Two MPS Teachers Win Teacher of the Year Awards

Two Milwaukee Public Schools music educators will be honored for excellence in music education by the Civic Music Association of Milwaukee.

Benjamin Zabor, director of band and orchestra at MPS' Rufus King International High School, has been selected by the Civic Music Association of Milwaukee to receive its 2016 Music Teacher of the Year Award.

Mr. Zabor will be honored at Civic Music's annual Music Educator Awards Ceremony on Sunday, May 15. The event will take place at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts. Jessica Marks, a music and chorus teacher at Academy of Accelerated Learning will also be honored. She is being recognized for Excellence in General Music Instruction.

Margaret Holtgreive, a teacher at Milwaukee Public Schools' Ronald Reagan College Preparatory High School, is the Wisconsin high school winner of National History Day's Patricia Behring Teacher of the Year Award.

The award recognizes teachers for "outstanding creativity, commitment and inspiration in developing student interest in history education."  

The national award is given to one grade 6-8 teacher and one grade 9-12 teacher who has shown according to the National History Day organization. Now Holtgreive is in the running for the National Patricia Behring Teacher of the Year Award.

The state honor comes with a $500 prize and national winners earn $10,000 to recognize "their outstanding efforts to encourage and support history education."

"It's a great honor to be recognized by an organization that's providing such a strong, project-based educational opportunity for students," Holtgreive said. "National History Day brings history to life for our students."

The Reagan teacher has participated in National History Day programs that have created opportunities for students including a trip for student Julia Brunson and Holtgreive to travel to Normandy, France to research a local service member who lost his life during World War II.

Holtgreive was nominated by Sarah Fallon, the state coordinator for National History Day at the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison, who called Holtgreive "one of the most dedicated teachers I have the pleasure of working with in our state."

Reagan Principal Mike Roemer, MPS Superintendent Dr. Darienne Driver and the entire MPS family congratulate Ms. Holtgreive on this outstanding accomplishment!

National awards will be announced June 16 at the Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Contest in College Park, Md.