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Jason Morrella and his mom, Kristine, bring something special to the teaching profession
Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Life Lessons
Educators Kristine and Jason Morrella capture the hearts of their students
By Jessica Lyons
Broadway High's Robo Prof, Jason Morrella, sits on the steps of Lincoln High School. His mom, Kristine, chairwoman of Lincoln High's English department, sits beside him. But when mom tries to put her arm around her son, Jason squirms. "He's always been like this," Kris says. She could be referring to a time 20 years earlier, when Jason was a typical third-grade boy embarrassed by mom's displays of affection. Now the two are colleagues.
Like mother, like son. Or maybe it's the other way around. Jason never thought he would follow in his mother's noble yet low-paying profession. Five years ago, however, he came to Broadway High as a substitute teacher. He never left. In June, Jason, who teaches the award-winning robotics class at Broadway, was named San Jose Unified School District's teacher of the year for 1999. Shortly after, his mom was named San Jose State's Outstanding Alumni-Teacher for 1999.
Today, a week before school starts, the two are gearing up for the academic year ahead. For Kris--who's been at Lincoln since 1968, with the exception of three maternity leaves--that means heading the English department and prepping for her junior honors English and mock trial classes.
"I'd like to bring back the championship," she says.
After 12 years of mock trial teams that consistently placed in the top five in California competitions, and four consecutive years of Santa Clara County championships, the pressure is on.
Jason wants to expand Broadway's robotics program. Last year, his team of seven students captured first place in the Western Regional FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition. In Broadway's first-ever robotics competition, the team battled against 30 high school and college teams from California, Arizona, Colorado and Texas at NASA Ames' Hangar 1, before flying to the nationals to compete against teams from around the United States. This year, as the newly appointed regional director for FIRST, Jason is recruiting new West Coast teams to participate in the competition, and new corporate sponsors to provide funds and engineers for the teams.
"Our goal is for every school in the Bay Area to have teams--50 this year, and 100 the following year," he says. He's also encouraging San Jose Unified to fund robotics as a districtwide program. Lincoln's already on board with physics prof Eric Stokley teaching two robotics classes and an after-school robotics club. Jason hopes the district's other schools will follow suit.
And then, for both mother and son, there's the construction.
Lincoln's new classrooms and office buildings won't be finished until 2001, and Broadway is scheduled to move into permanent portable classrooms on John Muir's campus midyear.
In Kris' temporary classroom, other teachers' cardboard boxes line the hallway. Kris notes that she still hasn't found her own boxes. But she isn't too worried--her students come first.
Jason says the temporary building is preparing him for Broadway's new home, slated for an early spring move.
"We want to help the kids adjust, the teachers adjust, the parents adjust. We want to make the transition as smooth as possible," he says.
Kris and Jason bear a strong family resemblance in their passion for their students, and both have a fighting spirit. Both perfectionists, they say their jobs get harder every year.
Kris: "It doesn't get any easier."
Jason: "You always want to improve what you accomplished the previous year."
Kris: "You're always trying to figure out how to help your students figure out how to access their skills best."
Jason: "It's a vicious cycle."
The Morrellas are the kinds of teachers who become legendary role models--the ones who believe they can make a difference, and then they just do it. Whether at Broadway or Lincoln, both Morrellas push their students. They don't let them quit.
"As a teacher, it indicates you have a frame of mind that things can always improve and hopefully you can be a part of that," Kris says. "In education, everything's long-term, and in most cases you don't see the end result: what kind of people my kids become. I hope from the books we read, and the culture we study, they're going to be content and successful and empathetic adults."
Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Class Act: Kris Morrella was named SJSU's outstanding alumni-teacher for '99.
Early on, Kris established an open-door policy in the English department, meaning that a student may take any level English class regardless of grades, teacher recommendations or test scores. Traditional academics would call it crazy, but Kris says she's seen more students--who would not be allowed into AP classes at other schools--take and pass the AP English test at a rate high above the national average.
Since she's an advocate of literary freedom, Kris' junior honors English class includes in its curriculum Family, by J. California Cooper; Beloved, by Toni Morrison; and Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. She staunchly supported Luis Rodriguez' controversial autobiography, Always Running, when several local parents protested the book's use in San Jose classrooms.
As a teacher at San Jose Unified's Continuation High School, Jason faces slightly different challenges. Where mainstream teachers work to motivate students to get higher grades and test scores, the job of Broadway teachers is to motivate their students, period.
"These kids are all great kids," Jason says. "They have so many exceptional gifts hidden under tons of baggage. The job is to get rid of the issues and the past problems and help them understand that they're just as talented and just as gifted as anyone else. The kids have such great potential, but they don't realize it. So they put on an act; they don't think they can be successful. I see it so much and it makes it so hard when you know you're so close and you can't make them realize it. You can't force them to reach their potential. You try to help them. Sometimes they disrespect you for it."
Although their roles differ, the Morrellas' strategy is the same. Both believe that hands-on, real-life experience can teach students more than a lifetime of classroom work: Kris, with Lincoln's mock trial program; and Jason, with Broadway's robotics team.
"Both programs are so similar and both are so unrecognized," Jason says. "The kids learn more about becoming successful people than they ever will in any classroom. These kids work with real engineers and real attorneys with real life situations. They learn how to get along with people, they learn stress control, they have to answer to the whole team. If they had both these programs at every school in the state, in five years we would see a whole new generation of students."
Kris tells the story of one of her former mock trial students, Shamako. He was failing her class, but she asked him to be the pre-trial defense attorney.
"I told him, 'This is one time you won't be just letting me down, you will be letting the entire team down,' " she says. "He had some rough moments in the beginning, but he came through. Not only was he brilliant on a county level, but he also won an award for the best pre-trial attorney in California."
Two years later, the tables were turned, and it was Kris asking Shamako for a letter of recommendation. She needed a student's letter to apply for San Jose State's Outstanding Alumni-Teacher for 1999-2000.
"I have made several attempts to write this letter as formally and as professionally as possible," Shamako wrote. "I would hate to cost my teacher something she deserves so much over something so small. ... If for some reason you find a candidate who you feel is more qualified, who has shared more joy, more laughter, more tears, more victories, more defeats, more knowledge, more wisdom, and whose eyes blanket you with as much security, hope and attention as Kristine Morrella's, then do us (her students) a favor. Let her know that even if she does not receive this award, her dedication and commitment in the genuine interests of her students are enough. Let her know that in the hearts and minds of those she has touched, she has already been honored, and will continue to be so long as we live and grow."
That's what makes Kristine return to the classroom every year. Every so often over the years, students return to give their thanks.
Jason did it recently. He went to Bellarmine to visit his high school professors.
"I said to all of them, 'I didn't win the teacher of the year award, you did. I model everything based on my mom and the four or five best teachers I've had. So, just so you know, that was your award.'"
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
