Top teachers make learning ‘like, so much fun’

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Social studies teacher Angie Fenton wasted no time Wednesday morning showing students and teachers the enthusiasm that earned her Cobb teacher of the year honors.

As Fenton shouted the letters S-T-A-R, students responded back in cheering session at Glover Park on the Marietta square.

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Bob Andres/bandres@ajc.com

Kathie Wood, the Marietta teacher of the year, teaches language arts at Marietta Middle School.

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Bob Andres/bandres@ajc.com

Angie Fenton, social studies teacher at McClure Middle School, checks out her handprints in Marietta square after being named Cobb County teacher of the year.

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Teachers santioned in Georgia

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“Scholar!”

“Thinker!”

“Achiever!”

“Risk-taker!”

For the 20th year, both Cobb and Marietta school systems’ top teachers have left their mark at the park: in the form of permanent handprints.

At McClure Middle in Kennesaw, Fenton is known as a teacher full of ideas who celebrates the classroom’s “stars.”

“She makes learning, like, so much fun,” said eighth-grader Shannon Hedrick.

When fellow teacher DeAnna Angle’s students decided to launch a surprise attack of paper airplanes on Fenton, even that was a chance to teach.

“She turned into a lesson on Pearl Harbor,” Angle said. “They put away the book they were reading.”

Marietta city teacher of the year Kathie Wood, fell in love with Marietta long before she ever saw the square. She was recruited while in college in North Carolina 20 years ago.

When she parked Wednesday near the square and saw the crowds, the Marietta Middle school language arts teacher said it hit her — she was being celebrated.

“This was the most overwhelming day of my life,” Wood said.


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