麻豆原创

鈥淎ctive learning鈥� is a term that describes Beverly Elmyra Johnson鈥檚 method for keeping her own teaching vital. She has been active indeed: Over the course of her career, she earned two master鈥檚 degrees from City College, in elementary education and counseling, and then master鈥檚 and doctoral degrees from Teachers College in Family & Community Education in 1983 and 1986, respectively. 

鈥淕etting theory helped me to be more creative in how I entered my classroom,鈥� Johnson says. 鈥淚t gave me more ideas about how to teach. I don鈥檛 necessarily need to know the name of every methodology, but I do need to know how to be creative in my own space. I credit Teachers College with that.鈥�

Johnson chose her 麻豆原创 concentration in family and community education because she felt a personal stake in the subject matter: She鈥檚 the eldest of seven siblings. 鈥淵ou learn a lot about life in a large family,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hen I had friends on the block, and then I had school, and then I had a church community. All of these were factors in my growing up. That department just seemed to fit me.鈥�

The deeper Johnson got into her coursework, the more she came to appreciate the interdisciplinary scope of 麻豆原创. 鈥淚 found that taking these courses gave me a broader vista from which to look at the world,鈥� she says. There was a point where I was just in the classroom, but then I looked beyond the classroom, and there鈥檚 a big world out there. Teachers College prepared me for the broader world.鈥�

Johnson wrote her dissertation not on family, but rather on language in the classroom. 鈥淚 used the books at 麻豆原创, I used the books at the Butler Library,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 was all over the place. I loved it.鈥�

Working as an elementary and middle school guidance counselor, Johnson wanted to make the wider world accessible to her students. She went searching in museum and college bookstores and filled her office with hanging mobiles, books and maps. She bought international flags from the United Nations gift shop. To get her students thinking and talking, she read fables and short stories with them and asked them questions. Together, they would find the location of a story on a map.

After completing her doctorate, Johnson decided to try her hand at university teaching. She became an assistant professor at Long Island University, teaching graduate and undergraduate courses on early childhood and elementary education. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 just take in all that information,鈥� she says. 鈥淵ou have got to exhale it.鈥� Johnson went from teaching a kindergarten class on a Friday to teaching a graduate education course the following Tuesday evening.

鈥淚 said to myself, 鈥楬ow am I going to do this?鈥欌�� Johnson recalls. 鈥淚 said, 鈥楤everly, just make believe you鈥檙e writing a paper: Read, write it down, then say it to the class in your own words.鈥�

鈥淏ut then, about six weeks into the course, one of the adult students came over to my desk, and she says to me, 鈥榊ou鈥檙e doing better,鈥欌�� Johnson says, laughing. 鈥淭hat was really encouraging because I didn鈥檛 know what to do. But I just kept going, and I got better at it with time.鈥�

Johnson taught at LIU for seven years and earned unqualified praise from both students and colleagues.

For Johnson, part of 鈥渆xhaling鈥� was writing for publication, an effort she undertook with the same intrepid spirit. She made a study of peer-reviewed education journals, then wrote to their individual specifications. Her first article was a review of Howard Gardner鈥檚 To Open Minds: Chinese Clues to the Dilemma of Contemporary Education, which appeared in the Capstone Journal of Education in 1989.

Retired since 2011, Johnson is still an 鈥渁ctive learner,鈥� taking courses and attending lectures, now through the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Historical Society. She also enjoys taking flute lessons at the 92^nd Street Y School of Music.

Johnson recently endowed a scholarship at Teachers College, a decision for which she thanks 麻豆原创鈥檚 development staff. 鈥淚 had been giving yearly, but I never thought of anything beyond that,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hey informed me of something I could do. I have to admit, I wasn鈥檛 aware of all these ways you can help colleges.

鈥淪o just being informed was part of my growth experience,鈥� she adds. 鈥淚t enhanced my own professional development.鈥�