Our judges have selected the Top Five winners for our Teachers Make a Difference Awards! We’ll release this top-secret information the week of May 6 (so stay tuned!) but we’d like to offer you the chance to cast your vote for our Star Choice Award winner – chosen from our top 10 nominees. Through May 3, you’ll have the opportunity to vote and help your favorite teacher win $500, plus a Mayfield Ice Cream party for his or her class! Thank you for participating in our Teachers Make a Difference and Star Choice Award programs and for helping to give these stellar educators the recognition they so deserve.
Klare McKee
Klare McKee“My favorite part of teaching is knowing that I am making a positive difference in the lives of so many children every day. It’s really all about the kids. It’s the amazing work, smiling faces, questions asked, questions answered, instilling pride, building self-esteem and character, and making dreams come true.”
Dunwoody Elementary School – Dunwoody, GA
Discovery (Gifted) 1st – 5th Grades
I have been teaching for 23 years. I teach Gifted classes at Dunwoody Elementary School. I’ve been fortunate to identify my passion early in life—I have known since I was in the third grade that I would be a school teacher. My goal as a teacher is to help children develop a skill set that is transferable into other areas of their life. This is my reward and motivation of teaching. Outside of my career, I enjoy a well-balanced life. I play tennis and am very involved in personal health and fitness initiatives. I foster for rescuemega.com, a dog rescue organization. I have four dogs of my own— Charley Chubbs, Tobey, JoJo and Miley (all of whom came to me as rescue animals).
Avis Holbrook
Avis Holbrook“My favorite part of teaching is the surprise. I love NOT knowing what we, as a class, are going to discover each day!”
Dunwoody Elementary School – Dunwoody, GA
2nd Grade
Michelangelo had the right idea when he said, “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark.” As a teacher, my job is to help children understand this, and to lead them into aiming high. My name is Avis Holbrook, and I am a second grade teacher at Dunwoody Elementary School.
One of the things I teach my kids is learning NEVER stops! With this thought in mind, I have continued my own education. I graduated from Kennesaw State University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Early Childhood Education in December of 2009. Last year, I received my Gifted Certification, and this year I headed back to school to receive my Masters in Early Childhood, with a concentration in mathematics.
However, my greatest place of learning is in my own classroom with my fabulous students! Learning should be engaging and fun! In my room we get our hands dirty, dance through lessons, go back in time, and become engineers. Want to watch changes in states of matter? Our class did this by making Jell-O. Don’t like graphing? Grab a bag of Skittles and a friend. Watch TV? Look out; our persuasive commercials just might appear during your favorite TV show!
