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A
not so brief biography
Marianne Douglas has been in some facet of education her whole life. With
a BA in mathematics/secondary education from Rhode Island College, she
began her teaching career at Bristol High School in Bristol, RI where she worked
for 13 years. During this time she advised the Drama Club, the Math Team,
the Ski Team and the Yearbook. Needing a break from teaching the same
material, she requested a leave of absence. Despite being very involved in
the school district, she was denied the one year leave she requested.
After teaching the same subjects for so many years, she knew she needed a change
and chose to leave teaching.
Although no longer in the classroom, she found another way to share her
educational background. She joined
Kaleidoscope
Theatre, an educational theatre company that toured elementary and middle
schools with plays that entertained while teaching valuable lessons. She
became their Administrative Director and began performing in both the school
touring shows and the fairytale musicals that were performed in the major summer
theatres throughout southern New England. One of the highlights of her
full time work with the theatre company was a trip to Israel when the company
represented the United States with their award winning production of "I'm
Special, You're Special", a play about a family with a Down syndrome son
who is about to be mainstreamed into school.
During
her time with the theatre company, Marianne tutored local students in math.
She also began studying what makes people successful and wanted to share what
she had learned with high school students again. She applied to various
high schools in Rhode Island and was hired back at Bristol High School where she
again took on the Drama Club as well as the National Honor Society.
Although she left the position of Administrative Director of Kaleidoscope
Theatre, she continued to perform with them every summer, usually playing the
parts of the mothers (Little Red Riding Hood's mother and grandmother, Jack and
the Beanstalk's mother, Cinderella's stepmother, etc) or good fairies (the Blue
Fairy in Pinocchio and one of the good fairies in Sleeping Beauty.)
 One
of Marianne's passions was flying and she was determined to obtain a private
pilot's license. She found time between her school work and plays to get
her license while volunteering at the flight school on weekends to save money on
flight training. Soon the owner had sold the company to one of the
customers who asked Marianne to take on the role of Operations Manager.
She worked several days a week for this business until it closed. She and
her fellow employees felt that they knew enough about the flight school business
to take over the operation and created Horizon Aviation at TF Green Airport, the
major Rhode Island airport. Because of her management experience with the
previous company, she was chosen to be the President of the new corporation and
handled management, marketing and finances. She was again in the business
of teaching...this time helping people learn how to make a lifelong dream of
taking to the skies a reality.
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Since
she had never taken any business courses (high schools usually made students
choose between business or college prep), she felt that she needed some
guidance. She signed up for Results 2000, a one day seminar offered by the
Anthony Robbins Companies out of San Diego. That life changing seminar set
her on a new pathway, one in which students are now benefiting. What she
learned that day from speakers Barbara Walters, Donald Trump, Christopher Reeve
and especially Tony Robbins changed the way she looked at education. Along
with 14,000 business people, she learned strategies and techniques to help
design the life they desired. But her primary thought was if business
people were willing to spend a fortune to learn these techniques, imagine what
it would be like to learn this information as a teen? She also questioned
why had she never learned the amazing presentational techniques in teacher
training and more important, wondered why weren't we teaching this information to teens.
She
proceeded to write to the
Anthony Robbins
Companies asking them to find a way to offer this amazing material to teens
in some format. After writing for many months, she received a phone call
from the Executive Director of their charitable foundation, relaying that the
had indeed received all her letters and were on the same path. They
invited her to attend a Youth Leadership camp they were convening in San Diego
for 24 teachers and 60 students around the country. The three day
conference featured speakers from many walks of life including Paul Houston, the
Executive Director of the American Association of School
Administrators, or as he called himself, "The Superintendent of
Superintendents."
This
phenomenal camp inspired Marianne to offer to create a leadership/success
program for Mt. Hope High School the following year. Since the school was
about to offer a new NAF Academy
into the business department, the new principal asked Marianne to teach one of
the NAF
courses entitled Strategies For Success, adding in her own lessons based on her
training in leadership/success. Marianne mentioned the new course to her
current math students who already had been inquiring where she learned all this
great information she was already sharing with them. At that time the NAF
curriculum was extremely limited so Marianne created her own course from
scratch.
The
course began in the fall of 2001 and within two weeks there was a buzz around
the school concerning this new class. Educators began walking through to see
what was happening. Students who were not enrolled in the course brought
their parents into the guidance offices looking to be transferred in. The
principal even considered creating two new sections so that student demand could
be satisfied. At the end of the first semester, students wanted the course
to continue and asked that a sequel be written and offered for the coming year.
Marianne was named Teacher of the Year for Mt. Hope High that year and was
ultimately chosen to represent the entire Bristol/Warren district for the title
of Teacher of the Year for the state of Rhode Island. She was also honored
by the Portuguese American Women's Association that year as their Distinguished
Educator for Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
Douglas never again taught math for her remaining time in the high school
classroom. She left in 2004 at the urging of her students who felt that
this course captured what they most needed to know to be successful both in
school and out.
Marianne donated her program to Mt. Hope High School and helped to choose her
successor who turned out to be one of her former students. She wrote a
textbook detailing all her lessons so that any teacher could duplicate the
success she had with this course. She
created Horizon Enterprises to share the
Strategies curriculum and the teaching methods
she discovered while creating and teaching the program with high schools around
the world. She is
available for professional development and as a speaker. She continues to be
involved with students and teachers in the classroom sharing with them her
latest secrets of success.
She
may be reached at
Marianne@StrategiesforSuccessCurriculum.com
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