Men's Stories

You Teach What?

by Mark D. Hedger - Principal in Holden, Missouri
"You teach what?" That is the phrase I often heard when I would tell my fellow coaches what I taught. Being a high school basketball coach and first grade teacher was not something they were expecting to hear. They expected me to tell them that I taught physical education or social studies, not that I taught six-year olds how to read. The reaction that followed was often mixed. Some of the coaches would give me the "that is pretty neat, I respect that" look, while others would give me the "are you kidding me, that is weird" look.
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40 years successfully teaching teachers

by Carlton Fletcher in Albany, GA - USA
Wilburn Campbell's seen it all, the then and the now at Albany State University.

He remembers when Peace Hall was a condemned building ... when a city street ran through the middle of campus ... when "shotgun houses" were located at the southern end of the current campus ... when Caroline Hall was more than a symbolic chimney ... when the campus was inundated with the flood waters of the adjacent Flint River ...

A lot of stuff happens in 40 years.
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Elementary special-education teacher is one of a kind

by Carole Bodger Bon in Indiana, USA
His students call him Mr. French Fry.

Their parents call him "wonderful."

And, whoever you talk to, the man who calls himself a "big kid at heart" is having a big, wonderful effect on the students of Greenville Elementary School.
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Teaching From the Heart

by Lynn E. Nielsen in Cedar Falls, Iowa, USA
I am a teacher. In 1972, I began my career teaching 5th- and 6th-grade social studies in the Midwest where, exactly 20 years before, I had started kindergarten. I was part of the Boomer generation that hit the schools in crushing numbers just after the war. From 1941 to 1945, many of our fathers were occupied with fighting the war in Europe and Asia. When they returned, they became occupied with families-making them. Like a junior Invasion of Normandy, wave after wave of 5-year-olds like me descended on the schools armed with crayons, Big Red tablets, and kindergarten nap mats.
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Clarence Little receives a Schott Fellowship

by Dana Forsythe - The Bulletin Newspapers in Massachusetts, USA
Clarence Little, director at the Hyde Park Learning Center, was selected this month to receive a Schott Fellowship in Early Care and Education. He was chosen as one of 11 fellows statewide. The award is given to support a diverse group of senior leaders in early childhood care to strengthen public policy for the children of Massachusetts.
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To Be An African Teacher

by Dr. Asa G. Hilliard III (1933 - 2007) in Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Dr. Asa G. Hilliard III is the Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Urban Education at Georgia State University, with joint appointments in the Department of Educational Policy Studies and the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education. A teacher, psychologist, and historian, he began his career in the Denver Public Schools. He earned a B.A. in Educational Psychology, M.A. in Counseling, and Ed.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Denver, where he also taught in the College of Education and in the Philosophy colloquium of the Centennial Scholars Honors Program.
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One of only five male teachers

by Erinn Hutkin - Roanoke.com in Roanoke, VA, USA

There's a second-grade teacher on Principal Cristina Flippen's staff who's especially nurturing and affectionate.

In this Oak Grove Elementary class, pupils watch chickens hatch each year, then the teacher takes the baby birds to the family farm to live.

Each November, the classroom filled with little chairs and little crayon- and glue-stick-stuffed desks becomes the site of a Pilgrimesque Thanksgiving. The class spends days churning butter, grinding wheat for bread and making soup before inviting parents to share in the feast.

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Not a job, A passion

by Roger Neugebauer in Redmond, WA - USA
[MenTeach: Roger is co-publisher of the magazine Child Care Information Exchange and serves on the World Forum Foundation that is sponsoring the Men in Early Childhood Education Working Forum.]

How did you get started in this profession?
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From trucking to teaching

by Wayne Erb - Education Gazette in New Zealand
Former truck driver Adam Buckingham reckons he has a few life skills that he can pass on to young children.

The Auckland man switched careers following a workplace accident and says that, after recuperating, he wanted to find a way to give more back to his community.

Adam had previously volunteered as a scout leader and had young children of his own, so teaching young children seemed like a good fit. Three years later, he hasn't looked back.
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Mr. Mike's Legacy

by Jane Kokan, National Post in Nahrin, Afghanistan
The school that Mike Frastacky built has seven sturdy buildings with galvanized steel roofs and precise orange framing, surrounded by the barren mountains of northern Afghanistan's Baghlan province.

The children laughing in the playground walk here each morning from 10 villages. Enrolment is almost 700, depending on whether the rivers are swollen or the wheat and rice needs harvesting. More than half of the students are girls.
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