Press release:
The administration, faculty and staff of Elba Central School celebrate as they recognize two colleagues Mr. Jeremy Rath and Mrs. Tammy Plucknette for their outstanding achievements.
Mr. Jeremy Rath, K-12 Vocal and General Music instructor, is honored to be the recipient of this year’s RPO Award for Outstanding Choral Music Educator. Mr. Rath has been teaching vocal music since 2007. Mr. Rath teaches K-12 General Music and directs the Elementary Chorus and a 4-6 grade vocal ensemble. He teaches voice lessons, music class for autistic students and a Junior High Music in Our Lives course. Mr. Rath also directs High School Glee Club and Choral Ensembles. Mr. Rath has also assisted with many musicals, assemblies, and productions at all grade levels.
In addition to teaching at Elba Central, Mr. Rath has accompanied a number of All-County choirs in and surrounding Genesee County. This year he accompanied the Genesee-Wyoming High School All-County Chorus as well as the Erie Junior High All-County Chorus. This year will mark his third year of providing piano accompaniment for the Pembroke High School musical production.
Jeremy is a founding member and accompanist for the Kendall Community Chorus. He directs the choir at Kendall Concordia Lutheran Church. Additionally, he plays organ and directs the choir at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Hilton. Jeremy also enjoys being a part of the music at the Genesee Country Village & Museum in Mumford, where he sings in the Harmonics Society and offers informal recitals on historic instruments. Mr. Rath also instructs several students privately on organ and piano.
Jeremy received his bachelor of science degree in Music Education (Organ and Voice) from Roberts Wesleyan College. He continued his studies at Roberts and received a master's of Music in Music Education in 2012, graduating summa cum laude.
Mrs. Tammy Plucknette, fourth-grade teacher, was recently named by Learn Zillion as 2013 Top Teacher selected to nationwide “Dream Team."
More than 3,000 teachers, instructional coaches and administration from across the country applied, and only 200 were chosen to the highly selective Dream Team. These teachers were chosen based on their understanding of the Common Core State Standards and their ability to create high-quality, highly conceptual lessons that are easily understood by students.
As a member of the Dream Team, Tammy will receive an all-expenses paid trip to San Francisco in May for TeachFest, through the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Teachfest is an intensive professional development conference that kicks off the Dream Team experience.
After TeachFest, Dream Team teachers will capture their proven approaches and teaching methods in concise lessons that will then be made available for free to every student, teacher and parent through LearnZillion’s online platform at LeanZillon.com. More than 100, 000 teachers are registered for the free site as well as 1.5 million students. More than 400,000 teachers and students view LearnZillion lessons each month from hundreds of countries around the world. Throughout the process Mrs. Plucknette will be motivated by the concept of “scaling her impact” beyond the walls of her own classroom and of Elba Central School. By sharing her lessons online, all students can benefit from the expertise of the Dream Team teachers.
Congratulations Mr. Rath and Mrs. Plucknette! The Elba School Community is very proud of you both.
