By Emily Williams-Robertshaw In early May, the Alabama State Department of Education announced the 16 finalists for its oldest and most prestigious awards program. The Alabama Teacher of the Year award competition recognizes teachers throughout the state who inspire their students, foster achievement and passionately prepare them to succeed beyond their school years and into … [Read more...]
Ready to Grow: Jones Valley Teaching Farm Raising Support for New Community Learning Center
Jones Valley Teaching Farm has launched its Ready to Grow campaign to raise money to complete The Center for Food Education, a community hub to be built on its downtown teaching farm. The multiuse facility, tentatively slated to open this summer, will allow the farm to reach more students, teachers and surrounding community members to create a hub around food, education, … [Read more...]
Read Out Loud: Birmingham’s Better Basics Kicks Off New Virtual Children’s Book Readings Featuring Birmingham Notables
By Emily Williams-Robertshaw In a typical year, Spring is the season when Amy Howe of Better Basics and her coworkers would be working on one of their largest undertakings of the year. The annual Birmingham Reads events. “This is when we recruit and place a volunteer in every Birmingham City School that we serve in pre-K through fifth grade classrooms,” Howe said. It … [Read more...]
Murphy’s Law: For Crying Out Loud
By Sue Murphy I don’t want you to worry about me. I’m as lucid as I ever was. OK, maybe that’s not all that reassuring, but I’m telling you this in case you should see me talking to myself, which I seem to do now with some regularity. I was ticking off items on my to-do list a few weeks back when I realized that I was saying each task out loud. Later that day, I caught myself … [Read more...]
‘Game Changer’: Plummer Was a Difference-Maker for Hoover’s Girls Track Team
By Rubin E. Grant Chakiya Plummer won only one gold medal when Hoover captured the AHSAA Class 7A girls outdoor track and field championship last month. And it came as a part of the Lady Bucs’ first-place 4x400 relay team win. But probably no one had as a big of an impact on the team as Plummer. As an eighth grader on the varsity, Plummer won the 300-meter hurdles, helping … [Read more...]