Student Success Stories

Mathematics

In Math 2, we had a group of students who were struggling to pass their tests. We decided to try lessons that were more hands on, having the students construct quadratics with paint and tennis balls and having the students perform experiments with bacteria while charting the growth of the bacteria. In essence, we moved to a classroom environment that was more project based. In the end, we saw an increase of over 20 points on their test grades for this group.

- Mr. Bragelman

 Language Arts

My first year as a full-time teacher, I taught a very motivated young woman.  What she lacked in grammar skills, she made up for in effort.  This bright student attended tutorial at least once a week.  Outside of school, she completed internet activities designed to build her Language Arts ability.  She is now a sophomore at Georgia State University, majoring in English.  She consistently earns As and Bs.

- Ms. Asante

In my first year of teaching at Tech High School I had a student in my 9^th Grade English class.  He was bright and motivated, but had many responsibilities at home that would overwhelm most adults.  When he was selected to attend a prestigious summer Math Camp in Texas, the entire staff chipped in to make sure that he had all of the supplies he needed.  As a senior he scored the highest on the SAT in his class and was subsequently awarded the honor of Georgia STAR student.  This student also went through the rigorous process of applying for a Gates Millennium Scholarship.  He had eight essays to write and I can’t even count how many times I read, edited, and re-read each one.  It was worth it , though.  Only 1000 scholarships are awarded each year to over 20,000 applicants.  He was awarded one, and now his entire college education, including graduate school, will be paid for in full.

--Ms. Christopher

Science

The Science and Engineering departments have numerous success stories where students go on to major in the sciences and engineering at major colleges and Universities. The greatest stories, however,  involve students that have gone from extremely poor performance to college ready work. One young lady, who was in our first class, was such a challenge that I often wondered if she would graduate. She went from that deficit to being accepted at seven different colleges and universities. She had enlarged her choices in life.

- Mr. Gravitt

Social Studies

A student entered into my World History class in the fall of 2008. She was uninterested in school, unmotivated, and distrusting of the instructor. Since then that student has, through the positive influence of staff, motivated peers, and a renewed self confidence become one of the hardest working students that I have ever had the pleasure of working with. Smaller class sizes and individualized attention has shown this student that hard work can pay off.

- Mr. Blood

Electives

Many students come into my beginning Digital Photography classes believing that because he or she can’t draw or paint then he/she is not artistic or creative.  One such student entered my class in the fall and was at first resistant to the class and the projects.  Once she began to realize that the cameras and computer programs do most of the technical work and that the student need only tell the device what to do, she really blossomed and started producing some of the best work in any of my classes.  Said student is now working on a portfolio to apply to summer programs at various colleges and is considering photography/graphic design as a career choice.

- Mr. Roman