Sarah Mack-Holloway

Position: Seventh Grade Social Studies TeacherSchool: Albany Middle SchoolSchool District: Dougherty County School SystemCity, State: Albany, Georgia
About the Nominee: Sarah Mack-Holloway was nominated by multiple students, as well as a colleague who wishes to remain anonymous.Mrs. Holloway personifies compassion and innovation. Two years ago, she was selected by her peers as Albany Middle School's Teacher of the Year, largely because she doesn't accept that socio-economic challenges like race, gender and poverty mean that those students can't perform. In the classroom, she makes learning fun and uses innovative approaches to help kids of all learning abilities retain information. She makes songs that help students differentiate between the types of governments in the Middle East, and she empowers students to speak up and be heard in her class.Outside of the classroom, Mrs. Holloway is always thinking of new ways to get students excited about education. Just a few weeks ago, she convinced her principal to allow her to rent a limo and take some of her former students to the homes of her upcoming students to present them with a packet of new-student information and to cheer them on into the seventh grade.It's this kind of out-of-the-box thinking that gets students excited to come to school, and it's one of the reasons why Albany Middle School's attendance rates and academic performance are both up. Mrs. Holloway's determination and creativity make her a LifeChanger in her community![nominee_videos nominee_email="sarah.mack@docoschools.org"]