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larry baranOverland Park, KS | YEARS TAUGHT: 1970 - PresentLarry has been a classroom teacher for a quarter of a century. His goal is to make his students life-long learners by teaching survival academics during the teachable moments of job skills training. Baran has produced champions among his disabled students by getting those special education students involved in production of materials for many national events including presidential inaugurations, remembrances of Pearl Harbor and Desert Storm. Larry Baran is nicknamed Captain Rainbow because he has been able to achieve the impossible for himself and his students. He exemplifies his simple philosophy that “The Impossible Dream Isn’t” to all those people whose lives he’s touched through his many years of teaching and involvement with the community.
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robert brueschBuhler, KS | YEARS TAUGHT: 1966 - PresentIn 1974, Robert organized KIDPOWER (Kids Interested in Diligently Preserving Our World’s Environmental Resources), an outdoor education program which culminated in a free four-day campout for sixth graders and which earned the State Environmental Merit Award three times. In response to the Los Angeles riots, Bruesch wrote The Shape of Things to Come, an anti-gang and graffiti musical that also promoted student community service. Bruesch organized the Rosemead Boys and Girls Club out of his garage until the school district offered a room in 1981. He raises $5,000 annually for the club, has served as its president for 10 years, and personally took almost 500 boys and girls to summer camp in the High Sierras free of charge. And Bruesch established the Rosemead Organization in Support of Youth (ROSY) which buys computers students whose families cannot afford them and which awards grants to teachers to start community service programs with students.
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thomas fallonblackwood, nj | Years Taught: 1977 - PresentThomas and his students have preserved precious records and fostered an awakening in the community’s past with a renewed pride by mapping, recording, and analyzing vital information retrieved from headstones of local church yards and cemeteries. As a result of his students’ efforts and publicity concerning their reclamation efforts, students have been contacted by descendants inquiring about their ancestors. Fallon is featured in the U.S. Department of Education’s video to educate teachers and the general public about Goals 2000. He sees the need to empower and foster apprentice educators and so encourages and promotes teaching career choices to high school and college students through the Beginning Teacher Induction Program at Rowan College. Fallon developed, wrote and delivered curriculum presentations to serve as intervention and reduction of drug use by inner-city school children through the Army National Guard of New Jersey.
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alan haskvitzwalnut, ca | Years Taught: 1973 - PresentIn Alan's first year teaching, the students’ standardized state test scores were at the 22nd percentile level. By using his methods and curriculum, student test scores went into the 94th percentile, the largest gain in history. His students routinely engage in activities that utilize their studies. They have a “Feed the Homeless” garden that utilizes all recycled materials and water, prepare a daily newsletter, On the Day You were Born, for the the local maternity wards; have drafted and passed state laws, rewritten and accepted the voting poll rules for the County of Los Angeles; and devised a plan to save 23 million gallons of water a year for their community. Haskvitz’s students have also developed plans that ended graffiti in schools and the community, sponsored seeing eye dogs and educated the public about the history of their community. Haskvitz is one of the few teachers in America who has served as a city commissioner and worked as a volunteer in two cities — where he lives and where he works. His students have corresponded with world leaders on matters of concern as divergent as the Queen of England and General Noriega.
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dorothy lorentinoCorpus Christi, TX | Years Taught: 1938 - 1974Dorothy, a woman of Comache heritage, has served for over thirty years as a classroom teacher. Lorentino’s teaching career was inspired by events in her childhood. It took a court action on the part of Ms. Lorentino’s parents to allow Dorothy to attend public schools in Oklahoma in 1918, a landmark decision for all Native American children at that time. It also was the first major test of the 1924 Citizen Act. Dorothy Lorentino seized the opportunity to go to a public school and in turn spent her career of 34 years teaching in special education. She has given back many times over to the same system that tried to her a free and equitable education. Dorothy Lorentino’s story spans almost a century examining how policy makers denied her and all Native American children from attending public schools – and how Lorentino provided leadership in the struggle to overcome educational barriers for Native American children.
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