I found this little 4 1/2-minute YouTube video from 2015 hysterically funny and wondered if educators would be interested in using it to help teach classroom rules. View it below, and let me know what you think! (All rights to Universal Studios and Illumination Entertainment)
Mary Catherine Swanson, original developer of the AVID program.
Back in 1980, Clairemont High School in San Diego, California, suddenly faced a court-ordered integration order. Teachers at the predominantly white, suburban, middle-class school knew that their incoming minority students would need extensive remediation. As Clairemont’s staff scrambled for ways to meet the needs of these students, one innovative staff member came up over with a groundbreaking idea. That staff member was English teacher Mary Catherine Swanson.
Mary Catherine believed strongly that with appropriate academic tools and support, minority and other under-represented students could succeed in a rigorous academic atmosphere just as well as their Clairemont classmates. To meet their needs, she developed an innovative instructional program called Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID). The program trained students in strategies for note-taking and test-taking, offered peer mentoring and tutoring, and sponsored cultural field trips.
Mary Catherine’s efforts produced astonishing results. Since the program’s inception, over 400,000 students have participated in the training. The program is so successful that today over 5,000 high schools in 45 states and 16 countries around the world have implemented it. Statistics show that of those students enrolled in AVID, 95% go on to enroll in a four-year college, and 85% of them graduate. To learn more about the AVID program, go to www.avid.org.
The overwhelming success of Mary Catherine’s work has earned her many honors. Among them are an A+ Award for Reaching the Goals of America 2000 from the US Department of Education; the EXCEL Award for Excellence in Teaching; and the Salute to Excellence from the American Association for Higher Education. She has also been recognized with the UC San Diego Remarkable Leader in Education Award and the Distinguished Achievement Award by the UC Davis Cal Aggie Alumni Association. She has also been recognized with honorary doctorates from UC San Diego and the University of LaVerne.
Mary Catherine Swanson: truly a chalkboard champion.
Every teacher is a chalkboard champion in my book, but sometimes I discover an educator that shows even the best teacher among us how to be even better. One such educator is Alan Haskvitz, a middle school teacher from Walnut, California.
Alan, who was born in 1942, has earned four degrees and possesses credentials to teach English, social studies, special education, gifted education, journalism, and business. His career as an educator has spanned more than four decades. Currently, Alan teaches history at Suzanne Middle School in the Walnut Unified School District in Walnut, California. He also serves as the chair of his school’s Social Studies Department.
When Alan first came to Walnut, his students’ standardized test scores were only in the 22nd percentile. However, by using his unique teaching methods, he helped his students improve their scores into the 94th percentile. This was the largest gain in California history.
What are Alan’s unique teaching methods? Well, he introduced “quality circles” in the classroom. A quality circle is a group of students who work cooperatively to identify, analyze, and solve a problem. Also, Alan was one of the first educators to actively promote “service learning” as part of the social studies curriculum. Service learning combines learning objectives with community service in order to provide a practical, progressive learning experience that also meets the needs of the larger community.
For his achievements in the classroom, Alan was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame in 1997. He has also been named a “Hero in Education” by Reader’s Digest. He has recognized as a National Middle Level Teacher of the Year, and a USA Today All-Star Teacher. In addition, this chalkboard champion has been honored with the Robert Cherry International Award for Great Teachers, an award usually given only to university-level instructors.
To learn more about this amazing educator, see his biography at Alan Haskvitz. You can also check out the website that Alan works on in collaboration with the Horace Mann Companies, ReachEveryChild.com.
Daniel Kahikina Akaka
Citizens in Hawaii are mourning the passing this week of their beloved educator and senator Daniel Kahikina Akaka.
Daniel was an American hero. He served in the United States Army Corps of Engineers during World War II, from 1945 to 1947. When the war ended, the US veteran used his GI bill to enroll at the University of Hawaii. There he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Education in 1952 and his Master’s degree in 1966. After earning his teaching credential, Daniel was employed as a high school teacher in Honolulu from 1953 to 1960. He taught music, social studies, and math. In 1960 he was promoted to vice principal, and in 1969 he became a high school principal. In 1969, Daniel left public schools to work in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare as a chief program planner.
A multi-talented individual, the former teacher won election to the US House of Representatives in 1976, where he served a total of seven terms. In 1990, Daniel was appointed to fill a vacant seat in the US Senate which had occurred upon the death of Senator Spark Matsunaga. Later Daniel was elected to that position in his own right, and he served there until his retirement in 2013. Daniel’s career in politics spanned a total of 36 years.
While in office, Daniel served on a number of committees, including Armed Services, Homeland Security, and Energy and Natural Resources. But he is best known for his work on behalf of America’s veterans. He supported legislation to re-evaluate the wartime service records of members of the Army’s 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th Infantry Battalion. These units, comprised almost entirely of Japanese American soldiers, were engaged in some of the fiercest fighting in Europe. They exhibited some of the most exemplary combat records of the entire war. Despite this, only one Asian American soldier earned the nation’s highest decoration for military valor, the Medal of Honor. Because of Daniel’s efforts, more than 20 additional Asian American veterans of World War II were awarded the Medal of Honor in 2000.
Daniel Akaka passed away after a lengthy illness on April 6, 2018, at the age of 93. To learn more about this amazing educator and politician, click on or the article at Washington Post Obituary.
In American history, there are many fine instances of talented teachers who have left the classroom to become very fine legislators. One example of this is John Matthew Zwach, Sr., a rural teacher from Minnesota who also served in the US House of Representatives.
John was born on February 8, 1907, in Gales Township, Redwood County, Minnesota, the son of immigrants from Austria. As a boy, he attended public schools, graduating from Milroy High School in 1926.
In 1927, John earned his teaching credential from Mankato State College, now known as Minnesota State University, Mankato, although he didn’t earn his Bachelor’s degree until 1933. After his college graduation, John devoted fourteen years of his life as a teacher in a rural school and as a principal. He was also a farmer during this period, and was a member of his local Farm Bureau, the National Farm Organization, and the Farmers Union.
From 1934 to 1946, John served in the Minnesota House of Representatives. From 1946 to 1966, he served in the Minnesota State Senate, serving as majority leader from 1959 to 1966. While in the State Senate, he served on three committees: the Committees for Education, Public Highways, and Agriculture. He wrote many bills related to agricultural interests, and he was the chief author of the bill to establish Southwest Minnesota State University. John continued this work when he was elected to the US Congress on the Republican ticket. He served in this role from 1967 to 1975, a total of four terms.
After John retired from Congress, the former teacher made his home in Redwood Falls, Minnesota. Sadly, he passed away from lung cancer on November 11, 1990, and was buried in St. Michael’s Cemetery. To learn more about this political chalkboard champion, see the link forÂ
