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National Awards Archive

Washington Career and Technical Education Teacher Vying for National New Teacher of the Year Spot

November 2006 - Buck Nelson is a marketing instructor at Washington High School in Phoenix, Arizona. During the past five years, he has built up the school's business department. Nelson teaches marketing, advanced marketing, and cooperative education. He is also the chair of the school's business department and the DECA organization adviser. Noticing the students' lack of employability skills, Nelson was instrumental in creating new marketing classes to better prepare the future workers. Students are taught some of the necessary skills that are required in the workforce. Nelson helps his students find employment. He also established a school-based enterprise that has improved the students' customer-service skills and overall business knowledge.

Buck Nelson

As a DECA adviser, Nelson has increased the organization's membership and has received 29 regional awards from competitions. Nelson has made an impact on career and technical education on the state level. He is the Director for New Member Recruitment for the Arizona ACTE. Nelson is a past president of the Arizona Cooperative Education Association. He has also designed and published the "Cooperative Education Teachers Training Manual" and the "District Performance-Based Assessment for Marketing." In addition to being a good teacher, Nelson "is a dynamic, forward-thinking person who makes people want to work with him to make a difference for CTE. Buck Nelson has leadership; organizational, human relationship and CTE content skills that assist him in being an outstanding teacher."

In July 2005, Nelson was named Career and Technical Education New Teacher of the Year for Arizona. In May 2006, Nelson was named Career and Technical Education New Teacher of the Year for Region V. Region V includes 5 national regions all states west of the Missouri River excluding Texas and New Mexico.) December 1, 2006, the announcement for the National Career and Technical Education New Teacher of the Year will be in Atlanta, GA.

Sunnyslope High Selected as 2006 Model School

April 2006 - Sunnyslope High School has been selected as one of 27 model high schools nationwide to participate in an initiative sponsored by the Council of Chief State School Officers, Washington, D.C., and the International Center for Leadership in Education, Rexford, NY. The project, "Models, Networks and Policies to Support and Sustain Rigor and Relevance for All Students," is gathering information on how outstanding high schools provide all students with a rigorous and relevant education. The high schools will share their successful practices with more then 6,000 educators at the 14th annual Model Schools Conference in Kissimmee, Florida, on June 25-28. Principal John Croteau will make the Sunnyslope presentation at the Conference.

Criteria for selection as a model high school includes a learning environment that promotes high achievement, use of data to make instructional decisions, a rigorous and relevant curriculum, personalized instruction, increased student learning time and parent and community involvement.

Sunnyslope High School will also join the 600 schools in the International Center's Successful Practices Network. Through the Network, the professional staff of Sunnyslope can exchange best instructional practices, successful methodologies and peer support with other member schools. Case studies will be prepared by the International Center on each high school to serve as a resource for educators and policymakers. Visit www.LeaderEd.com for details.

Glendale High Student Named National Scholarship Finalist

March 2006 - Senior Bobbie Wilson of Glendale High School has met all requirements to qualify as a Finalist in the competition for Achievement Scholarship awards to be offered to outstanding Black American students in 2006.

Wilson was among the more than 130,000 students to enter the annual National Achievement Program competition in which 4,600 participants receive recognition and some 800 win.

The Program is an academic competition in which only Black American high school students participate.

Six Students Compete as Finalists in National Merit Scholarship Competition

March 2006 - Glendale Union is pleased to announce that all six of this year's semi-finalists have advanced to finalist standing in the National Merit Scholarship Competition.

Vincent Leonard from Glendale High; Denise Gray and John Rogers, Moon Valley High; Alexandra Clarke, Sunnyslope High; Colin Penrose, Thunderbird High, and Zechariah McElrath of Washington High School have been named National Merit Scholarship finalists. These students have an academic record of high performance in all 4 years of high school and have each been recommended by their principal to compete in this year's competition for one of the three types of scholarships awarded: National Merit $2,500 Scholarships, corporate-sponsored scholarships, and college-sponsored scholarships.

For further details on these scholarships, visit: http://www.nationalmerit.org

Journalism Teacher Receives Columbia Scholastic Press Award

Peggy Gregory
Greenway High School

February 2006 - Teacher Peggy Gregory of Greenway High School has been selected to receive the James F. Paschal Award of the Columbia Scholastic Press Advisers Association for 2006 (on the unanimous recommendation of the Honors and Awards Committee of the Columbia Scholastic Press Advisers Association).

The Paschal Award will be presented to Gregory on Friday, March 17, 2006, in the Rotunda of Low Library on the Columbia University Campus. She and a guest is invited to attend the Awards Luncheon.

Peggy Gregory has also received the Gold Key of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association for 2006 from the same committee.

The Columbia Scholastic Press Association is a program of the Graduate school of Journalism at Columbia University in the City of New York. Their web address is www.columbia.edu/cu/cspa.

Peggy currently teaches journalism and is a teacher mentor at Greenway High School.

About the awards: The Paschal Award, first given in 1987, is named for Professor James F. Paschal of the University of Oklahoma in Norman, in honor of his service to both CSPAA and to the Oklahoma Interscholastic Press Association.

The Gold Key was first presented publicly in 1930 and has been awarded to distinguished faculty advisers, professional journalists and others in public life who have supported the student press. It is the Assoication's highest honor for a person.

National Academic Champions Honored

October 2005 - Six students from our district can now be counted among an elite group of high school scholars. These students, selected as National Merit Semifinalists, were accompanied by their parents at a governing board meeting where they were honored for their academic accomplishments.

Associate Superintendent Warren Jacobson presented the students for governing board recognition stating, "These students represent the top 1.2% of the very best and brightest students in the entire country. They are our nation's academic champions."

Honorees are:

• Vincent Leonard, Glendale
• Denise Gray, Moon Valley
• John Rogers, Moon Valley
• Alexandra Clarke, Sunnyslope
• Colin Penrose, Thunderbird
• Zechariah McElrath, Washington

Program Background: More than 1.3 million juniors in over 21,000 high schools in the USA entered the 2005 National Merit Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Nearly 16,000 students from the pool of 1.3 million were designated as National Merit Semi-Finalists. These students have earned the right to continue in the 2006 national competition for approximately 8,000 Merit Scholarships worth approximately $32 million.

Phoenix Teacher Wins National Disney Education Award

Moon Valley High School Teacher Veronica Carlson Chosen From More Than 50,000 Nominees for Successful, Creative Classroom Strategies

May 2005 - Disney heroes have been capturing children's hearts for generations, but the newest Disney hero is reaching them in ways that Cinderella or Aladdin never could. Veronica Carlson, a teacher at Moon Valley High School in Phoenix, has been chosen from more than 50,000 nominations nationwide to receive the 2005 Disney Teacher Award in celebration of her creativity, innovative teaching methods, and ability to inspire her students.

As one of only 45 Disney Teacher Honorees, Carlson receives $10,000 from The Walt Disney Company and a trip to Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif. for a week of fun and celebration from July 23-28. In addition, Disney awards $5,000 to Moon Valley High School.

"I try to be creative in all my lessons. I want to appeal to students' interests and keep them engaged in learning," said Carlson. "We move around a lot and they talk with their math buddy. When I ask a question in class or do an activity, instead of them telling me the answer, which only engages one child at a time, they tell it to their math buddy. By using math buddies, more students are engaged and involved in my lessons.

"One lesson I really look forward to is building parabolic solar hot dog cookers. A group of teachers and I developed this activity," Carlson continued. "We turn a shoebox into parabola, similar to the shape of a satellite dish, which collects the sun's rays and gathers them at the focus of the parabola, which is the hottest point. That's where we cook the hot dog. The students measure the shoebox and use graphing calculators to determine the focus of the parabola. They also use the graphing calculator to determine the temperature at which the hot dog is going to cook."

"Veronica is a remarkable teacher who makes a difference in our students' lives on a daily basis," commented Linda Rosness, principal of Moon Valley High School. "She is a highly respected educator, in our district and throughout the state, who exhibits passion, enthusiasm and commitment to the daily instruction of our students. In addition, Veronica's students' scores on district and state assessments are consistently one of the highest."

Read the full press release from Disney.

Apollo Student Artwork Hangs in U.S. Congress

May 2005 - Two Apollo High School students took first place in 2005 Congressional Art award contests. Trent Franks' Congressional Art Award Winner is Sarah White for her batik entitled "Fall in Flag." In addition to her first place honors, White receives a partial tuition scholarship to the Art Institute of Phoenix along with 4 plane tickets, hotel accommodations at the Marriott Hotel and $300 for a trip to Washington, D.C. for the official opening of the 2005-06 Congress art exhibit.

Ed Pastor's Congressional Art Award winner is Kassey Turnage for her pastel entitled "Rhythm and Reflections" who also received a scholarship to the Savannah, Georgia College of Art and Design. Both Turnage's and White's pieces will hang in Congress for a year.

Teacher Barbara Dahlstedt will accompany the students to Washington, D.C. for the official opening of the 2005-06 exhibits on June 14, 2005. This is the third year in a row that students from Apollo High School have had first place winners in this competition. In 2003 and 2004, Apollo had first place winners in John Shadegg's district. Apollo High has been well represented with winning art work hanging in the halls of U.S. Congress steadily since June 2003.

Other winners from Apollo were Ronnie Marquez, second place; Christina Drotar, third place and Angella Knaack, ninth place.

"Best Unit in Nation" at Thunderbird

Proud cadets and Naval JROTC instructors display the trophy
they received recently from the Navy League for Most
Outstanding Unit in the Nation. Front row: Melissa Petersen
and Mika Salizar. Back row: Lt. Toby Wilson, Justine Nguyen, Evan
Rutherford, Bethany McCraney, Kristin Kraus, Tanaya Couch,
Randon Berg and Lt. Ron Maul.

September 2004 - Thanks to hard work and determination, the NJROTC unit at Thunderbird High School received the Navy League Most Outstanding Navy JROTC Unit in the Nation Award.

The selection recognizes the overall excellence of the unit in all areas: academic curriculum management, program administration and organizational development, community/school service, competitive team performance, cadet participation and leadership, instructor expertise, and school/district support.

The unit was nominated by NJROTC Area Manager Com-mander Kenneth Liles, U.S. Navy, who said the honor was deserved, "Due to the overwhelming achievements and consistent high standards demonstrated across the board. Thunderbird is highly deserving of this recognition."

The final selection was made by the Chief of Naval Education from the best 11 nominated of the 650 NJROTC units nationwide.

Instructors are Lt. Ron Maul and Lt. Toby Wilson.

(Submitted by Jean Franovich, THS)

Also Notable:
For the past 10 years, Navy ROTC at Thunderbird High School has received the "Distinguished Unit Award" designating THS a Naval Honor School.

Phoenix Fire Works

June 2004 - The National School Public Relations Associations (NSPRA) presented the Glendale Union High School District with a distinguished achievement "Award of Excellence" in the category of Audio/Visual Media for "Phoenix Fire Works" - a video detailing the Fire Science Program at Moon Valley High School. The program, a partnership between GUHSD and the Phoenix Fire Department, puts firefighters in the classroom teaching seniors who are interested in becoming a firefighter or going into the medical field. (This year, the popular 'hands on' program has expanded and is underway at Apollo and Glendale high schools through a district partnership with the Glendale Fire Department.)

Apollo Student Chosen in National Search

HHAF winner Alana Dong,
Apollo High School senior

August 2004 - Apollo High School student Alana Dong is one of seven Outstanding High School Seniors chosen by the Hispanic Heritage Awards Foundation to be celebrated at star-studded events in Miami, Washington, DC, and on national TV.

Dong, chosen as a 2004 HHAF National YA Winner, was selected from a pool of 168 regional youth award winners from across the country and 7,000 applicants who have demonstrated extraordinary levels of academic achievement, community leadership, and cultural pride.

Dr. Pepper sponsors the community service award in which Dong and each National winner will receive a total of $8,000 in educational grants plus a laptop computer. For more information, visit www.hispanicheritageawards.com

Flying To New Heights

GUHSD's Community Relations office was recognized with the National School Public Relations Association's Golden Achievement Award in 2004 for our excellence in our district marketing program. We've been "Driving Success" for the 2003 - 2004 school year, and beginning in 2004 - 2005 Glendale Union High School District will be "Flying to New Heights."

Our goal is to reach new heights of success in preparing our students for the Choices and Challenges of the Twenty-First Century. We want to fly higher in all aspects of school life. Some of our goals include:

• Increasing the level of achievement in statewide AIMS testing. Currently, all of our schools meet or exceed state standards. We want all of our schools to exceed standards.
   
• Employing top quality teachers and staff;
   
• Improving interpersonal communication between the home and the school;
   
• Increasing student involvement in extra-curricular activities to develop leadership and teamwork skills;
   
• Upgrading the number of scholarships awarded for higher education.
   
• Maintaining a safe and secure environment for learning through smaller classes and personallized attention to students.

GUHSD Teacher Gains National Certification

Patricia Jimenez, Sunnyslope High School English teacher, has received national teacher certification from the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards. Jimenez is one of only eight in the state who are certified in Adolescence/Young Adulthood English Language Arts. She is the third teacher in the Glendale Union High School District to earn this recognition.

To earn national certification, a teacher must prepare a video of his/her teaching and analyze the lesson and submit samples of student work, along with a written analysis. The candidate's list of accomplishments must be documented, and the candidate must pass six tests that examine knowledge of a content area and the science of
teaching.

Jimenez is currently earning her Master of Arts degree in Language and Literacy at Arizona State University. She teaches sophomore and senior level English classes at Sunnyslope, where she has taught the entire ten years of her career. She is the sophomore English Team Leader and coaches the school's Academic Decathlon team. She has also coached swimming.

American Association of School Administrators "Leadership for Learning"

The Glendale Union High School District received the American Association of School Administrators national Leadership for Learning award for the district's total systems approach to teaching and learning. Glendale Union is recognized as a model district for its student performance-based and results-oriented program and is visited by more than 350 educators from across the nation and foreigh countries each year.

Additional National Awards:

• National Blue Ribbon School

• USA Today inaugural All USA Teacher Team