Her Story
Ellen Kempler’s family moved ten times before she turned thirteen, from New York to New Jersey to Delaware to Pennsylvania and finally to Florida. She was always the new kid, and she says that experience became the springboard for the sense of rootedness and community-building that defines her teaching. She graduated from Miami High in 1962, earned a B.A. in English from the University of Miami in 1966 and began teaching at Miami High in January of that year, in a school that was by then 85 percent Cuban refugees. At 27 she went to Harvard for a master’s degree in the teaching of English, where she studied cognitive processes under Jerome Bruner, whose work, along with that of Howard Gardner and Edward de Bono, shaped how she individualized instruction.
Over thirty-five years in Miami-Dade County Public Schools she taught at Miami Senior High, Miami Beach Senior High, the South Central Area Gifted Center at Coral Gables Senior High, G. W. Carver Middle School, and finally MAST Academy, the Maritime and Science Technology High School, where she teaches honors and regular ninth grade English and a senior seminar in Ethics and Leadership. She was chosen Teacher of the Year by her peers at Carver Middle School in 1997–98, and in 1994 the valedictorian of Miami Beach Senior High named her the most significant teacher in her life. She was one of twenty-five master teachers in the county selected for the Zelda Glazer Writing Institute, served as a mentor in the Dade Academy of the Teaching Arts, and was president of the Dade County Council of Teachers of English.
Her nominator, Dr. Margaret E. Haun of MAST Academy, called her “a master teacher” recognized by students, parents, colleagues and principals alike, and “a compelling example of truly good teaching” across a school system that is the fourth largest in the nation.
Beyond the Classroom
Kempler considers poverty “an abomination” with a remedy, and she works for it through RESULTS, a grassroots advocacy group. She has published more than twenty letters to the editor in the Miami Herald and the New York Times, visits Florida’s members of Congress each year to press for programs such as Head Start and UNICEF, and traveled to Bangladesh with an international group to observe the Grameen Bank’s microloans to the poorest women. Returning home, she and a friend started a similar program around her dining room table in 1992. Today that bank, MicroBusiness USA, has more than a thousand borrowers and a repayment rate of 95 percent. Her students take part too, designing posters for UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children report that have been displayed at UNICEF headquarters in New York.
For twenty-eight years she has served on the Harvard Schools Committee, interviewing Miami-Dade applicants. As sponsor of MAST’s National Honor Society she hosts an annual “Wrapping Party” at her home, where about fifty students spend an afternoon wrapping presents for the Children’s Home Society for abused and neglected children; the year of her nomination they finished with 67 gifts. She also brings the community into her senior seminar with guests such as retired Congressman William Lehman, a Miami Herald editor who is a former student, and a University of Miami ethics professor. For thirteen years she also taught religious school at her temple, preparing fifteen- and sixteen-year-olds for confirmation.
Philosophy Into Practice
Kempler thinks of teaching as alchemy, “the sacred art.” After reading a literary work, she gives students a menu of projects built to appeal to every kind of learner, and the projects send them back to the text to “get it right.” The results include a rap trial of Macbeth, blues songs for the characters in Their Eyes Were Watching God, a thirty-square sun-and-shadow paper quilt of To Kill a Mockingbird, and the entire Christmas dinner from Great Expectations. Her room is built on safety and success, and one of her favorite traditions, The Gift of Love, has each student write an anonymous note to every classmate, so that each receives an envelope of thirty or so kind words.
“I learned a lot in here, but the teacher didn’t do anything.”— the best student evaluation she ever received, from her essay, “Philosophy of Teaching”
“I try to catch students doing something wonderful.”— from her essay, “Philosophy of Teaching”
In Her Own Words
“My goals are to build a community of support so that we build on individual strengths in order to read, write, listen, and speak better.”— from her essay, “In the Classroom”
“When the room is safe, students are more likely to take risks.”— from her essay, “In the Classroom”
“I have had great teachers, but the best ones have been my students.”— from her essay, “Philosophy of Teaching”
“I don’t think there needs to be a separation between skills building and exciting, meaningful learning.”— from her essay, “Educational Issues”
“I feel very supported by my family, my students, their parents, and my colleagues. Giving and receiving are the same.”— from her essay, “Getting to Know You”
What Others Said
“Ellen has chosen to stay, because she feels passionately about the importance of what happens daily as she reads literature with her students, guides them through the writing process, makes grammar vital and relevant… and brings the larger world into the lives of young people.”— Consuelo V. Dominguez, Principal, MAST Academy
“Ellen Kempler is a born teacher.”— Betsy H. Kaplan, Member, Miami-Dade County School Board
“If ever a teacher deserved the Hall of Fame, it is Ellen Kempler.”— William Lehman, Member of Congress (Ret.)
“Mrs. Kempler practically effervesces, both in and out of the classroom.”— Mollie Chen, student
“She is not only an exemplary educator, but a mentor and friend to all of her past and current students.”— Cassandra Dunager-Bullens, student
“Ellen Kempler truly deserves the sobriquet ‘the miracle worker.’ From what I have been able to observe, she performs at least one miracle a day, if not more.”— Lawrence Brenner, parent of a student
“Ellen Kempler inspires, empowers, and challenges her audience.”— Joseph F. Suarez and Denise Erdem-Suarez, parents of students