Tag Archives: Special Education Teachers

Special Education and ESL teacher Debra Hurst of Austin, Texas

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Debra Hurst

Special Education and ESL teacher Debra Hurst of Austin, Texas

I always enjoy sharing stories about gifted educators. That’s what this blog is all about! Today I’m sharing the story of Debra Hurst, a retired elementary school teacher from Austin, Texas.

Debra earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She earned her Master’s degree at the University of Texas at Austin in 1986, and in 1997, she completed the requirements for her certification in English as a Second Language, also from University of Texas, Austin. In 2011, Debra earned her Master Reading Teacher Certification.

Debra has worked in classrooms for her entire 39-year career. She accepted her first position in Marshalltown, Iowa, where she worked with hearing impaired students from infants to high school students. She worked there from 1977 to 1982. In 1982 she moved to Austin, Texas, where she spent the remainder of her lengthy career. For six years she worked as an early childhood deaf teacher at Casis Elementary. From there, she transferred to Galindo Elementary where she worked as a Pre-K and Inclusion teacher. She stayed in that position for ten years. In 1998, Debra taught at Mills Elementary, and she spent three years as a literacy coach at Widen Elementary. From 2013 to 2015, this chalkboard champion worked at the Uphaus Early Childhood Center.

For her extraordinary work as an educator, Debra has earned many accolades. In 2004 she garnered both the University of Texas Excellence in Teaching Award and the Disney Teacher Award.  In 2005, she was given the national KIND Award, and in 2007 she won the HEB Excellence in Education Award. In 2016 she was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame in Emporia, Kansas.

The National Teachers Hall of Fame was founded in 1989 by Emporia State University to recognize dedicated educators throughout the country. The organization conducts an annual induction ceremony to recognize the five teachers selected that year. Located on Emporia State University campus in Kansas, the Hall of Fame honors teachers through a gallery of honorees, a Wall of Fame, a museum, and resource center that tell the history of education through antique textbooks, teacher contracts, and other artifacts. Learn more on their website at nthf.org.

 

Larisa Hovannisian, the Arizona special education teacher who founded Teach for Armenia

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Larisa

Larisa Hovannisian, the Arizona special education teacher who founded Teach for Armenia.

Sometimes a classroom teacher can make the most incredible strides for positive social change. One such educator is Larisa Hovannisian, an Arizona special ed teacher of Armenian descent who founded Teach for Armenia.

Larisa was born on October 21, 1988, in Yerevan, Armenia. Her mother is Armenian and her father is Irish American. When she was just a baby, Larisa’s family moved to California, where they lived for several years. Then the family spent several years living in Russia.

After her high school graduation in Moscow, Larisa returned to the United States, where she enrolled in St. Norbert College, a Catholic liberal arts college located in De Pere, Brown County, Wisconsin. There she earned her Bachelor’s degree in International Business and French, with a minor in Graphic Design. Her goal was to pursue a career in advertising.

But then the path of her life took a different turn. “My best friend from college, who graduated a year before I did, told me about a program called Teach for America,” Larisa once revealed. “Its goal was to recruit young and passionate college graduates and to place them for two years into the most disadvantaged schools in the country. That is how I ended up in Phoenix, Arizona,” she continued. There she worked with special education children with moderate to severe disabilities. Her placement lasted from June, 2010, until May 2012. While teaching, Larisa also earned a Master’s degree in Special Education from Arizona State University.

Once her two-year obligation for Teach for America was fulfilled, Larisa returned to her native Armenia. She became inspired to found a program similar to Teach for America in her homeland. Larisa founded and became the Chief Executive Officer for Teach for Armenia, a nonprofit organization that recruits college graduates and working professionals to serve as full-time teachers in Armenia’s poorest schools. “I have long believed that change—true, meaningful change—begins in our schools,” Larisa once declared.

Larisa Hovannisian: a true chalkboard champion.

 

Accolades to special ed teacher Ashli Skura-Dreher of New York

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Ashli Dreher

High school special education teacher Ashli Skura-Dreher of New York

It’s always a pleasure to learn about a colleague who has earned special recognition for his or her work in the classroom. Today, the spotlight falls on Ashli Skura-Dreher, a high school special education teacher from Youngstown, New York.

Ashli earned her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, in 1995. She received her Master’s degree in Special Education from D’Youville College in Buffalo in 1998. In addition, she completed the requirements for a Certificate of Advanced Study from the State University of New York at Buffalo in Educational Leadership in 2002, and she earned her national certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards the same year. In 2017, Ashli was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame in Emporia, Kansas.

Currently Ashli directs the life skills program in the Special Education Department of Youngstown’s Lewiston-Porter High School. She has worked there since 1998. Between 2002 and 2015, she also taught special education and reading at Ulster Community College. Since 2004, Ashli has served as a coordinator for the Education and Learning Trust, which provides professional development courses to teachers across the state. In total, her career as a professional educator has spanned 21 years.

“She handles each individual child with a caring, fair approach by taking time to listen and to be a proactive voice for her students,” declares Andrew Auer, Ashli’s principal at Lewiston-Porter High School. “Her professionalism, effectiveness as a teacher, and her love and concern for students are traits that are certainly worthy of emulating.”

Parent Jennie Welder agrees. “Ashli Dreher has become more than just a great teacher. She’s also a mentor and a great friend,” says Jennie. “She is loved so much by all of her students and their families because of her awesome way of teaching, her caring ways, and her perseverance of never giving up on any child,” Jennie concludes.

National Teachers Hall of Fame honors reading specialist Connie Bagley

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Connie Bagley

National Teachers Hall of Fame honors reading specialist Connie Bagley of San Marcos, Texas

Many excellent classroom teachers have been singled out for special recognition by the National Teachers Hall of Fame (NTHF). One of these is Connie Bagley, an elementary school reading specialist from San Marcos, Texas.

Connie earned her Bachelor’s degree in Education from Southwest Texas State University in 1972, and also completed some post-graduate work there. She was also a graduate of Southern Methodist University’s Dyslexia Program in 2000.

Since 1993, Connie has worked as a K-5 Dyslexia Reading Specialist at Crockett Elementary in San Marcos, Texas. San Marcos is a suburb of Austin, the state’s capital city.

Connie’s career as an educator has spanned a total of 39 years. “What I do matters. What all educators do matters,” Connie once declared. “It is my job to instill pride and confidence along with the knowledge necessary to be a productive, well-rounded citizen.”

For her dedication to the teaching profession, Connie has earned many accolades. In 2017, she garnered a Winslow Coyne Reitnouer Excellence in Teaching Award. The prestigious award, given to only two educators each year throughout the country, recognizes exemplary leadership and innovative efforts in classroom instruction for students who struggle to read because of learning differences and visual disabilities. The same year, Connie was named a runner-up in the Penguin Random House Teacher Awards for Literacy. In 2013, she was named a Texas Teacher of the Year finalist by the Texas Association of School Administrators.

And this year, she was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame. The NTHF is located in Emporia, Kansas. This nonprofit organization recognizes and honors exceptional teachers, encourages excellence in teaching, and preserves the rich heritage of the teaching profession in the United States. The first induction of five teachers was held in June 1992. To date, 130 teachers have been inducted. To learn more about this organization, click on NTHF.

 

William Allen Hadley: The blind teacher who taught blind students

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William Allen Hadley

William Allen Hadley: the blind teacher who taught bllind students.

There are many dedicated educators who have spent their professional lives working with handicapped students. This is the case with William Allen Hadley, a talented educator who founded a correspondence school for blind adults.

William was born in Moorsville, Indiana, in 1860. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from Earlham College in 1881, and his Master’s degree from the University of Minnesota.

After his college graduation, William taught school in Minnesota. He also served as the Superintendent of Schools in the small town of Wilmar, Minnesota. At the conclusion of his first year of teaching, William traveled to Germany to study at the University of Berlin. When he returned to the United States, he accepted a position at Marietta College in Ohio. Later he taught in public schools in Peoria, Illinois, and at a Chicago’s Lakeview High School for another fifteen years.

In 1915, at the age of 55, William contracted a severe case of influenza, and then he suffered a detached retina which resulted in his blindness. In order to pursue his academic life, William taught himself Braille. The hardworking educator soon discovered that there were few educational opportunities available for blind adults. He felt compelled to help others acquire communication skills and further their studies. In 1920, the enterprising teacher established a correspondence school for blind students he named The Hadley School for the Blind. Among the courses he offered were reading and writing in Braille, English grammar, business correspondence, and the Bible as literature. These courses were offered free of charge.

William’s first student was a farmer’s wife from Kansas who, like William, had suddenly lost her vision and sought to regain her ability to read and write. Teaching most of the early courses himself, William began by translating textbooks to Braille by hand and personally answering lessons with letters of correction and encouragement. Within a year he was teaching about ninety students in the United States, Canada, and China. William served as the Hadley School’s president for more than fifteen years and remained active on the Board of Trustees until his death.

For this work, William received an honorary Doctor of Laws in 1931 and a Doctor of Humanities in 1933 from Beloit College. The Bosma Industries for the Blind honored him as the 2004 recipient of the Hasbrook Award, given to a pioneer in the field of blindness.

In 1941, at the age of 101, this chalkboard champion passed away. He is buried in Moorsville, Indiana.