Author Archives: Terry Lee Marzell

About Terry Lee Marzell

Terry Lee Marzell holds a bachelor's degree in English from Cal State Fullerton and a master's degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from Cal State San Bernardino. She also holds a certificate for Interior Design Level 1 from Mt. San Antonio College. She has been an educator in the Corona Norco Unified School District for more than 30 years.

Former MN high school PE teacher, coach Carol Peterka was an Olympic athlete

Posted on by

Former high school physical education teacher and coach Carol Peterka was also a celebrated Olympic athlete. Photo Credit: Trading Card Database

Many talented athletes go on to establish careers in education. One of these is Carol Peterka, a former physical education teacher and coach who once competed in the Olympics.

Carol was born on Dec. 23, 1963, in Little Falls, Minnesota. After her graduation from Apollo High School in St. Cloud, she enrolled at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, on a full basketball scholarship. While there, she competed in track and field and played basketball for the Golden Gophers. A second team All-Big Ten selection in 1984, Carol scored 1,441 points and grabbed 744 rebounds during her collegiate career. She still ranks seventh all-time in scoring and sixth all-time in rebounding in the school’s history.

After earning her Bachelor’s degree in Physical Education and Teaching/Coaching in 1987, Carol joined the US National Handball Team. She competed in three Olympic Games representing the United States. She was a member of the gold medal winning team at the 1990, 1991, and 1993 US Olympic Festivals. In 1990, she was named the US Team Handball Female Athlete of the Year. Later she was named the captain of the national team, a position she held from 1990 to 1992. In addition, Carol garnered gold medals at the 1987 and 1995 Pan American Games.

During the years she played for the US National Team, Carol also worked as a physical education teacher and coach at Poinciana High School in Osceola, Florida. Later she relocated to Cobb County, Georgia, where she coached basketball and taught physical education at Harrison High School in Kennesaw from 1999 to 2005.

In 2006, Carol accepted a position as the Assistant Coach for the women’s basketball team at Hofstra University located in Long Island, New York. She has held this position for the past 17 years.

Impressive, Carol!

TX teacher Lori Garrett earns prestigious 2022 PAEMST Award

Posted on by

Texas elementary school teacher Lori Garrett has earned a prestigious 2022 PAEMST Award. Photo Credit: Moore County Journal

It is always a pleasure for me to share stories about exceptional educators who have earned recognition for their work. One of these is Lori Garrett, an elementary school teacher from Texas who has garnered a prestigious 2022 PAEMST award.

The PAEMST, Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, recognize the dedication, hard work, and importance that America’s teachers play in supporting learners who will become future STEM professionals, including computer technologists, climate scientists, mathematicians, innovators, space explorers, and engineers. The PAEMST program, founded in 1983, is administered by the National Science Foundation (NSF) on behalf of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The honor comes with a $10,000 cash prize.

Lori’s career as an educator spans ten years, all of which she has spent at Cactus Elementary School in the Dumas Independent School District in Cactus, Texas. She taught one year in kindergarten and two years of fourth grade math and science. For seven years, she has been developing and teaching a pilot program that provides science pull-out for pre-kindergarten to fourth grade students, and a pull-out enrichment program for kindergarten to fourth grade students. The enrichment program features agricultural and project-based learning opportunities. She has also been working on expanding the school’s Maker Room STREAMS curriculum to include not only STEM goals, but also reading, art, and social studies objectives.

As if all this were not enough, Lori and her students have incorporated produce grown in their classroom garden into food packages which are delivered through a community outreach program. The recipients are enthusiastic about receiving fresh produce instead of relying entirely on canned and packaged goods, explains Lori. For this work, she has twice earned a White-Reinhardt Mini-Grant from the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture.

In addition to her PAEMST Award and her White-Reinhardt Mini-Grant, Lori was honored as her District’s Elementary Teacher of the Year in 2021. She also garnered the Ag in the Classroom Teacher Award from the Texas Farm Bureau’s  in 2017.

Lori earned her Bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology and a Third Mate License in the Merchant Marines, both from Texas A&M University at Galveston.

English teacher Erin Gruwell helped students compose The Freedom Writers

Posted on by

Just about everyone has heard of the best-selling nonfiction book The Freedom Writers Diary, written by former high school English teacher Erin Gruwell and her class of inner-city students. This collection of student experiences, which will tug at any teacher’s heart strings, was also depicted in a highly-acclaimed movie starring Hollywood celeb Hilary Swank. When I think about the movie, I am reminded of the great importance a teacher plays in the lives of his or her students, whether they are low-income or at-risk or not.

The setting of the story is an inner-city school, Woodrow Wilson High, located in Long Beach, California. The volume was published in 1999, and it was an instant success. The story line still has relevance for those who are in the teaching profession today. This book really zeroes in on some of the challenges our kids face when they are not in school, and how much a caring and dedicated teacher can help them overcome those challenges. The movie delves a little more into the personal life of this particular educator, and aside from the suggestion that you have to work three jobs and give up your marriage to be a good teacher, it’s pretty inspiring. (Nobody could be more hardworking and persevering than teachers who have wrestled with the pandemic, in my opinion.)

What I think is truly amazing is that many high school students love this book just as much as teachers do! The Freedom Writers Diary is easy to find on amazon and at just about any brick-and-mortar bookstore. Erin has also published a book about her professional experiences entitled Teach with Your Heart: Lessons I Learned from the Freedom Writers. Any teacher who can find a few spare hours (I know, that’s impossible, right?) could find one of these books helpful for inspiration and rejuvenation.

Perhaps you know someone who would welcome these books as a Christmas gift! Give it some thought!

Immigrant and progressive educator Leonard Covello

Posted on by
Leonard Covello

Teacher Leonard Covello, the immigrant who developed progressive educational reforms. Photo credit: Ralph Morse, TiimeLife Images

Leonard Covello was just nine years old in 1896 when he immigrated to New York City with his family from the little village of Avigliano in southern Italy. But he grew up to become one of America’s greatest educators, developing and instituting progressive community-centered educational programs. These programs are characterized by close links between the school, the home, and the community, and are still a model for today’s educational institutions.

As an immigrant student himself, Leonard understood the unique needs of this particular group of students, and, as an Italian immigrant, he recognized the specific conflicts between the home and the family experienced by most Italian immigrant children. Drawing from his personal experience, Leonard was able to develop innovative school programs that allowed Italian immigrant students to succeed in American public schools in ways they had never realized before. His observations and solutions are still applicable to certain groups of students we find in today’s classrooms.

You can read more about this innovative teacher and principal in my book, Chalkboard Champions: Twelve Remarkable Teachers Who Educated America’s Disenfranchised Students, available from amazon at the following link: Chalkboard Champions. You can also learn more about this remarkable educator in Teacher with a Heart: Reflections on Leonard Covello and Community by Vito Perrone. This volume is available from amazon at the following link: Teacher with a Heart. In addition to analysis by Perrone, the book contains lengthy excerpts from Leonard Covello’s autobiography, now out of print.