About the izora elaine dean educational center

I can remember sitting in my elementary classroom with knots in my stomach. It was time to take the weekly spelling test and I already knew that I was going to fail because I could not read. So I decided to ensure my 100% by cheating. With pride, I took my crumpled up paper out of my pocket and arranged it on the floor. I was so excited! I was about to finally get a 100% like all of the other kids! Then, no one would ever make fun of me again because I couldn’t read. 

I was on cloud nine until word #3 when my teacher discovered my cheatsheet. All of a sudden my excitement shifted from finally passing a spelling test to wondering if I was going to get a whooping when I got home. The tears poured!!!!! 

I never forgot how I felt that day… insignificant, unworthy, incapable of learning, ashamed. 

Thanks to my grandmother, my view of education was not shattered. As I grew up, my grandmother and I would have conversations about how much she loved education. She would tell me about when she was a little girl growing up in Oklahoma and how she walked 9 miles in the snow, in her dress, to get to school and 9 miles to get back home! 

She told me that it was essential that I receive my education. So I did! I became a teacher. Years later, I opened up my own educational center and named it after my grandmother, Izora Elaine Dean. We call it IED for short, my grandmother’s initials. 

To ensure that no child would ever feel like I felt, I built IED on my beliefs: 1. Everyone can learn 2. Everyone should have the same opportunities to learn. 3. Learning should be engaging and differentiated to meet the needs of the learner. 4. Learners should be respected, supported, and advocated for. 

 Hi! My name is Pam McEwen. I am the Founder and CEO of The Izora Elaine Dean Educational Center. For about the past 20 years, I have worked in the field of education. I have worked as a Substitute Teacher, a Paraeducator, a  Classroom Teacher, an Instructional Coach with a focus on Structure and Behavior, a MTSS Facilitator and a College Professor. 

I am passionate about empowering the learners that I serve and their families because I know the value of education. Throughout my journey, I have had the pleasure of learning from an array of amazingly talented educators. I have benefited tremendously from all of the mentoring that I have received over the years. But one mentor in particular, touched my heart as a little girl and inspired me to become the woman that I am today and to open up this center in her honor. To learn more about her story, please view the pictures and videos below.