Woodstock teaching techniques to help students find success, build family bond at same time

Teacher John Liuzzi talks about a college research project with his students Wednesday, March 23, 2022, as he teaches the Advancement Via Individual Determination, or AVID, class for freshmen at Woodstock North High School.

John Liuzzi knows he has only a short time to build his students’ confidence; teach them lifelong, real-world skills; and realize that if they fail at something, tomorrow is a new day.

Liuzzi is in his eighth year of teaching at Woodstock North High School and one of Woodstock School District 200′s teachers leading its Advancement Via Individual Determination program, also known as AVID

AVID teachers help students develop study and note-taking skills, learn how to overcome obstacles and create a plan for their future, including deciding what colleges or trade schools they want to attend, what major they’d pursue and whether the school they are considering has that major.

Liuzzi encourages students to think critically, collaborate, take detailed notes and build on their knowledge.

“There isn’t a career field out there where those are not applicable skills to give students,” Liuzzi said. “We give them the ability to create their own trajectory. Figure out what do they want to do and how do we give them the skills to maximize their success when they get to where they are going?”

Some students struggle to get a C-minus, but with the right skills taught in an AVID class, they can get As and Bs, he said.

Teacher John Liuzzi talks about a college research project with his students Wednesday, March 23, 2022, as he teaches the Advancement Via Individual Determination, or AVID, class for freshmen at Woodstock North High School.

Liuzzi said he took many different paths to becoming a teacher – different schools and majors. But in 2007, as a senior in college, it was working part-time counseling a seventh-grader with autism that “changed the game for me.”

“That is when I realized I can invest my time and energy and have a specific impact on kids and students and shape their success,” he said.

Fellow AVID teacher Martin Tucker Wilson spent lots of time with his mother, a teacher, in her classroom where he learned the value of an education and was inspired to become a teacher. As a college student, he said he was troubled when he learned about educational inequity and that where a child is born could predict their success.

“I was struck by how just the ZIP code that someone is born into could have a large impact on what their school is like, how they see themselves, and where they go in the future,” Wilson said.

Today, Wilson is an eighth-grade dual language literacy and science teacher and an AVID teacher for seventh- and eighth-graders at Northwood Middle School in Woodstock.

He said he strives to show all his students, no matter their circumstances or ZIP code, they are capable of greatness.

“AVID helps students develop a plan for being successful in their present, but also for where they want to go in the future,” he said. “AVID students think about what job they want in the future, the education required to do it, and tailor their experience in high school to achieve it.”

Teacher John Liuzzi talks about a college research project with his students Wednesday, March 23, 2022, as he teaches the Advancement Via Individual Determination, or AVID, class for freshmen at Woodstock North High School.

After college, Wilson taught English in public schools in Buenos Aires where he said he “encountered poverty at a different level than I have seen in the United States.”

“But, I also witnessed how many students from the hardest environments have resilience because of great teachers and supportive, organized schools,” Wilson said. “It inspired me to continually look out for the marginalized in a community.”

Melanie Meyers has spent her 22-year career at Northwood Middle School teaching sixth-grade literacy and this year began teaching an AVID elective.

She was inspired to become a teacher in high school after volunteering as an aide alongside her own former first-grade teacher.

“I was honestly hooked from the moment I started working with her,” she said. “I loved getting daily hugs and seeing all of the students working so hard to learn, but more importantly, I loved the challenge of teaching young children. Nothing was better than getting that one student who wasn’t interested in working with me to crack a smile or have that ‘aha’ moment.”

She began teaching an AVID elective class this year, but had been incorporating AVID techniques in her literacy classes prior to that.

The AVID approach centers around creating a family within a classroom, which aligns with Meyers’ own teaching style, she said.

“I went into teaching years ago because I truly wanted to make a difference and help students to see the value of education,” she said. “AVID gives me a unique opportunity to work with an amazing group of sixth graders who are positive, caring and want so badly to make an impact on this world. From day one, I made a point to let them know they are safe to struggle in my class and that I will be there to help at all times.”