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.

Music educator and award-winning fiddler Colyn Fischer

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Many talented musicians also serve as exemplary music educators. This is true of Colyn Fischer, an award-winning violinist from Pennsylvania who now works as a middle school music teacher in northern California.

Colyn was born in 1977 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He began to play the violin when he was only three years old. Since the age of five, he has concentrated on the specialty of Scottish fiddling. While just a teenage, Colyn studied under a number of notable American Scottish fiddlers, including John Turner and Bonnie Rideout, and several celebrated fiddlers from Scotland, including Ian Powie and Alasdair Hardy.

Following his graduation from Penn-Trafford High School in Harrison City, Pennsylvania, Colyn enrolled at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. There he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Music Performance in violin from Wheaton College in 1999. He completed the requirements for his teaching credential at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, in 2005.

In 1993, Colyn garnered the first-place title in the American National Scottish Fiddling Championship, Junior Division. In 2005 he won in the open category in Texas, a title which he captured again in 2006 in Ohio.

Colyn first taught music in grades three through eight in the Silver Valley Unified School District in California’s San Bernardino County. He worked there from 2006-2009. Currently, Colyn teaches orchestra at Central Middle School in the San Carlos School District located in San Francisco, California. He also teaches the annual Jink and Diddle School of Scottish Fiddling, and gives private violin and fiddle lessons.

To view Colyn playing Scottish tunes, watch the You Tube video above.

Nebraska’s 2018 Teacher of the Year: Sydney Jensen

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Sydney Jensen

Nebraska’s 2018 Teacher of the Year is Sydney Jensen, a 9th grade Language Arts teacher from Lincoln, Nebraska.

Nebraska named Sydney Jensen of Lincoln as their 2018 Teacher of the Year. Sydney has taught 9th grade Language Arts at Lincoln High School since 2014.

Sydney is a native of Eatonton, Georgia. She credits her grandparents, who are both public school teachers, for the inspiration for her decision to become an educator. She also credited her own experience attending public schools. “I’m a product of public education,” she says. “I knew I wanted to be a public school teacher because I had so many great teachers who helped me,” she continues. She inaugurated her teaching career in 2013 as a seventh and eighth grade English teacher at Dawes Middle School. She has taught a total of six years.

In addition to her classroom experience, this inspirational educator is an instructional coach and certified Trainer of Trainers for the Classroom Instruction that Works model. She is also an Instructional Team Leader for the English Professional Learning Community.

For her work in education, Sydney has won several awards. She garnered a Golden Telephone Award from Lincoln High. She also earned the 2018 Lincoln Public Schools Inspire Educator Award.

“My message to all teachers is that we have to teach courageously for the sake of our students,” Sydney declares. “We absolutely must push ourselves to try new strategies, no matter how far outside of our comfort zones. This is the same message we want for our students – live and learn courageously,” she concludes.

Sydney earned her Bachelor’s degree in English Education from the University of Georgia in 2013, and she earned her Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from Doane University in Nebraska.