Tag Archives: Teacher Authors

Ann Clark: Teacher and author of books for Native American children

Posted on by
Ann Clark

Ann Clark: Classroom teacher and acclaimed author of books for Native American children.

Throughout our country’s history, there have been many examples of dedicated educators who have worked with underprivileged student populations. One such teacher was Ann Nolan Clark.

Ann Clark was born in Las Vegas, New Mexico, on December 5, 1896. When she was 21, she graduated from New Mexico Normal School, known today as New Mexico Highlands University, located in Las Vegas, New Mexico.

After her college graduation, Ann inaugurated her teaching career as a professor of English at Highlands University. But the young educator wanted to work with younger students. In 1923,  she accepted a position teaching reading to Native American children in a one-room schoolhouse at the Black Rock School in Zuni. Later she taught in a school at Tesuque. Little did she know that this position would last twenty-five years.

While teaching in the Indian schools, Ann observed that the Native American children learned more easily when their primers were geared towards their own life experiences, so she began writing primers with characters and situations that honored the the Pueblo way of life. Many of these primers were later published by mainstream publishing companies. Eventually, Ann broadened her scope and wrote children’s books with Navajo, Sioux, Finnish, and Hispanic characters. In addition to these stories, the prolific teacher also published a number of professional articles under the pseudonym Marie Dunne.

Between 1940 and 1951, the US Bureau of Indian Affairs published fifteen of Ann’s books. Her book In My Mother’s House, illustrated by Pueblo artist Velino Herrera, earned a Caldecott Honor Book Award in 1942. During the 1940s, Ann also wrote multi-cultural books for the Haskell Foundation and the Haskell Indian Nations University at Lawrence, Kansas. One of them was The Slim Butte Raccoon, illustrated by Andrew Standing Soldier.

In 1945, the Institute for Inter-American Affairs funded an educational trip for Ann to travel to Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil. Her experiences on this trip led her to write such books as Magic Money, Looking-for-Something, and Secret of the Andes, which garnered her the 1953 Newberry Medal. Ann earned other awards as well. She was given the Distinguished Service Award by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1962, and the Regina Medial by the Catholic Library Association in 1963.

This remarkable educator passed away on December 13, 1995. During her lifetime, she published over forty books, 31 of them about Native American culture.

Former teacher and acclaimed author Maxine Hong Kingston

Posted on by
Maxine Hong Kingston

Former teacher and acclaimed author Maxine Hong Kingston

Many people are familiar with the famous author Maxine Hong Kingston. She wrote The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, a critically-acclaimed autobiographical account in which Maxine details the conflicting cultural messags she received as the daughter of Chinese immigrants growing up in America in the 1950s. She also wrote China Men, Tripmaster Monkey, The Fifth Book of Peace, and Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace. But did you know that this talented writer is also a teacher?

Maxine was born on October 27, 1940, in Stockton, California. Her parents were first-generation Chinese immigrants. In order to immigrate to the United States, her father had to give up a career as a professional scholar and teacher in his home village of Sun Woi, near Canton. Maxine was the third of the couple’s eight children, and the eldest of the six children born to them in the United States.

Maxine earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1962, and then obtained her teaching credential. She taught high school in the city of Hayward for a year, and then moved to Hawaii where she taught in various positions. From 1970 to 1977 she taught at Mid-Pacific Institute, a private boarding school. In 1990, she was invited to join the faculty of her alma mater, UC Berkeley, as a senior lecturer in the English department.

This remarkable educator has earned many awards. She garnered the Writers Award from the national Endowment for the Arts in 1980 and again in 1982. She was honored by President Bill Clinton with a National Humanities Medal in 1997. She has also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Asian American Literary Awards (2006), and a Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation (2008). In 2013 this former English teacher was honored by President Barack Obama with a National Medal of Arts award.

The National Teachers Hall of Fame honors the inspirational Jeff Baxter

Posted on by
Jeff Baxter

The National Teachers Hall of Fame honors high school English teacher Jeff Baxter of Kansas

It is always gratifying to see a colleague recognized for outstanding contributions to the teaching profession. One such teacher is Jeff Baxter, a high school English teacher from Kansas who was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame (NTHF) this past June.

Jeff earned his Bachelor’s degree in English and Secondary Education from the University of Kansas in 1971, and his Master’s degree in Secondary Education from the same institution in 1976. He also earned a Juris Doctorate from the Washburn University School of Law in 1985, and he completed post-graduate work at the University of Missouri.

Now 70 years of age, Jeff has spent a total of 30 years as a classroom educator. He currently teaches 12th grade Advanced Placement Literature and Composition at Blue Valley West High School in Overland Park, Johnson County, Kansas.

Jeff believes working with young people is the noblest profession there is. “By helping them appreciate the value of language, they develop problem-solving habits that make them lifelong learners,” he once declared.

For his excellence as an educator, Jeff has earned many accolades. In 2014, he was named the Kansas Teacher of the Year, and in 2017 he was named Inspirational Teacher of the Year by the Blue Valley West Honor Society. He is also a fellow of the National Writing Project, through which he has presented hundreds of writing workshops to middle and high school teachers and college professors throughout the Midwest. He’s also the 2015 Kansas Global Education Fellow, working with teachers internationally. In fact, in 2015 this amazing educator traveled to South America to work with Peruvian children and teachers.

Jeff is also the author of a book entitled More than One Way Home, a memoir about overcoming setbacks and finding hope. It’s about Jeff’s personal journey overcoming chronic depression and the resultant obesity that developed because of his inability to deal with the deaths of two important individuals in his life. You can find his book on amazon.com.

Gail Giles of Texas: English teacher and author of young adult fiction

Posted on by
Gail Giles

Gail Giles of Texas: English teacher and author of young adult fiction

Many gifted teachers earn recognition for their artistic efforts outside of the classroom. One example of this is Gail Giles, a high school English teacher from Texas who has made a name for herself as an award-winning writer of young adult fiction.

Gail was born September 24, 1955, in Galveston on the Gulf Coast of Texas. She was raised in LaMarque, a suburb located just south of Houston. After her graduation from high school in Nacogdoches in eastern Texas, Gail enrolled at nearby Stephen F. Austin State University. There she earned degrees in English, speech, and drama. After her college graduation, Gail taught courses in English and remedial reading at Angleton High School in Angleton, Texas. Her career as an educator spanned 20 years.

A writer since childhood, Gail published her first of nine young adult novels in 2002. Her work won immediate acclaim. Her first novel, Shattering Glass (2002), was named a Best Books for Young Adults selection and a Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers selection by the American Library Association (ALA) the year after it was published. Her second novel, Dead Girls Don’t Write Letters (2003), was named a Top 10 Quick Pick by the ALA.

There is a good reason Gail’s books resonate with young adult readers. “When I taught the remedial readers I learned that one reason they didn’t like to read was that the books didn’t connect with their lives,” she once explained. “And frankly I thought having all the books out there being so—soft—and always offering hope—was doing a disservice to teens,” she continued. “The last thing to develop in a person’s brain is the sense of consequence, but the legal system decides someone’s not old enough to make a good decision about driving, getting married, buying alcohol, or joining the military until 18 or 20, but we can put them in jail forever at 12. So, I wanted to write some stories that shows that sometimes it can’t be fixed. That reality is harsh,” she concluded.

After living for a while in Illinois and Alaska, Gail and her husband, Jim Giles, returned to Texas where they currently reside.

Minnette Gersh Lenier: Talented teacher and professional magician

Posted on by
Minnette Gersh Lenier

Minnette Gersh Lenier, talented teacher and professional musician

Standing up in front of a classroom of students has often been compared to a theatrical performance. One teacher who would likely agree is Minnette Gersh Lenier, a talented teacher who also happened to be a professional magician.

Minnette was born on July 9, 1945, in Atlanta, Georgia. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from San Fernando Valley State College in 1967, and her Master’s degree at the University of Iowa the following year. In 1971, she completed the requirements for her Ph.D at the University of Southern California.

As an adult, Minnette became interested in magic, so much so that she studied the subject under acclaimed magician Jules Lenier. She was so good at the art form that she became one of the few female performing magicians to appear at the world-famous Magic Castle. Minnette and Jules were later married.

After earning her college degrees, Minnette worked as a reading specialist at Compton Community College, and as a consultant with the Los Angeles Unified School District. Later she joined the faculty at Los Angeles Pierce College in the San Fernando Valley. This gifted educator often used stage magic in her classroom to teach literacy, reading, and critical thinking skills. She performed various magic tricks using optical illusions for her students to evaluate, and then she would discuss with them how people can fooled. She encouraged students to try magic tricks and illusions at home so they could demonstrate that everyone is occasionally deceived by their eyes. She taught her students that although one can be fooled, that doesn’t mean one is stupid. Believing that learning magic is a mind-expanding activity, Minnette used the art form to teach both her remedial students and her gifted students.

Minnette was also a published academic. With colleague Janet Maker, she authored several books to improve literacy for college students. Among her titles are Keys to a Powerful Literacy (1993); Academic Reading with Active Critical Thinking (1996); College Reading with Active Critical Thinking (1997); and Keys to College Success (1998). Some of her volumes have been adapted into audiobooks.

Sadly, Minnette Lenier suffered a heart attack and passed away in her home in Woodland Hills, California, on February 7, 2011. She was 65 years old.