Tag Archives: Teacher Authors

Mary Allen West of Illinois: Educator, pioneer, and journalist

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Mary Allen West of Illinois worked tirelessly as an educator, journalist, author, and temperance worker. Photo credit: Public Domain.

Many talented educators serve as pioneers in fields both within and outside of the education community. One of these was Mary Allen West, an Illinois teacher who worked tirelessly as a journalist, author, and temperance worker.

Mary was born on July 13, 1837, in Galesburg, Illinois. Her parents were pioneers who journeyed west from New York. As a child, Mary was described as healthy, vigorous, and studious. She matured early, both mentally and physically.

She was only 13 years old when she passed the examinations that qualified her to enter Knox Female Seminary. Surprisingly, she taught school for two years at Robbins School in Sparta Township until she was old enough to enter the school. She graduated two years after that, at age 17. Immediately after graduation, Mary began to teach school, which she had declared to be her life work. Successful in teaching and influential in educational circles, Mary earned a reputation as a “lady of grit, grace, and gumption.

When the Civil War broke out, many former slaves arrived at the a local school for African Americans, hoping to learn to read. Mary became their teacher. Often her class had more than 100 students of all ages. In addition to her classroom responsibilities, Mary worked tirelessly to organize women into local aid societies to assist the Sanitary Commission. She also entered the field of journalism, which was uncommon for women in her day. She edited Home Magazine in the state of Illinois. The former teacher also served as the first president of the Illinois Women’s Press Association. She also authored a book entitled Childhood, It’s Care and Culture, which was published in 1892. You can view the entire text of the book at this link to the Hathi Trust Digital Library.

Later Mary devoted her considerable energy to the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), where she became a hardworking proponent of temperance. She helped to organize the women of Illinois to this cause, and eventually was named the WCTU’s state president.

The exact date of her death is not known, but this Chalkboard Champion passed away in Japan in 1892, where she had gone to advance the cause of temperance. This Chalkboard Champion is buried in Hope Cemetery, Galesburg. To read more about Mary Allen West, see this link at the Galesburg Register Mail.

Blanche Evans Dean: Teacher, conservationist, and author

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Blanche Evans Dean, an Alabama high school biology teacher, is also a renowned naturalist, conservationist, and nonfiction author. Photo credit: Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Many gifted educators are well-known not only for their contributions to the classroom, but also for outstanding accomplishments outside in fields other than education. This is true about Blanche Evans Dean, an Alabama high school biology teacher who was also a renowned naturalist, conservationist, and nonfiction author.

Blanche was born June 12, 1892. She was raised on her parents’ farm in Clay County, Alabama, on land her mother’s family had bought from the Creek Indians. Even at an early age, the young Blanche developed a keen interest in science, and exhibited a fondness for the plants and animals that inhabited the world around her.

As a teenager, Blanche attended Lineville High School and, after graduating in 1908, began teaching at the two-teacher school at Hatchett Creek Presbyterian Church. After deciding to make teaching her lifelong career, Blanche enrolled at Jacksonville Normal School, now known as Jacksonville State University, where she majored in education. She later transferred to Valparaiso University in Indiana, where she earned her teaching certificate at age 26.

After graduation, Blanche taught for three years at Shades Valley High School in Birmingham. In 1922, she took a break from teaching and entered the University of Alabama, where she earned her Bachelor’s in Chemistry in 1924. Once she completed this degree, she accepted a position as a biology teacher at Woodlawn High School in Birmingham, where she developed her hands-on, experience-based style of teaching. Blanche believed that students were better able to develop an understanding of birds, insects, and plants, and “a sense of being” for all living things by listening and observing first-hand, even getting down on their hands and knees.

In 1939, the innovative teacher married William Dean, but they divorced less than a year later. Blanche decided to keep her husband’s surname.

Blanche remained at Woodlawn High School until she retired in 1957, spending nearly 30 years as a teacher in the public school system. In the later years of her career, she became a passionate naturalist and conservationist. One of her projects in the 1940s was a campaign to have the US Government declare Alabama’s Clear Creek Falls a national park. The area, threatened by dam construction, was rich in mountain laurel, contained a rare species of white azalea, and even supported a stand of Canadian hemlock. The campaign failed, however, and the falls were ultimately incorporated into Lewis Smith Lake.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Blanche helped to found the Alabama Ornithological Society, the Alabama Environmental Council, and the Alabama Conservation Council, then known as the Alabama Conservancy. Additionally, the indefatigable educator was involved in the Birmingham Audubon Society, the Alabama Academy of Science, the National Association of Biology Teachers, the American Fern Society, and Delta Kappa Gamma. In 1951, she established an Outdoor Nature Camp, which she directed every summer for 13 years in order to educate teachers and other adults about Alabama’s natural history. In 1967, after assisting the Alabama Environmental Council in designating Alabama’s first national forest, the Willliam B. Bankhead National Forest,  she was awarded a prize from the National Audubon Society for conservation education. Blanche was the first person from Alabama to receive such an award.

Blanche had always been frustrated with the lack of reference books available about Alabama’s botany and zoology, so after her retirement she wrote several books on the subject. She self-published Let’s Learn the Birds of Alabama in 1957, Trees and Shrubs in the Heart of Dixie in 1961, Let’s Learn the Ferns of Alabama in 1964, and Wildflowers of Alabama and Adjoining States in 1973. Her field guides remain the standard today.

This remarkable educator passed away May 31, 1974, at the age of 88, from complications caused by a major stroke. She was buried in the cemetery at Hatchett Creek Presbyterian Church. But she was not forgotten. In 1975, she was recognized with the Alabama Library Association’s first posthumous Annual Author Award for her non-fiction books. The Alabama Wildflower Society later established the Blanche E. Dean Scholarship Fund and named its Birmingham chapter after her. In 1985, Blanche was inducted into the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame  in 1985.

To read more about Blanche Evans Dean, click on this link to the Encyclopedia of Alabama.

CA’s Romaine Washington: Educator and acclaimed poet

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Many talented classroom teachers also find notoriety as authors. One of these is Romaine Washington, a California educator who has earned acclaim as a poet. (Photo credit: www.romainewashington.com)

Many talented classroom teachers also find notoriety as authors. One of these is Romaine Washington, a California educator who has earned acclaim as a poet.

Romaine was born and raised in San Bernardino in Southern California. As a latch key kid afflicted with asthma, she spent many after-school hours reading. And even as a youngster, her gift for poetry earned special attention from her teachers.

As an adult, Romaine earned her Bachelor’s degree in French from California State University, San Bernardino. She earned her Master’s degree in Education from Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California. She is a fellow of the Inland Area Writing Project (IAWP), a program that offers teachers additional training in instructional practices for writing sponsored by the University of California, Riverside.

After earning her degrees, Romaine worked as a high school teacher. It was in her first year that she completed the IAWP program. “I was invited back to be a workshop presenter and then a facilitator for the summer program,” she recalled. “For two years, I was poet-in-resident,” she continued. She also accepted a position to teach as an adjunct in the Cultural Language and Diversity Program  at her alma mater, Azusa Pacific. In all, her career as an educator has spanned over 20 years.

Romaine has published two books of poetry, including Sirens in Her Belly (2015) and Purgatory Has An Address, which is due to be released in April of this year. Her work has been published in a wide variety of anthologies and periodicals, including San Bernardino Singing, Lullwater Review, and Cholla Needles. She also contributes to the Inlandia Institute, an organization that offers creative writing classes for adults in the Inland Empire of Southern California. In addition, she has presented her work in a wide variety of venues from National Poetry Slam, National Public Radio, and her local radio station KPFK.

To learn more about Romaine, see her website at  www.romainewashington,com.

New York’s Brian P. Jones: Educator, author, and activist

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There are many great stories about remarkable African American teachers. One New York’s Brian P. Jones: Educator, author, and activist. Photo credit: www.gc.commons.cuny.edu

There are many great stories about remarkable African American teachers. One is New York’s Brian P. Jones: Educator, author, and activist.

Brian earned his Bachelor’s degree in Theater Arts from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1995. He earned his Master’s degree in Elementary Education from City College of New York, New York,  in 2006. He completed the requirements for his Ph.D. in Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center in 2018.

Brian inaugurated his career as an elementary school educator in New York City Public Schools, where he taught for the nine years between 2003 and 2012. During those years, he was a teacher at PS 125, PS 30, and PS 261.

Once he left the elementary classroom, Brian devoted his considerable energy towards educational pursuits. He is currently the Associate Director of Education at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. For many years he has been a member of the Board of Directors of Voices of a People’s History of the United States, an organization that telling nontraditional stories about American history. He worked with famous historian Howard Zinn on that project. He has also published extensively, in many periodicals, including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Journal of Negro Education, and Chalkbeat. He also served on the New York State Education Department Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Advisory Panel in 2018.
For his work in the field of education, Brian is the recipient of awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute for Museum and Library Services, the Lannan Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the City University of New York.
To read more about Chalkboard Champion Brian P. Jones, see this link to Academia.

Illinois teacher and acclaimed author Irene Hunt

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Illinois teacher and acclaimed author Irene Hunt (Photo credit: Bookologymagazine.com)

Many teachers are familiar with the historical novels of Irene Hunt: Across Five Aprils, Up a Road Slowly, and The Lottery Rose, for example. But did you know that Hunt was also a distinguished teacher?

Irene was born on May 18, 1907, in Pontiac, Illinois. As a young girl, she spent a great deal of time with her grandfather, who spent countless hours recounting stories of his childhood during the Civil War. These stories eventually became the basis of her historical novels.

Irene earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana, in 1939, and her Master’s degree from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, in 1946. She taught English and French in public schools in Oak Park, Illinois, from 1930 to 1945. For the next four years she taught psychology at the University of South Dakota, Vermillion. Then she returned to teaching in public schools in Cicero, Illinois, from 1950 to 1969, when she retired to write full time.

Irene’s first book, and her signature work was Across Five Aprils, published in 1964, when she was 57 years old. The volume garnered high critical acclaim, winning the Follett Award and being named the sole Newbery honor book of 1965 by the American Library Association. It was followed by Up a Road Slowly, published in 1966, which received the Newbery Medal, among other honors.

Irene was a pro at using historical novels in the classroom. She once said, “While teaching social studies to junior high school students, I felt that teaching history through literature was a happier, more effective process.”

Irene Hunt passed away on Mary 18, 2001. It was her 94th birthday. To read more about her, see this biography at Bookology.