FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 22, 2003
Band Teacher Marches On As
2003 Teacher of the Year
SPRINGFIELD--Mt. Prospect High School music
and band teacher David Morrison was named Saturday night
to be the 2003 Illinois Teacher of the Year.
In announcing Morrison’s selection,
State Superintendent of Education Robert E. Schiller said,
“Teachers with David’s strengths and dedication
are the reason Illinois education continues to improve.
His commitment to helping students learn, coupled with
his own passion for continuous learning make him an educator
to emulate.”
Ask Morrison how music impacts his students’
learning experiences and he will likely share this with
you: “This past November, our marching band traveled
to New York City to march in the Macy’s Thanksgiving
Day Parade. Out first stop on the trip was to the World
Trade Center Ground Zero. During our visit, we were fortunate
enough to be allowed to perform at the site. When the
band played the “Star Spangled Banner” followed
by “Amazing Grace” and a patriotic medley,
the other visitors, the workers at the site, and even
the police stopped to listen, as they were moved by this
moment that performer and audience shared. At no time
in our lives was the meaning of this music more clear
in its function in our society.”
Morrison’s teaching style is one of
leadership. He asks students questions, directs them,
motivates them, challenges them, and empowers them. This
technique encourages the learning experience to generate
on its own, and students evolve into their own, self-directed
teaching leaders.
“I believe that the most effective
and proper study of music is through students’ personal
involvement in producing musical meaning, communication,
and expression in a performance situation for an audience,”
he says.
Morrison will have plenty of his own opportunities
to perform before an audience during his term as Illinois
Teacher of the Year as he shares his philosophy with teachers,
students, administrators, and community members.
David has been teaching for almost thirty
years. He says that his own high school experiences in
band instilled such deep sense of magic in him that he
knew he had to share that magic with students. Morrison
was chosen as Teacher of the Year from among 14 outstanding
finalists in the Illinois State Board of Education’s
Those Who
Excel awards program. David and about
300 other excellent educators, school staff, parents and
community volunteers were honored March 22 as part of
the 29th annual event.
The Teacher of the Year will spend the 2003
fall semester speaking at teacher workshops, educational
conferences and civic and community meetings. The Teacher
of the Year will also receive a lifetime tuition waiver
to state universities and a one-semester paid leave to
pursue graduate work or develop an educational project
that will benefit students across the state.
In addition, Morrison will represent Illinois
at the NASA Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, and in
the National Teacher of the Year program sponsored by
the Council of Chief State School Officers and Scholastic,
Inc.
David’s first teaching experience
was in downstate Olney. He admits he had never even heard
of Olney up to that time, but he didn’t care because
he was so excited at the prospect of sharing his love
of music. As he looks back, he realizes how much he learned
about working with people and developing a band program.
In the four years he was at Olney’s East Richland
High School, he took a languishing band program and molded
it into something that the students, the school, and community
could be proud of. He did such an outstanding job that
the band began winning first divisions in concert work
and thrilling audiences on the marching field.
Prospect’s Assistant Principal David
Good explains that David’s ability to excel as an
educator is directly tied to his ability to motivate and
lead his students on an incredible musical journey that
will remain with them throughout their lives. Good describes
Morrison as “a master teacher who has touched the
lives of thousands.”
Under David’s direction, the Prospect
High School Bands have won numerous awards, including:
the marching band has been a five-time finalist at the
Bands of America
National Championships, they have won the
Fiesta Bowl National Pageant of Bands, and won the Grand
Championship Governor’s traveling trophy at the
University of Illinois marching contest for 20 consecutive
years. The symphonic band has been invited to perform
in the prestigious University of Illinois Superstate Competition
10 times and has been a past winner of this championship.
The Prospect Marching Knights have performed for the president
of the United States on three separate occasions.
David and his wife have three children.
They live in Arlington Heights.
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