Category Archives: Education

Talented music educators lead students in 2020 Rose Parade

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One of my favorite events of the year is the annual Tournament of Roses Parade. The event takes place every year on the morning of January 1. This exciting parade is televised live from the city of my birth: Pasadena, California. I love everything about the parade: the flower-festooned floats, the sprightly equestrian units, the celebrity appearances, and the spectacular marching bands. And every year when I watch this parade on television, the dedication of our nation’s talented band directors always amazes me. Here is Part 1 of a three-day series that features these accomplished music educators.

Alhambra Unified School District Marching Band

The Alhambra Unified School District Marching Band performed in the Rose Parade under the direction of music educator Mark Trulson.

Head Marching Band Director Mark Trulson led the 275 students who comprise the impressive Alhambra Unified School District Marching Band. The students who form this group come from three high schools that represent the Southern California cities of Alhambra, Monterey Park, and San Gabriel. Those schools are Mark Keppel High School, Alhambra High School, and San Gabriel High School.

Head Marching Band Director Mark Trulson led the Alhambra Unified School District Marching Band in this year’s Rose Parade.

“To get into the Rose Parade, it’s like making it to the Super Bowl,” asserted Mark. He was the band director when the school made their Rose Parade debut 10 years ago. “It’s fun to be back,” the talented music educator remarked. “The first time you do, it’s awe-inspiring,” he said. “The second time, we’ve done this before, we got this,” he concluded.

Mark hails from Massachusetts originally. He has been a music teacher at Alhambra High School since 2003. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from the University of Massachusetts. He earned his Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Concordia University in Portland, Oregon.

Interestingly, 2020 Tournament of Roses President Laura Farber is a graduate of Alhambra High School.

Dobyns-Bennett High School Marching Band

Music Educator Lafe Cook serves as the Director of Bands for Dobyns-Bennett High school in Kingsport, Tennessee.

Director of Bands Lafe Cook led more than 300 students from Dobyns-Bennett High School located in Kingsport, Tennessee. This accomplished group encompasses the largest band program in the state of Tennessee. It is one of only 14 band programs in the country that has earned both the John Philip Sousa Foundation’s prestigious Sudler Flag of Honor and the Sudler Shield Award. This is the group’s fourth appearance in the Rose Parade.

Lafe has been a high school band director for a total of 26 years. He is in his 20th year as the Director of the Dobyns-Bennett Band program. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. There he was the drum major of the university’s marching band and a graduate assistant with the Music Department. He taught at E.C. Glass High School in Lynchburg, Virginia, for six years prior to coming to Dobyns-Bennett.

The Dobyns-Bennett High School Band under the direction of Lafe Cook made its fourth appearance in the annual Rose Parade extravaganza.

Greendale High School Marching Band

Director of Bands Tom Reifenberg led the Greendale High School Marching Band from Greendale, Wisconsin, through the parade route. This was the first appearance of the 222-member award-winning group. Greendale High School has earned the John Philip Sousa Foundation’s prestigious Sudler Shield Award. In addition, the school has garnered the Wisconsin School Music Association State Marching Band Competition an impressive 15 times. They also marched in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2016.

Director of Bands Tom Reifenberg led his students in this years Rose Parade.

“There are thousands of high schools across the country, and only a select few get to do something on this scale, marching in front of not only that many people in California, but that many people watching around the world on New Year’s morning,” observed Tom.

Tom has been the Band Director at Greendale since 2001. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater in 2001. He earned his Master’s degree in Music Education from Boston University in 2008.  For his work in the classroom, this talented music educator garnered the Michael G. George Distinguished Service Award in 2017. He also earned the Educator of the Year honor from the Greendale Chamber of Commerce in 2016, and the Herb Kohl Fellowship Award in 2015.

The Greendale High School Marching Band marched in the Rose Parade under the leadership of Director of Bands Tom Reifenberg.

To learn more about the bands that marched in this year’s parade, see the list at this link: Tournament of Roses.

Alaska’s Amy Gallaway named her state’s 2020 Teacher of the Year

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Alaska’s Amy Gallaway, a social studies teacher in Fairbanks, has been named her state’s 2020 Teacher of the Year.

I love to tell stories about teachers who have been recognized for their outstanding effort in the classroom. One of these is Amy Gallaway, a high school social studies teacher from Fairbanks, Alaska. Shes been named her states 2020 Teacher of the Year.

Amy inaugurated her 20-year career as an educator in Alaska in 1993. That was the year she was working as an archeologist in Wrangell St. Elias National Park. While working at that job, she took a seasonal position as a teacher’s aide in Glennallen School. She loved that temporary job so much she decided to go back to school to earn her teaching credentials. Amy had already completed the requirements for her Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology at Northern Arizona University. To earn her Master’s degree in Secondary Education and Teaching, she enrolled in courses at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. She completed that program in 1999.

After earning her teaching credentials, Amy accepted her first teaching job in Nuiqsut, an Inupiaq village on the Colville River. There she became involved in local civics projects. She wanted to show her students how they could use their personal power to benefit the entire community.

In 2002, Amy started working for the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District. Currently, she works at West Valley High School in that district. There she teaches history, government, and career education to high school students.

Because of her strong belief that learning should be empowering, relevant, and community-oriented, Amy is a teacher mentor for the national We the People civics program. The program emphasizes critical thinking skills and features a simulated Congressional hearing with judges from the community.

To read more about this amazing educator, click on this link to Amy Gallaway of Fairbanks named Teacher of the Year.

Spoken from the Heart of Former First Lady and teacher Laura Bush

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Anyone fascinated by presidential history, libraries, and teachers, whether Republican or Democrat, is bound to be interested by the fact that former First Lady Laura Bush was once a teacher and a school librarian. She describes her experiences in her classroom, in the libraries where she worked, and the annual National Book Festival she inaugurated in her 2011 autobiography, Spoken from the Heart.

The book covers the other details of her life you would expect to find in an autobiography: her childhood and education, how she met and married former President George W. Bush, her difficulty conceiving and the eventual birth of her twins, her husband’s gubernatorial and presidential elections, and her role as First Lady.

If you want to get to know Laura Bush better, be sure to read this book. You can find Spoken from the Heart on amazon.com.

 

Anna Julia Cooper: Teacher, abolitionist, activist, suffragist

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Anna Julia Cooper: Teacher, abolitionist, activist, and suffragist.

There are many talented educators who have dedicated themselves to social causes. One of these was Anna Julia Cooper, an African American teacher who was also an abolitionist, activist, and suffragist.

Anna was born into slavery in Raleigh, North Carolina, circa 1858. As a young child, she developed an intense love of learning. She decided she wanted to become a teacher. In 1868, Anna garnered a scholarship to St. Augustine’s Normal School and Collegiate Institute. The school, now known as St. Augustine’s College, was founded by the local Episcopal Diocese to train teachers to educate former slaves and their families. During her years at St. Augustine’s, Anna earned a reputation as a bright and ambitious student.

In 1879, Anna enrolled at Oberlin College in Ohio. There she earned her degree in Mathematics in 1884. She was one of the first African American women to earn a degree at the school. After her graduation, Anna returned to Raleigh where she taught math, Greek, and Latin at St. Augustine’s. In 1887, she moved  to Washington, DC, to teach math  and science at the Preparatory High School for Colored Youth. Later the school was known as the M Street School, and today the institution is called Dunbar High School. The school is the largest and most prestigious public high school for African Americans in the country.

A lifelong learner, Anna studied French literature and history for several years before enrolling at Columbia University in 1914. There she pursued her Ph.D. At the time, she was also teaching full time. In 1924, Anna continued her studies at the University of Paris at the Sorbonne in France. In 1925 she successfully defended her doctoral dissertation, which explored the attitudes of the French people toward slavery during the late 18th century in France and Haiti. With this accomplishment, she was only the fourth African American woman in the US to earn a doctorate and the first Black woman from any country to do so at the Sorbonne.

To learn more about this amazing educator, click on this link for Rutgers.

Missouri’s John Roderique: Stellar football coach and Athletic Director

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Webb City High School’s Head Football Coach and Athletic Director John Roderique has led his teams to 13 Missouri State Championships.

One of the most celebrated football coaches in the country is John Roderique of  Webb City, Missouri. There he works at his high school alma mater, Webb City High School. He also serves as the school’s Athletic Director.

John has been the Varsity Head Coach of Webb City’s football program since 1997. Since he has taken the helm, his teams have won an astounding total of 11 state championships. And they have logged an outstanding 10 undefeated seasons.

Despite all this success, John remains humble, and he encourages his players to remain humble, too. “I think one thing that maybe gets overlooked is just trying to keep everything in perspective in terms of never get too up and never get too down, and keeping all the winning and all of the success in perspective,” asserts John.

John was born in Joplin, Missouri. As a youngster, he attended Webb City High School. After his high school graduation, he enrolled at Pittsburg State University (PSU). There he played football as a starter for three years. In 1988 and 1989 he served as his team captain.

John earned his Master’s degree from PSU. Prior to his work in Webb City, John served as an Assistant Coach at Pittsburg State University for seven years.

For his stellar work as an athletic coach, John has earned many accolades. He’s been inducted into the Missouri Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame, the Joplin Area Sports Hall of Fame, the Webb City Athletics Hall of Fame, and the Pittsburg State Athletics Hall of Fame.

To read more about John, see this biography at Webb City High School.