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.

Utah teacher Vanja Watkins has earned renown as a composer

Posted on by

Music educator Vanja Watkins of Utah has earned renown as a composer of hymns. Photo Credit: BYU Music Group

Our nation’s students are indeed fortunate to have so many talented and dedicated teachers in our schools. One of these is Vanja Watkins, a public school teacher in Utah who has earned renown as a composer of hymns for the Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS).

Vanja earned both her Bachelor’s degree and her Master’s degree at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Salt Lake City, Utah. After earning her degrees, Vanja accepted a position as the Music Coordinator for primary grades in the Ogden School District. The district had its own TV station, KOET (Channel 9), and for three years Vanja’s assignment included teaching a class called “Singing Time” for each grade, kindergarten through 6th, which was aired on that channel once a week. During her third year in that role, she taught the classes on KUED-TV to schools statewide. In 1964, Vanja married and for the next 20 years, she stayed home to raise her children.

When Vanja returned to the teaching profession, she accepted a position at the BYU School of Music, a stint that stretched for five years. Then she returned to Salt Lake City publish schools, where she taught for six years at Washington, Lowell, and Lincoln Elementary Schools. She concluded her career with another five-year stint at BYU. Vanja is now retired, but at age 84 she still teaches music to private students.

Vanja confesses she decided that she would pursue a career as a music teacher when she was a student in high school. “From then on, I really didn’t waver in that decision,” she says. “My high school choral teacher, Edward Sandgren, was truly a mentor for me, not only during my high school years but also when I returned to Ogden to do my student teaching with him at Ben Lomond High School. At that time my goal was to be a secondary choral teacher,” she remembers. “But as I began working with students, I realized that most of them had not had basic musical experiences. I had the distinct impression that the best place for me to begin teaching was in elementary schools,” she continues. “That had never entered my mind before, but it was a very strong impression and I knew I needed to follow it. My dear professor and Music Department Chairman, Dr. John R. Halliday, who directed the BYU Madrigal Singers in which I sang, influenced me to return to BYU for graduate work. He guided me to Lue Groesbeck, who had recently joined BYU’s music faculty to teach elementary music education. I learned so much from her that I could hardly wait to begin teaching. I knew I had found my niche,” Vanje concludes.

In addition to her career as an educator, Vanja has written many hymns for her church. She composed the music for “Press Forward Saints” and “Families Can Be Together Forever,” hymns that appear in the 1985 hymnal for the LDS Church. She also wrote the music for 27 songs that have been included in the church’s Primary Children’s Songbook.

To read an interview with Vanja Watkins, click on this link to Mormon Artist.

Educator Mary Bethune McLeod honored in US Capitol’s Statuary Hall

Posted on by

The newest addition to the US Capitol’s Statuary Hall is the image of educator Mary McLeod Bethune, a teacher, women’s rights activist, and Civil Rights leader in Florida. Photo Credit: US House of Representatives

Many exceptional educators have earned honors for their work in the profession, and now, one of them was singled out for recognition in the US Capitol’s Statuary Hall this month. She is Mary McLeod Bethune, an African American teacher who was was also a women’s rights activist and Civil Rights leader in Florida.

The statue of the honored educator towers at 11 feet tall and was created from marble originating from the same Tuscan quarry in the Italian Alps used by Michelangelo. The block, which originally weighed 11,500 tons, was fashioned into the image of the teacher by artist Nilda Comas of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who was selected in a national competition run by Florida’s Council on Arts and Culture in 2016. Inscribed at the foot of her statue is Mary’s famous quote: “Invest in the human soul. Who knows, it may be a diamond in the rough.”

Mary was born on July 10, 1875, to former slaves in a log cabin on a plantation in Maysville, South Carolina. She was the only one of her parents’ 17 children to be born into freedom. When the Civil War was won, Mary’s mother worked for her former owner until she could buy the land on which the McLeod family grew cotton. By nine years of age, young Mary could pick 250 pounds of cotton a day.

Even as a youngster, Mary showed an unusual interest in books and reading. However, in those days it was rare for African Americans to receive an education. Nevertheless, a charitable organization interested in providing educational opportunities for Black children established a school near Mary’s home. Her parents could scrape together only enough money to pay the tuition for one of their children, and Mary was chosen. Later, the future educator earned a scholarship to attend the Scotia Seminary, a boarding school in North Carolina. She graduated from there in 1894. She also attended Dwight Moody’s Institute for Home and Foreign Missions in Chicago, Illinois. Her studies there spanned two years.

When she grew up, Mary retained her strong desire to extend educational opportunities to other African Americans. She became a teacher in South Carolina. While there, she married fellow teacher Albertus Bethune. In 1904 Mary founded the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls in Daytona Beach, Florida. Beginning with five students, she helped expand the school to more than 250 students over the next few years. Today, this school is known Bethune-Cookman University.

In her later years, Mary became a close friend of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and also a trusted adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt. In recognition of her outstanding abilities, the President made her a member of his unofficial “Black Cabinet.” He also appointed her the head of the National Youth Administration in 1936. In 1937 the indefatigable educator organized a conference on the Problems of the Negro and Negro Youth, and she fought tirelessly to end discrimination and lynching. In 1940, Mary became the Vice President of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Persons (NAACP), a position she held for the rest of her life. In 1945, she was appointed by President Harry Truman to be the only woman of color present at the founding meeting of the United Nations.

This celebrated educator passed away peacefully on May 18, 1955. For all her accomplishments, Mary McLeod Bethune is truly a Chalkboard Champion. It is fitting and proper that she should be honored in our nation’s Capitol. To read more about her, see this link at the website for the National Women’s History Museum.

Wyoming’s Diana Ohman: Successful politician and former elem teacher

Posted on by

Former elementary teacher and politician Diana Ohman of Wyoming. Photo Credit: Casper Foundation and Alumni Association

There are many examples of talented classroom teachers who go on to successful careers in politics. One of them is Diana Ohman, a former elementary school teacher from Wyoming.

Diana was born Oct. 3, 1950, in Sheridan, Wyoming. Her family later moved to Gurley, Nebraska, where she attended Gurley High School. Once she earned her high school diploma, Diana returned to Wyoming to attend first Casper Community College, and then the University of Wyoming, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Primary Education and her Master’s degree in Education Administration. After completing her education, Diana worked as an elementary school teacher at a rural school in Casper. There she developed her organization skills by meeting the needs of all the students who were at different grade levels. Later she became a principal in Torrington.

In 1990, Diana was elected on the Republican ticket to the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, where she served until 1995. She was then elected Wyoming’s Secretary of State, a position she held from 1995 to 1999. Once her term was over, she worked as a school superintendent in Laramie County. She also became a Deputy Director of the Department of Defense Education Activity (DODEA). In this role, she led the organization’s European Division and then, in 2009, she took charge of the Pacific Division. In 2011, she accepted a position with the Department of Veterans Affairs. Later, Diana worked in the National Cemetery Administration Department, where she was in charge of cemeteries throughout the Midwestern United States. The accomplished politician retired in 2018.

For her work in the classroom, Diana was named Best Teacher for Campbell County, Wyoming, in 1980. She also earned a State Principal Award from the US Office of Education in 1990.  She was also honored with a Distinguished Alumni Award by the Casper College Foundation and Alumni Association in 2009.

American Samoa’s former First Lady, teacher Susana Lutali

Posted on by

Former Governor A.P. Lutali with his wife, former teacher and First Lady of American Samoa Susana Lutali. Photo Credit: Marion Malena

Many a fine classroom teacher has also earn fame as a celebrity. This is true of Susana Lutali, an elementary school teacher in American Samoa who became the territory’s First Lady.

Susana Legato was born May 23, 1932, in Fagaitua, American Samoa. Fagaitua is a village located on the south coast of American Samoa’s Tutuila Island. She attended St. Francis Sister School and then studied at Teachers Institute. As a young woman in the early 1950’s, she became a teacher at Fagaitua Elementary School.

In 1954, Susana married A.P. Lutali, a former teacher and public school administrator. When A.P. was elected Governor of the territory in 1985, and then re-elected in 1989, the she became American Samoa’s First Lady. She was also during her husband’s re-election, from 1993 to 1997. In her role as First Lady, the former teacher led the way for numerous landscape beautification programs throughout the island. She established committees of women who planted new trees and ornamental shrubs along the roadsides, and many of those originally planted can found found throughout the territory today. She also initiated many renovations to the Governor’s Mansion, called Maugaoali’i, and operating the governor’s residence in high style. Susana became known for her elegant manner of dress, from her beautifully coifed hair to her tailored puletasis,  a traditional outfit worn by Samoan women, which she wore in nearly every public appearance while she served as First Lady.

Sadly, Susana Lutani was diagnosed with terminal cancer of the uterus in 2011. She succumbed to the disease on June 15, 2012. She was 80 years old. Her funeral was held at St. Paul’s Catholic Church and was buried next to her husband at their family compound in Illiili, American Samoa, on June 29, 2012.

Ohio’s Leila Kubesch a 2022 inductee into the National Teachers Hall of Fame

Posted on by

Leila Kubesch, a middle school educator from  Norwood, Ohio, has just been inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame. Photo Credit: speaker hub

I always enjoy sharing stories about exemplary educators who have earned recognition for their work in the classroom. One of these is Leila Kubesch, a teacher from Norwood, Ohio, who has been inducted into the  National Teachers Hall of Fame (NTHF). She is one of five educators who has been inducted for the year 2022.

Leila teaches Spanish and English as a second language at Norwood Middle School in Norwood, a suburb of Cincinnati. As part of her instructional program, Leila organizes community service projects. For one project, her students created a talk show for a local television station where community members discussed topics of interest to young people. For that project, Leila and her students garnered the Ohio Education Association Media Award for Public Service. They also received a grant to expand their studio.

For another project, Laila secured a grant for a performing arts project. She guided her students in the creation of a display made of cut-out hands laminated on burlap sacks that stretched more than 100 feet. The project was so well-received that a special exhibit featuring the display opened at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Downtown Cincinnati.

In addition to her work in the classroom, Leila embraces an impassioned ideology of equity and social justice that extends beyond the walls of her school. She has served as an advocate for emancipated foster youth in Ohio, and has delivered speeches to large audiences including TedXCincinnati, where she won the Audience Choice Award for her talk. She worked diligently to help pass House Bill 50, legislation that enables foster youth in Ohio to have a home until age 21.

Not only has Leila been inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame, but she has also earned many other accolades. In 2020, she was named Ohio state’s Teacher of the Year and the National Toyota Family Teacher of the Year. In 2021, she garnered an NEA Horace Mann Award for Teaching Excellence and an NEA Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence. In 2000, she earned a Fulbright Hays Fellowship.

Well done, Leila!
​