D-12 teacher an ‘American Star’

Alan Pocock, a Cheyenne Mountain High School teacher, was surprised when school officials asked him to sit with district dignitaries at an allschool assembly in August.

“Then, all of a sudden, my name’s called,” said Pocock, who found out at the assembly he’d won the American Star of Teaching award. “I was totally speechless.”

The award program, part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, annually recognizes one teacher from each state and Washington, D.C., for innovative teaching strategies, making a difference in the lives of students and improving academic performance.

“He’s a poster child for that criteria,” said Salle Howes, a parent and past president of Learning and Educating About Disabilities Foundation in Colorado Springs.

Howes nominated Pocock for the award for his work in creating the LEAD program, which helps college-bound students with learning disabilities and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder build on their strengths and overcome weaknesses. Students learn about their rights as students with disabilities and how to advocate for themselves.

“It really got started accidentally by kids,” Pocock said.

A small group of students, he explained, knew they were smart but were having trouble proving it in school, and they wanted to know what was wrong with them.

Howes said she has seen what Pocock and the LEAD program, which is tailored to the needs of participants in the program each year, have done for students. Her daughter, who went through the program, is now a junior at the University of Northern Colorado.

“It was just a lifesaver for her,” Howes said.

Though Howes’ daughter always wanted to go to college, some people told her it wasn’t a realistic plan because of her learning disability.

But LEAD taught her how to ask for the accommodations she is entitled to, Howes said, and helped her understand she wasn’t doing anything wrong by asking for more time, a quieter environment to take a test or another accommodation.

“It gave her advocacy skills,” Howes said.

Students learn that having a learning disability is not a reflection on their intelligence, Howes said.

Organizers said the program at Cheyenne Mountain High School has tripled in size in five years. Similar programs have begun in Vail and Breckenridge and at Oakdale High School in California.

The program has also been recognized by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0394 or shari.griffin@gazette.com