Graphics, “the largest privately held printer in the United
States at that time.”
It only took one incident to convince Attallaka to make
a career change. “I was on call twenty-four hours a day,
and I got called into the plant in the middle of the night. I
looked at my son Allyn in this little carrier on my desk and
in my mind, I fast forwarded six years and thought, ‘What if
I got called into the plant in the middle of the night and he
had school the next morning?’”
Attallaka reasoned that teaching school would enable
her to be on the same schedule as her son. By entering the
educational system, she would also be continuing a thirdgeneration
tradition. Her mother, Alfredia McManus, was
an English/Language Arts teacher in Toombs County for
twenty-five years. Her grandmother, Dorothy F. Davis, was a
librarian at J.D. Dickerson for many years.
Attallaka’s interest in STEM was first ignited by the
words of her technology education professor, Dr. Creighton
Alexander. “He taught us that technology education was
for every child regardless of their abilities, and it sparked
something in me.” STEM wasn’t for a certain group of kids.
“There is something for everyone in STEM. It’s something
every child can do.” The only prerequisite is having a
healthy dose of childlike curiosity.
Attallaka taught middle school technology education in
Clayton County for five years before coming to the Toombs
County School system in 2006. Since that time, she has
made advancing and integrating STEM throughout learning
a personal goal. In 2008-2009, she was awarded “Advisor
of the Year” by the Technology Student Association. In
2014, Attallaka transitioned to the high school to teach
engineering technology.
Since becoming the district STEM coordinator and
Advisor for TSA (Technology Student Association),
interest and participation in TSA at Toombs County High
School has continued to grow. Students compete with
other high schools across Georgia. “We do things like
16 Toombs County Magazine
robotics, architectural design, computer-aided drafting,
video production, and web design,” she explained. The
organization has competed at state twice. The goal of
TSA members this year is to compete at nationals in
Washington, D.C.”
One of the most common complaints teachers hear
from students is that they can see no relevance in what
they are required to learn and what they will need to
succeed in real life. STEM helps make that connection
for many. Just about every job imaginable has some
component of STEM from technology, health, medicine,
education and agriculture to carpentry, plumbing and
electric services. “It’s not just cyber security jobs,” said
Attallaka, “although they are unquestionably plentiful
right now.” In the past her high school students have “jobshadowed”
at local industries like Chicken of the Sea and
Meredith Industries with professionals and technologists
including Nancy Palmer and Natasha Farmer.
Last year, Attallaka invited STEM-related professionals
from under-represented demographics to speak to her
Engineering Applications class to convey a “This could
be you!” message. “It is a message I was raised not just to
believe in but to live out,” she said. Of the four participants,
two were women and two were minorities.
In 2017, Attallaka also held the first STEM summer
camp. “We had 19 third through fifth grade boys and
girls participate in the three-day camp the first year,
and 24 came to the camp in 2018. The kids came from
Toombs County, Sally D. Meadows, Robert Toombs
Christian Academy and Vidalia Heritage.” For three days,
kids explored STEM education through activities and
experiments.
The camp was a community effort and was made
possible because of donations from businesses and people
including Handy Andy, Wilkes Office Supply, Chick-Fil-A,
Zaxby’s, Alysa Marsicano, Plant Hatch Women in Nuclear,
Cameron Asbell and Matthew Stembridge of Ohoopee
Regional Library and Wendi Sikes. “Matthew Stembridge
and Cameron Asbell from Ohoopee Regional Library
come down every year and help. They are awesome,” said
Attallaka.
Rotating through the different areas of STEM, kids
learned “simple computer coding” for the math portion.
For science, “We talked about the different types of owls
and the food chain, then put on gloves and took owl pellets
apart to see what the owls were eating. We identified and
classified the bones and little skulls we discovered,” said
Attallaka. What kid wouldn’t want to do that to learn
science?
For the technology portion of STEM camp, kids
learned about electricity by putting together electronic
kits. They also learned to research a subject, which is
an important part of learning in technology. “We had an
animal theme this year. Everybody picked a small animal to
research their habitat and characteristics. Children made
dioramas to depict what they had learned. For engineering,
we did a lot of building with K’Nex,” said Attallaka.
Since the youngest of my four children is now twenty-
“What good is an
idea if it remains
an idea? Try.
Experiment. Iterate.
Fail. Try again.
Change the world.”
–Simon Sinek