Tag Archives: Teacher Authors

Paul Zindel: High school chemistry teacher and celebrated author

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Many fine educators distinguish themselves in other fields. Such is the case with Paul Zindel, a high school chemistry teacher who is also a celebrated author and playwright.

Paul was born on May 15, 1936 in Tottenville, on Staten Island in New York. His father was a policeman, and his mother was a nurse. When Paul was still a child, his father abandoned his family, and his mother struggled to support the family alone. It was, by his own account, a difficult childhood.

Upon his high school graduation, Paul enrolled in Wagner College on Staten Island. Although he majored in chemistry, he took a creative writing course from celebrated playwright Edward Albee. Albee encouraged and nurtured Paul’s writing talent.

After Paul earned his college degree, he accepted a position as a technical writer for Allied Chemical. He was employed there for six months, but did not enjoy the work. Pursuing a passion for helping young people, Paul decided to go into teaching. For the next ten years, he taught chemistry and physics at Tottenville High School.

While still teaching, Paul wrote the book he is probably most famous for, The Pigman (1968). It was so successful that in 1969 he left teaching to write full-time. “I felt I could do more for teenagers by writing for them,” Paul once explained. “I started reading some young adult books, and what I saw in most of them had no connection to the teenagers I knew. I thought I knew what kids would want in a book, so I made a list and followed it,” he continued. “I try to show teens they aren’t alone. I believe I must convince my readers that I am on their side; I know it’s a continuous battle to get through the years between twelve and twenty — an abrasive time. And so I write always from their own point of view,” he concluded.

Paul’s other signature work includes The Effect of Gamma Rays on the Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, which received an Obie Award in 1970 for best American play. He garnered a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1971.

Sadly, Paul contracted lung cancer and passed away on March 27, 2003. He is interred in Moravian Cemetery in Staten Island.

To learn more about this extraordinary educator and author, visit his website at www.paulzindel.com.

Chalkboard Champion Josephine Heard: Teacher and Poet

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Many talented educators often become celebrated authors. Such is the case with Josephine Delphine Henderson Heard, an early 19th century schoolteacher who taught in Mayesville, South Carolina.

Josephine was born in Salisbury, North Carolina, on October 11, 1861, just after the outbreak of the Civil War. Her parents, Lafayette and Annie Henderson, were slaves. After the war was won and the Emancipation achieved, the Hendersons worked hard to ensure a quality education for their daughter. Josephine, who could read by the age of five, started school in Charlotte, North Carolina, and was later enrolled in historically black Scotia Seminary in nearby Concord. To earn her college degree, she attended college at Bethany Institute in upstate New York. Upon graduation, Josephine accepted her first teaching position at the elementary school located in Mayesville, South Carolina.

In 1882, when the young educator was 21, she married William Henry Heard from Georgia, also a teacher and a former slave. Later William became a prominent minister in the AME Church. The pair traveled the world together, including Liberia, as part of his work for the church.

In addition to being a dedicated teacher, Josephine was also a gifted poet. In 1890, she published her book Morning Glories, a collection of 72 poems. Her book is currently in the public domain, and can be accessed online through the Hathi Trust at Morning Glories. Although Josephine passed away in Philadelphia in 1921, her spirit lives on in her poetry. To learn more about this amazing teacher, click on this link: AAWW Biographies.

Carol Jago: A Truly Remarkable Educator

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CAJ48344Here is a truly remarkable chalkboard champion: Carol Ann Jago.

Carol was born in the Chicago area to Italian parents, John Crosetto and Mary Giacchino. Her father was from Turin and her mother came from Sicily. After her high school graduation, Carol was educated at st. Louis University and the University of California, Sana Barbara, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in English in 1973. She earned her master’s degree in education from the University of Southern California the following year.

After her college graduation, Carol worked for 32 years as a junior high school and high school English teacher in the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District. She has also served as a content advisor for the Advanced Placement Literature test and also on the English Advisory Committee. Formerly, she was the president of the National Council of Teachers of English and an editor for the journal for the California Association of Teachers of English. She has worked as the director of UCLA’s California Reading and Literature Project. She’s also been engaged as an educational consultant and a motivational speaker, and she has published numerous books. 

Carol Jago is truly an extraordinary educator.

Educator Jenifer Fox: A Champion of the Strengths Movement

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0x9yi1zrd0mnt6rmyjfv_400x400Many innovative teachers make wonderful mentors to other educators. One terrific example of this is Jenifer Fox, a leader in what is known in educational circles as the Strengths Movement.

Jenifer was born on December 9, 1960, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she spent her childhood. After her high school graduation, she earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a master’s degree from Middlebury College, and a second master’s degree in education from Harvard.

Jenifer has over 25 years of experience as a teacher and administrator in a variety of settings, including public and private schools, day and boarding schools, religiously affiliated, single-gender schools, special needs schools, and international and American schools. But she is best known for her work in promoting a strengths-based approach to children’s education. In 2008, her book Your Child’s Strengths: Discover Them, Develop Them, Use Them was published by Viking Press. In 2007, Jenifer traveled all over the United States on a bus tour with Marcus Buckingham, a promoter of what is known as the Strengths Movement. Buckingham wrote the foreword to Jennifer’s book, where he specifically praised her revolutionary vision for education.  To learn more about the Strengths Movement, click on this link: Strengths Movement.

Jenifer is also known as the founder of a high school curriculum called the Affinities Program. The name of this program was changed to Strong Planet in 2009. Jenifer also authored The Differentiated Instruction Book of Lists published in 2011 by Jossey-Bass.

Jenifer has delivered keynote speeches on 21st century education, business and school innovation, and developing children’s strengths to over 200 organizations. Additionally, she has made numerous television and radio appearance speaking about schools, students, and leadership.

Jenifer Fox: a true chalkboard champion.

Best New Year’s Resolutions for Teachers

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I came across this really terrific article published yesterday in the Huffington Post. It was written by Dallas Rico, an educator and young adult novelist. Because the post really resonated with me, I am reprinting it here:

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The New Year’s Resolution Every Teacher Should Make

by Dallas Rico

In a week, we’ll see tons of prominent store displays and ads stacked with weight loss shakes, protein bars and supplement pills. That’s because, year after year, losing weight and getting in shape are among the top New Year’s resolutions. Inevitably, around February, many give up on that goal, just in time for all the beer and hot wings that come with Super Bowl parties.

Though I’m not a fan of New Year’s resolutions (given their failure rate), I do believe that we teachers are positioned to make and keep them. Why? Because that holiday break removes us from our normal day-to-day routine and affords us time to reflect on our practice. Naturally, as we spend the holidays out of the classroom, we think about how the first semester went and come up with ways to improve for the next.

Personally, I plan to develop more student-centered projects that bring their learning to life. As a Spanish teacher, I have the opportunity to make lessons more meaningful beyond worksheets and tests. I realize I can do more with that and will strive to do so next year. Perhaps you want to seek more professional development opportunities or become more involved in school programs. Maybe you want to make a better effort calling parents or returning assignments back quicker (the struggle is real).

In my years in education, I’ve seen a number of complacent teachers who are content with using the same lesson plans, assessments and materials each year. The truth is that even teachers who’ve been in the profession for over 25 years can improve in one way or another.

On the other side, the first year teacher may utterly feel overwhelmed and needing to get better at various things. That’s why every teacher can and should strive to improve in at least one way. That’s a reasonable New Year’s resolution, one that often happens naturally, but it still must be stated.

Due to the cyclical nature of education, especially if you teach the same subject and level each year, it’s easy to fall into a groove and always do the exact same thing, as if you’re an actor on a Broadway show. But I urge educators to find at least one way they can improve this year and create a plan to stick to it.

Thoughtful school administrators can also help teachers become more introspective. By introducing key school-wide initiatives, they push faculty to try new things. For instance, in a school I taught at in Los Angeles, the principal asked all teachers, even the Art, Math and P.E. teachers, to create one writing assignment within a two month period. The ultimate goal was to get students to write more and to improve the clarity of their arguments. After the window of time, all the teachers met and reflected on the process.

As a result, some, like our algebra teacher, began assigning more writing, thus, giving students more practice. Mission accomplished. Likewise, a savvy administrator can get the school to address a common issue with such an initiative.

For-profit companies set goals to make more money. Teachers set goals to get more students prepared for college and career. The better the teacher, the more prepared students will be. It all begins with saying “this year I will be a better teacher for my students by ______________.”

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To view the original article, click on this link: New Year’s Resolutions for Teachers.