Courtesy of Google.
If you woke up last week, cracked open your computer’s Google browser and had a spark of recognition, chances are good you were a student of legendary teachers Frank Gidwani and “Miss Lucy” Mavrokordatos at Lake Highlands High School, and/or Kristen San Juan at Lake Highlands Junior High. So, why would a multi-billion-dollar global company based in Silicon Valley pay tribute to three former teachers from Lake Highlands, Texas?
Good question.
Google Doodles are those colorful, quirky, thought-provoking drawings which occasionally replace the company’s primary-colored logo on its homepage. They seem to appear by magic, but the tech team which brainstorms and creates them is led by Google’s Group Brand Marketing Manager Cecelia Stewart Cox, a 2004 graduate of LHHS.
“I can remember what it felt like to sit in the classrooms of these teachers and learn from them,” she told me. “I was always so proud of what I was learning in math class, and math was particularly special to me. There’s no feeling like looking at a tricky math question and knowing exactly how to solve it. I remember my experiences in their classroom being so challenging but also so fun.”
Miss Lucy taught advanced placement calculus at LHHS and earned a reputation as the school’s toughest teacher. Most years, 100 percent of her students passed the challenging AP calculus test for college credit. She was nominated by students for the National PTA Phoebe Apperson Hearst Outstanding Educator Award in 1996. She moved back to her native Cyprus following the death of her beloved husband.
Gidwani taught statistics and calculus at LHHS, and as coach of the school’s soccer team, he led the Wildcats to many big wins and playoff berths. He was a finalist for the Tech Titan Award, presented by the Technology Association for North Texas to high school teachers preparing young minds for careers in the tech-savvy world. In one memorable lesson, he had students figure out ways to recover oil from a lake into which a broken pipeline had formed a growing slick. He now teaches at Trinity Valley School in Fort Worth.
Both were repeatedly recognized during their tenure at LHHS for excellence in teaching and dedication to their students. Each was a frequent attendee at the Top Ten Luncheon, hosted by Richardson ISD at year’s end to honor seniors graduating at the top of their class. Honorees selected one teacher from their entire career who made a discernable difference in their educational experience and brought that person as their guest.
San Juan now teaches at Berkner High School, where she’s the math department chair. She managed the acclaimed Texas Instruments MathForward program, which prepares students for success, and now writes and edits curriculum.
“When we first learned the quadratic equation in Ms. San Juan’s class, she taught us to remember it by singing it to the tune of ‘pop goes the weasel.’ Then we all had to stand up in front of the class and sing it on our own (or at least this is how I remember it!),” Cox says. “The entire process of making this Doodle, I had this song playing in the back of my mind. So. it really stuck!”
San Juan remembers Cox fondly, although she says singing the quadratic equation in front of the class was only for extra credit.
“I love how students will go outside of their comfort zone when they are driven,” she says. “Cecelia was a joy to have in class, and I was always confident in her learning abilities. I feel honored to be listed with the other teachers. They were profound in students’ education.”
Google Doodles first turned up on Google’s homepage in 1998 as a quick way for company founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to let folks know they’d be out of the office for Burning Man. They launched the first international Doodle in 2000 to celebrate Bastille Day, and now we sometimes see different Doodles around the world at one time, reflecting local culture, events and histories.
In addition to Google Doodles, Cox looks after many of the company’s storytelling programs, including their social channels and their annual Year in Search campaign.
In the week ahead, a new Google Doodle is planned to highlight photosynthesis. This one will honor Susan Gammage, the much-beloved biology teacher who taught at Forest Meadow Junior High and the Lake Highlands Freshman Center and (in)famously assigned “the bug project” to her charges.
“Outside of the practical skills, I appreciate these teachers so much for how they taught us. The content was hard, but the classrooms were always safe, warm and inviting places to learn. Mr. Gidwani, Miss Lucy, Ms. San Juan and Ms. Gammage always made me feel like I would get it, even if I didn’t understand immediately. It took time, practice and diligence. This is a sense I take into work every day and I have taken into work every day since I started at Google in 2008. I think we all felt this way as students. Everyone who took these classes was excited to be there because they felt supported by the teachers.”
Courtesy of Google.
