Another busy week is underway. I have seven major meetings on the calendar. So today, I just want to do two things in my post.
First, I'd like to congratulate MENC member Linda White on being chosen for the USA Today All-USA Teacher Team. Linda happens to teach in Fairfax County, VA, where MENC is also located. You can learn more about Linda from this video clip that was shown on one of our local news channels last week.
Second, I want to introduce a new feature to "Inside MENC" -- "Famous Student Stories." In the weekly member update e-mail, we recently asked MENC members if they'd like to share stories about students they taught who went on to become famous, in music or in other fields. Here's the first one!
Ken Kemmerer, band director at Muhlenberg Elementary in Reading, PA, writes:
"My most famous student, Mark Maimone, helped develop and run the NASA mission, which sent the Mars Rover to Mars in order to further explore the surface of the red planet.
"He was a fine trumpet player and singer at our high school and continued to perform in college (Carnegie Mellon University). He also still performs in the southern California area. He is into vocal jazz and also performs in the NASA-based Jet Propulsion Labs big band known as the 'Big Band Theory.' It speaks volumes that many of the engineers at JPL are enthusiastic and quite accomplished musicians.
"When he was elected into the Hall of Fame for North Plainfield HS, North Plainfield, NJ, he invited me to attend the dinner and ceremony. I was indeed honored to find out that he felt his music teachers shaped his development as much as his science and math teachers.
"I had a feeling he would make it big in the space field after I found out that he had seen Star Wars 20 times! This was back in the day before VHS/DVDs and you actually had to go to the theater to see the movie!"
Watch for more "Famous Student Stories" on future Tuesday blogs. And if you have one to share, please e-mail ElizabethL@menc.org .
Onward! -- EWL
