Tag Archives: Teacher Celebrities

Physics teacher and Survivor winner Robert Crowley of Maine

Posted on by

Physics teacher and Survivor winner Robert Crowley of Gorham, Maine.

Once in awhile a dedicated educator earns fame in an arena outside of the classroom. One of these educators is Robert Crowley, who earned fame for winning the reality TV show Survivor.

Robert participated in the 17th season of the popular show. At age 57, he became the oldest winner in the history of the series. At the time of the episode’s airing, he was teaching physics at Gorham High School in Gorham, Maine.

Robert retired from teaching in 2009, but while he was teaching, he held a number of other jobs in addition to his responsibilities in the classroom. He worked as the first mate on a research boat for the Smithsonian Institution in Canada. He also worked as an entomologist for the USDA. In addition, he acted as a skunk relocater. And he served as the President, Vice President, and Chief Negotiator for his local Teachers’ Union. Robert also nurtured various personal interests, including journal writing, storytelling, photography, bone collecting, archeology, and camping.

After Survivor, this remarkable teacher wrote a book, and he later opened a luxury camping company called Maine Forest Yurts. The resort welcomes school groups, active military and veterans, and non-profit groups, like the Special Olympics, to stay in yurts free of charge. He also created a Survivor-based charity event called the Durham Warriors Survival Challenge to financially support the enterprise.

Robert was born February 25, 1951. Robert earned his Bachelor’s degree in forestry from the University of Maine, Orono, and his Master’s degree in Education from the University of Southern Maine.

To read more about this remarkable educator, see this link at the CBS shor Survivor.

First grade teacher and Miss Tennessee pageant winner Brianna Mason

Posted on by

First grade teacher, advocate for individuals with autism, and Miss Tennessee pageant winner Brianna Mason

Many fine educators have earned distinction in fields outside of education. One of these is Brianna Mason, an elementary school teacher and advocate for individuals with autism who has garnered the title of Miss Tennessee, 2019.

Brianna was raised in Antioch, Tennessee. She graduated with honors in 2013 from Ravenwood High School in Brentwood, Williamson County, in her home state. Her father is the principal there. Following her high school graduation, Brianna enrolled at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. There she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology in 2017 and her Master’s in Elementary Education in 2018. While in college, Brianna was a Charles Lattimore Graduate Scholar with the College of Health, Education, and Human Sciences at UTK, and a part of the selective Urban Multicultural Education Cohort. In addition, she earned the Russell E. Leed Scholarship and the Alex Haley Scholarship.

After her earning her degrees, Brianna accepted a position as a first grade teacher at Hobgood Elementary School in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. She has also devoted much of her energy to raising awareness about autism. To this end, she founded Advocates for Autism, a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to inclusion for individuals and families that are affected by autism.

After Brianna was crowned Miss Tennessee, she decided to take a leave of absence from the classroom to fulfill the responsibilities that go with the title. But she declared that during the year she will serve as an ambassador for the five Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals in Tennessee and promote student literacy. She will also advocate for kids with autism in Tennessee and serve as “a voice for educators,” she says. She expects to return to teaching when her reign ends. She also plans to pursue credentials in English language learning and special education.

To read more about Brianna, click on this link to her page at the UTK.

Special Ed teacher Alyssa Bohm, crowned Miss Wisconsin 2019, promotes inclusivity

Posted on by

Special education teacher Alyssa Bohm, crowned Miss Wisconsin 2019, works with high school students to promote inclusivity.

Many fine educators also earn fame in arenas outside of the classroom. One of these is Alyssa Bohm, a high school special education teacher who garnered the title of Miss Wisconsin in the 2019 beauty pageant last July.

Alyssa was raised in Racine, Wisconsin. She graduated from J. I. Case High School in her home town. After her high school graduation, she enrolled at the University of Wisconsin, Parkside, in Kenosha. But because Parkside did not offer a teaching degree, she transferred to the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater, the next year. After she earned her college diploma, Alyssa returned to her alma mater to work as a special education teacher.

Throughout her one-year reign as Miss Wisconsin, Alyssa will work to promote her social impact initiative enhancing opportunities for individuals with special needs. Alyssa says her initiative was inspired by her Aunt Cindy, who has an intellectual disability. After Cindy’s parents passed away, she lived with family members, although she now lives in a group home in Milwaukee. “There just weren’t enough resources for her,” Alyssa remarked. “And I wanted to be part of something that was really going to provide opportunity.”

The young teacher has already put a lot of work into providing opportunities for individuals with disabilities. During her freshman year at University of Wisconsin, Whitewater, she served at Case High as the co-adviser for the Sparkle Squad, a cheerleading team for girls with special needs. Currently, she currently serves on the Board of Directors for Special Olympics, Wisconsin. To date, Alyssa has spearheaded many other initiatives to advance inclusivity, including co-creating the Special Olympics College Organization and developing the Special Olympics Football Camp at the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater. In the coming year, Alyssa hopes to expand the Special Olympics Unified Sports Program, which provides opportunities for those with disabilities and their non-disabled peers to collaborate in the creation of inclusive environments in schools.

Read more about this amazing educator at Special Olympics Wisconsin.

Composer, playwright, actor, and former teacher Lin-Manuel Miranda

Posted on by

Composer, lyricist, singer, actor, playwright, and producer Lin-Manuel Miranda is also a former English teacher.

Almost everyone has heard of composer, lyricist, singer, actor, playwright, and producer Lin-Manuel Miranda. He’s probably best known for creating and starring in the Broadway musical Hamilton. But did you know that he was once a junior high school English teacher?

Lin-Manuel was born Jan. 16, 1980, in New York City, the son of Puerto Rican parents. His father, Luis Miranda, Jr., was a political consultant father. His mother, Luz Towns-Miranda, was a clinical psychologist. Lin-Manuel has one sister, also named Luz. The family lived in the Hispanic neighborhood of Inwood in Manhattan.

The Miranda children were raised in a musically-oriented family. Both siblings took piano lessons. The music of Broadway featured prominently in the home, but Lin-Manuel also developed an appreciation for hip-hop, including the music of the Beastie Boys, Boogie Down Productions, and Eric B. & Rakim.

During his pre-teen and teenage years, Lin-Manuel attended Hunter College’s elementary and high schools. During these years, he performed in student stage productions. Once he graduated from high school, he enrolled at Wesleyan University, where he majored in theater studies.

After college, Lin-Manuel accepted a teaching position. He taught seventh grade English for one year. Then he became a substitute teacher at his alma mater, Hunter College High School. That’s where he was working when his musical In the Heights caught the interest of Broadway producers.

“Hunter had asked me to stay on to continue to teach part time,” the former teacher remembered. But here came a chance to follow his dreams on Broadway. He asked his father, “What should I do? Should I keep teaching or should I just kind of sub and do gigs to pay the rent, and really throw myself into writing full time?”

His father responded with a heartfelt letter. “I really want to tell you to keep the job — that’s the smart ‘parent thing’ to do — but when I was 17, I was a manager at the Sears in Puerto Rico. I basically threw it all away to go to New York, [and] I didn’t speak a lot of English. It made no sense, but it was what I needed to do,” Lin-Manuel recalled the letter said. “It makes no sense to leave your job to be a writer, but I have to tell you to do it,” the elder Miranda advised. “You have to pursue that if you want.” The former teacher’s success is, as they say, history.

Since then, Lin-Manuel has garnered three Grammy Awards, three Emmy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, a MacArthur Fellowship. He was also honored at Kennedy Center in 2018. But one of his favorite trophies is the one he earned when he was a junior in high school. “Because I got straight C’s in math all through high school,” he once confessed. The award, he said, “is on my shelf next to my Grammy.”

To read more about the life of Lin-Manuel Miranda, follow this link to Biography.

Raymond Teller of Penn & Teller: He used to be a teacher

Posted on by

Former teacher Raymond Teller, right, during a performance of the famous illusionist duo Penn and Teller.

Many people are familiar with Raymond Teller of the popular duo of illusions, Penn and Teller. But did you know that Teller was once a teacher? Long before he became a magician, illusionist, and comedian, this oft-honored celebrity taught high school Greek and Latin at a public school in New Jersey.

Raymond Joseph Teller was born on Feb. 14, 1948, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a teenager, Teller attended Central High School. Following his graduation in 1965, he enrolled in Amherst College. He completed the requirements for his a Bachelor’s degree in the Classics in 1969.

The new graduate inaugurated his career as an educator when he accepted a position teaching Greek and Latin at Lawrence High School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. He lent his talents to the classroom for six years.

Teller’s yearbook photo from his days as a Greek and Latin teacher at Lawrence High School in Lawrenceville.

As a former teacher and a performer with 40 years of stage experience, Teller has advice for professional educators. “The first job of a teacher is to make the student fall in love with the subject,” asserts Teller. “That doesn’t have to be done by waving your arms and prancing around the classroom. There’s all sorts of ways to go at it, but no matter what, you are a symbol of the subject in the students’ minds,” he continued. “As that symbol, the teacher has a duty to engage, to create romance that can transform apathy into interest, and, if a teacher does her job well, a sort of transference of enthusiasm from teacher to student takes place,” he says. “The best teachers, find a way to teach content while keeping students interested,” he concluded.

To read more about Teller’s experiences as a teacher, click on this link to The Atlantic.