California Teachers of the Year Awardees 2012

Florence Avognon

Grades 9-12, English, Reading Intervention
Phoenix Academy, Lake View Terrace
Los Angeles County Office of Education, Los Angeles County

"I teach incarcerated youth. I imagine I have landed where I was destined to be my entire professional career." — Florence Avognon from her 2012 California Teachers of the Year application

Ms. Avognon has been teaching for 18 years, including nine years at Central Juvenile Hall, a detention facility for students going through the court system. She teaches high school English and history. (Due to budget cuts, Ms. Avognon was transferred in September to another court school, The Phoenix Academy, a residential treatment program for adolescent substance abusers, where she continues to teach high school.)

Part of her effectiveness as a teacher and mentor is to remind each new class of students that youth is fleeting. "I share with them that they were children longer than they will be teens, and that what they do for these brief six years can dictate what happens for the next sixty years of their lives," she wrote.

Superintendent Torlakson: "Ms. Avognon says teachers are simply partners for a better tomorrow. Such passionate, skilled, and dynamic teachers are able to take troubled and struggling young people and direct them to a brighter tomorrow, a more promising future."

Florence Avognon earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in African American Studies and a Master of Arts degree in U.S. History at Howard University in Washington, D.C. She also has a Master of Arts degree in Teaching from the Teachers' College at Columbia University.

Tom Collett

Grade 8, Science
Newark Junior High School, Newark
Newark Unified School District, Alameda County

"Students need to feel connected to their teacher, which makes them brave, enthusiastic, and eager to learn." — Tom Collett, from his 2012 California Teachers of the Year application

Mr. Collett taught Earth Science for 17 years at Newark Memorial High School. The 2010-11 school year was his first at Newark Junior High School, where he currently teaches eighth grade science.

An eclectic mix of magician and scientist, Mr. Collett keeps his students actively engaged through a treasure trove of strategies that include hands-on learning and the use of new educational technology, like a student response system where responses to questions are sent directly to his computer.

Superintendent Torlakson: "Tom is a wonderfully effective teacher who employs a wide array of teaching techniques tailored to increase student motivation, achievement, and engagement. I appreciate his remarkable ability to prepare students for an increasingly competitive, scientific world."

Tom Collett earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Performance with a minor in Biology from California State University, San Jose; and a Clear Single Subject Credential in Physical Education with Supplementary Authorization in Introductory Science.

Shari Ann Herout

Elementary, Kindergarten, Response to Intervention (RTI)
Foxboro Elementary School, Vacaville
Travis Unified School District, Solano County

"Once a child gets a taste of success, failure is no longer a measure of worth—strengths and successes are that measure and weaknesses are simply skills to be worked on." — Shari Ann Herout, from her 2012 California Teachers of the Year application

Mrs. Herout has been teaching for 15 years, three of which have been at Foxboro Elementary School, where she teaches kindergarten and provides Responsive to Intervention instruction. (RTI is defined as a process that schools can use to help children who are struggling academically or behaviorally.) Each school day, her young children enter her world with a sense of wonder. They each are greeted personally with a handshake or elbow bump and they instantly know they are safe in a classroom where "we make room for everyone to shine."

Superintendent Tom Torlakson: "Mrs. Herout sees teaching as more than a job. She teaches with a multiage, one-room schoolhouse philosophy that empowers her students to seek knowledge with passion. She knows of the obstacles that face many children, yet she helps them work through them so success can be achieved and savored."

Shari Ann Herout earned a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies from California State University, Sacramento, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude, and also a Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction: Elementary School Mathematics.

Ken LaVigne

Grades 10–12, Organized Academic Support in School (OASIS) and English
La Serna High School, Whittier
Whittier Union School District, Los Angeles County

"My job is to determine the reasons for the lack of effort, anger, and defiance. Loneliness and desperation cut deeply into the spirit of a child. I am a medic. I have to first stop the bleeding, and then get to the business of healing." — Ken LaVigne, from his 2012 California Teachers of the Year application

Mr. LaVigne has been a teacher and football coach for 27 years, the last 21 of which have been spent teaching English at La Serna High School. Within days of retiring from coaching in 2006, he was asked to help develop a program for the school's most at-risk students. He and Principal Martin Plourde created Organized Academic Support in School (OASIS) with amazing results. The average grade-point average of the inaugural class upon entering the program was 0.93. A year later the average GPA increased to 2.28. The first graduating class totaled a dozen students, last school year it doubled.

Superintendent Torlakson: "Mr. LaVigne brings to the classroom a unique blend personal and professional commitment. He is able to break through the anger, the hopelessness that many of his students feel. As a teacher, an advocate, a watchdog, a cheerleader, he helps them find a reason to excel and sticks with them until they do."

Ken LaVigne earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from California State University, Long Beach, and a Master of Education from Azusa Pacific University.

"If I accomplish anything with my students, I am proud to say it's that when they leave my classroom, they are better people than when they walked through my door." — Rebecca Mieliwocki, from her 2012 California Teachers of the Year application

Rebecca Mieliwocki has been teaching for 13 years, including nine years at Burbank Middle School, where she teaches general education and Gifted and Talented Education classes. She is faculty chair and serves on the school leadership team. Her lessons are infused with a wide array of technical tools that, as her principal says, "brings lessons to life."

Superintendent Torlakson: "Mrs. Mieliwocki is an innovative, creative teacher with boundless energy and an enthusiastic spirit that spreads through each class and each student. Her phenomenal approach toward teaching and her unshakable faith in the potential of her students, led me to nominate her for the national Teacher of the Year title."

Rebecca Mieliwocki earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Speech Communication at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo; and a Single Subject Professional Clear Credential in English at California State University, Northridge.