer, and her mother was a dressmaker. Ruth’s father abandoned the family before Ruth was born, and her mother passed away when Ruth was only 11. The young child was raised by her grandmother. In 1917, Ruth moved with her grandmother to Boulder, Colorado. There she attended Boulder High School. During her high school years, Ruth worked at jobs in a laundry and in a restaurant to help support her family.

After she completed her high school courses in 1920, Ruth enrolled at the University of Colorado, where she majored in foreign language. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in 1924. For the next four years, Ruth taught language at Claflin College in South Carolina. During these years, she returned to Boulder every summer to continue her education and to take care of her aging grandmother. In 1930 she completed the coursework for her Master’s degree in French and Education.

Once she earned her Master’s degree, Ruth relocated to Washington, DC, where she accepted a position at Dunbar High School. She taught there from 1931 to 1945. Ruth was always looking for additional opportunities to gain more education. She enrolled in night courses at Robert F. Terrell Law School, where she earned a law degree in 1945. In 1937, she married her law school classmate, Harold Flowers. In 1945, Ruth left the classroom and practiced law with her husband.

Ruth returned to school in 1951 to work on a PhD in Foreign Languages and Literature. For this degree she enrolled at Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. This done, Ruth taught as an Associate Professor of Spanish at North Carolina College in Durham, North Carolina. The school is now known as North Carolina Central University. In 1958, she spent a year in Spain.

In 1959, Ruth returned to Boulder, where she accepted a position as the Chair of the Foreign Language Department at Fairview High School. She taught courses in Spanish and Latin there. She was the first African American teacher to work in the Boulder Valley School District. She taught there until her retirement in 1967.

During the 1970-1971 school year, Ruth came out of retirement to teach a course in African American literature as part of the Black Studies program at the University of Colorado.

For her superior work in the classroom, Ruth garnered a Teacher of the Year award from Harvard University in 1969. She was also named Bicentennial Mother of Achievement by the state of Colorado in 1975.

Ruth Flowers passed away on November 20, 1980, in Boulder. She was 77 years old. To read more about this amazing Chalkboard Champion, see this link to BlackPast.

Ezekiel Cheever: “Chief representative of colonial schoolmaster”

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Ezekiel Cheever, who has been called “the chief representative of the colonial schoolmaster.”

There are many notable educators that go way back in American history. One of these was Ezekiel Cheever, an educator and author who dates back all the way to the 1600’s.

Ezekiel was born in January 25, 1615, in London, England. Ezekiel earned his education at Christ’s Hospital & Emmanuel College in  Cambridge, England, where he graduated in 1635. He then migrated to Boston, Massachusetts. That was in June of 1637. Later, he moved to  Quinnipiac, the Indian settlement that became the New Haven Colony later known as Connecticut). There he taught school, and after some time there he returned to Massachusetts.

Back in Boston, he accepted a job offer to become the Headmaster of the Boston Latin School. During a career that spanned 70 years, Ezekiel spent a whopping 38 of them at the Boston Latin School. His poorly-lit classroom featured a smoky fireplace and a bundle of birch rods beside his desk. One of his students was the famous historical figure Cotton Mather.

During the course of his career as an educator, Ezekiel wrote what is believed to be the earliest American school book. The book was a foreign language grammar book entitled Accidence: A Short Introduction to the Latin Tongue. This book was published in many editions for nearly 200 years after its original publication, longer than any Latin textbook published in this country.

For his outstanding work in the classroom, Ezekiel has been called “the chief representative of the colonial schoolmaster.” When this exemplary teacher passed away on August 21, 1708, it was said that “New England (had) never known a better teacher.” Cotton Mather delivered a sermon at his funeral.

To learn more about this American historical figure, read this journal article by Franklin Parker entitled Ezekiel Cheever: New England Colonial Teacher.