“I love you, will you marry me!” is a phrase that every student in Brandon Dell’Orto’s class has heard at least 10 times. Why you may ask? It isn’t what you are thinking.

Dell’Orto, GBHS’ renowned US History teacher, and the director of the Social Science Department who’s been teaching US History since 1992 blurts that phrase out to alert his students when something he is talking about will be on a future test, because it’s an easy way to grab a student’s attention.

That is just one aspect of California History Teacher of the Year 2015, Dell’Orto’s ingenuity within his teaching style. Dell’Orto is constantly finding new ways to approach his students’ needs and keep them engaged throughout his class-long lectures. 

What most people don’t realize is that AP US History is usually taught as a year-long course in the US, yet Dell’Orto is able to fit most of the material into a singular semester.

Regardless of the significant amount of material fit into one course, many students still find themselves wanting to learn more about the history of our country such as Anika Mermer, a senior at GBHS who has taken both the AP US History and IB History of Americas classes with Dell’Orto.

“(Dell’Orto) wants you to learn rather than earn a good grade, which takes off a lot of the pressure that usually comes with an AP class,” Mermer said.

What makes his class interactive and engaging is the fact that he makes sure every student is involved, and every student’s voice is heard. He does so by wasting no time answering questions, when those questions are first thought of. 

“Other teachers that I’ve had, they just give you packets and they’ll just read off the slideshows…the way he lectures, it’s kind of intense,” Mermer said. “He manages to grab every student’s attention regardless of who they are.”

Many students across campus can testify about his engagement and teaching style including Julietta Restani, a senior at GBHS who has also spent two semesters with Dell’Orto.

“When I’m in his class, I feel like I’m in a stand up comedy show, but instead about history,” Restani said. “He’s not afraid to make fun of himself, or put himself on the show and bring the kids into it.” 

Whether it’s 1789 and the constitution is being ratified, or if it’s 1961 when President Kennedy was assassinated, Dell’Orto pulls his students into the lecture of the day through his theatrics and scene-setting.

Each semester, Dell’Orto exemplifies his theatrical teaching style through a method that applies to the students’ personal worries. When teaching the class about the historical systems of nepotism, Dell’Orto once handed the class their quizzes back – but to their surprise, the scores on the test were rather strange.

The students whose last names started with an A would earn a full score, and as the last names went on, the scores got lower, and the students whose last names started with a Z would earn a zero.

Dell’Orto does this in order to portray the systematic unfairness that came with these old nepotistic societies. Around five minutes after he hands the scores back, Dell’Orto laughs it off and hands the kids their real scores back.

In contrast to that utopian scare, Dell’Orto makes a promise to all of his students in the beginning of the semester that as long as they try their best, they will earn at least an A or a B. 

Many other teachers would never make a claim like this, but Dell’Orto is able to make that promise due to his unique grading system.

At the beginning of each of his semesters, he starts by grading the students with less points, and as the semester goes on, he slowly curves the amount of points that you can earn. 

A key factor most students in Dell’Orto’s class have expressed is how interactive and fast-paced the class always is, such as Tessa McClure, a junior at GBHS who has taken AP US History with Dell’Orto. 

“It’s never boring in that class, you’re always focused on something, with some other teachers, their curriculum just gets really repetitive after a while, and you just lose interest in it,” McClure said.

At the end of your semester with Dell’Orto, maybe he’ll be leaving you wanting to say “I do” to his unusual proposal.