Discovering Gloria

Discovering Gloria is a documentary film by Boaz Dvir. The documentary captures Gloria Merriex’s transformation into an educational innovator and shows her engaging her math, reading, and science students at the most effective levels through her innovations, which included hip-hop and dance routines.[1]

Discovering Gloria
Promotional poster for the film
Directed byBoaz Dvir
Produced byBoaz Dvir
Release date
Upcoming
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Background

Gloria Jean Merriex grew up in Gainesville, Fla. on the east side of the city. She earned an education degree from the University of Florida, and would spend her entire career at Duval Elementary School. In 2008, she died of a diabetic stroke, one day after receiving a W.K. Kellogg Foundation grant to share her teaching breakthroughs on a national level.

Dvir decided to make a film about the school after talking with Don Pemberton, director of UF’s Lastinger Center for Learning, who had previously sent professors and doctoral students to watch Merriex's teaching methods. While Dvir never personally met Merriex, he had over 150 hours of footage to use for his project.[2]

While Steve Whitney contributed as well as a co-producer, most of the funding for the film came from the Kellogg Foundation itself, with Dvir being permitted final cut on the project. "I never had even one conversation with Kellogg about the making of the film," Dvir said. "I interviewed a Kellogg rep as part of the filming process, but he never asked me about what I was doing. He simply answered my questions. I’ve never even screened the rough cut for Kellogg!"[3]

Dvir admitted that after working on the film, his own thinking had shifted: "[Discovering Gloria] made me feel quite differently about standardized testing."[4]

Synopsis

The film focuses on Merriex’s transformation by way of archival footage and interviews with her students, family, and colleagues.[5][6][7][8]

In one of those interviews, Prof. Elizabeth Bondy – director of the University of Florida College of Education’s School of Teaching and Learning, who studied Merriex's methods – described how and why Merriex broke vital new ground.

"She didn't move to using music because she studied Howard Gardner's work about multiple intelligences," Bondy says in the documentary. "She moved to using music and movement and the other strategies that she used because she studied her students."

Discovering Gloria shows how Merriex helped Duval Elementary leap from an F on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test in 2002 to an A the following year.

Reception

Nearly 500 people – including many of Merriex's former students – attended a screening of a rough cut version for it in September 2013 at her home community of East Gainesville. The post-screening panel discussion featured Bondy along with University of Texas Assistant Prof. Emily Bonner, Alachua County School Board Member Leanetta McNealy, and UF College of Education Associate Dean for Research Thomasenia Adams.[9][10]

In her book Unearthing Culturally Responsive Mathematics Teaching, Emily Bonner described the documentary as "compelling".[11]

In her op-ed in the St. Augustine Record, Pam Thor called Discovering Gloria a "fabulous documentary" and urged all teachers and policymakers to watch it.[12]

In her article in The Gainesville Sun about the documentary’s first screening, Aida Mallard wrote that Discovering Gloria brings Gloria Jean Merriex "to life".[10]

References
  1. Hahn, Katherine. "With 'Discovering Gloria,' UF filmmaker Boaz Dvir explores late teacher's life". The Gainesville Sun. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
  2. "From failure, filmmaker finally discovered Gloria". StAugustine.com. Retrieved 2015-11-13.
  3. Teacher, Peter Greene; Blogger, Writer; curmudgucation.blogspot.com (2016-07-11). "Discovering Gloria Jean Merriex". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2016-07-19.
  4. "Rethinking the notion of a second Holocaust". centredaily. Retrieved 2016-05-02.
  5. "Award-winning documentary filmmaker shines a light on innovative inner-city teacher". University of Florida College of Education. Retrieved 2013-09-04.
  6. Thieke, James. "Duval Teacher to be Honored for Memorable Work". WUFT. Retrieved 2013-09-18.
  7. Mallard, Aida. "Documentary pays tribute to Gloria Merriex". The Gainesville Sun. Retrieved 2013-09-18.
  8. Jester, Erin. "Documentary pays tribute to teaching icon Gloria Merriex". The Gainesville Sun. Retrieved 2013-09-21.
  9. Lastinger Center for Learning. "Discovering Gloria". Archived from the original on 2014-06-15.
  10. Mallard, Aida (2013-10-03). "Master Teacher: The Late Gloria Merriex Comes to Life During Documentary Premiere". The Gainesville Sun.
  11. Bonner, Emily P (2010). Unearthing Culturally Responsive Mathematics Teaching: The Legacy of Gloria Jean Merriex. Hamilton Books. p. 66. ISBN 978-0761853992. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
  12. Thor, Pam. "Let's see More Innovation in Teaching". The St. Augustine Record. Retrieved 2013-10-14.
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