PLC Teacher of the Year
Barrow County CIS Performance Learning Center students
with Teacher of the Year, Lynn Rambo (center).
Anna Lynn Rambo was recently named Teacher of the Year in Barrow County. Ms. Rambo teaches at the CIS Performance Learning Center® (PLC). PLCs create partnerships with public schools, businesses, community agencies, and local CIS affiliates. They offer local communities another learning option for high school students who are not succeeding in the traditional school setting. Students learn through a rigorous, integrated online and project-based learning curriculum.
Ms. Rambo likes the small school setting where she can spend more time with students who need it. “My students can be given needed attention and assistance with more immediacy, receiving personalized feedback and reinforcement that will hopefully lead to long-term retention and greater interest,” said Rambo.
She keeps her students interested and motivated with projects such as blog entries incorporated into written essay assignments, a collaborative class wiki, and researching scholarship and college opportunities.
Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday celebration in Dodge
AmeriCorps members focused on literacy and a service learning project.
AmeriCorps volunteers are supported by a grant form the Corporation for National Service and administered by the Georgia Commission on Service and Volunteerism. These dedicated volunteers support local school districts and help students improve reading comprehension and vocabulary recognition. In honor of the holiday for Martin Luther King, Jr., 32 CIS AmeriCorps members planned statewide activities that were centered on literacy. A number of community partners helped the AmeriCorps members with the Reading is Fundamental free book distributions to hundreds of students throughout Georgia. AmeriCorps members also spent the day reading to these students in both rural and urban communities.
A Tale of Two Schools
Shakir Robinson (left) helps Kyle Worth with his homework
CIS of Glynn County, like all other CIS local affiliates, collaborates with school and community partners to increase high school graduation rates. Their unique program, Focus Graduation, uses peer tutoring and other resources to help Brunswick High and Glynn Academy students improve academically. Focus Graduation, which is a volunteer option for students, is in its second year. There are 15-20 case-managed kids in the program at each location. Administrators plan to add students in small increments until they reach 200.
Jill Mitchell-Berg, the CIS site coordinator, is an important part of the student’s success. One of her job duties is to match kids with tutors and mentors and help with non-academic issues that may affect their ability to learn. All of the students have her cell number and know they can call anytime to get assistance.
Shakir Robinson is a second year Focus Graduation peer-to-peer tutor and plans to attend college. He is in the 11th grade and starts his school days early so that he can help 9th and 10th graders with math and other subjects/projects. According to Shakir, this program gives kids hope, pushes them to excel, and makes students accountable because homework and grades are checked. “My freshman year was kind of hard; so I thought it was a good idea to give back. I’ve noticed a difference in the student’s grades,” Shakir said. Kyle Worth who is in 10th grade has been in the program for a year. Kyle plans to continue with the program until he graduates because he notices a difference in his grades.