Rebecca Streetman - 2022 Lillian B. Jarvis Teacher of the Year
Rebecca Streetman - 2022 Lillian B. Jarvis
Teacher of the Year
South Gwinett High School
Snellville, Georgia
Summary of Law-Related Education Activities
- Leader and originator of the SMILE Program since it started 6 years ago (providing students throughout Gwinnett County with exposure to various aspects of the court system and facilitating a network between students and professionals from all aspects of the legal system) See 2 articles attached.
- Facilitated more than 500 student interviews over the past four years, giving students authentic experience with the interview process and making connections between students and professionals in their chosen legal field. This includes members of the Gwinnett Bar Association, the District Attorney's Office, the Solicitor General's Office and lawyers from private practice and numerous other fields. Also included is a plethora of law enforcement officers, military personnel, and other police personnel. This past year, due to Covid, student interviews included virtual interviews with lawyers from Morris, Manning, and Martin (a large law firm in Atlanta). This gave students experience with interviewing in a virtual world and included on-screen presence as well as technical skills. Many students have been offered internships and job shadow opportunities. Several students have been offered jobs and a few were even offered scholarships sponsored by the respective interviewer. This is especially helpful in a Title I school where many of my students cannot afford college or even the application fees.
- In the past 5 years or so, built partnerships with more than 50 professionals (lawyers, judges, paralegals, police officers, K9 officers, military personnel, FEMA, US Attorney's Office, a State Representative and Civil Rights Advocate, NCIS, FBI, GBI, CSI and many others!), bringing these individuals in as guest speakers for students.
- Public Service, Law and Media Academy Lead Teacher, South Gwinnett High School, 2021 –current. In this role, I offer teachers at my school in the Public Service, Law and Media Academy (as a Title I school in Gwinnett County, we offer career academies for our students to choose their area of specialty) my services by bringing in professionals from the field of Law and Public Safety to the core classes. For example, students struggle in math, but studies have shown that if the core content area relates to something the students are interested in they are more likely to learn the material. So, I have partnered with a police officer that can bring in an item like a shot-up car door and show it to students, along with a scenario and the students use the math content they have been learning to solve the crime (How tall was the shooter? How far away was the shooter? Was the car moving or stationary? Etc.) The goal of an Academy Model and my vision as the lead teacher is to bring careers into the classroom throughout the curricula.
- Public Service, Law and Media Academy Local School Advisory Board host, South Gwinnett High School, 2015 – current. Twice a year, we meet with our Local School Advisory Board (mine consists or lawyers, police officers, former students and parents) to discuss ways and opportunities to bring Public Service, Law and Media into the classroom.
- Law & Justice Cluster Coach, Gwinnett County Public Schools, 2015 – current. I am, essentially, the lead teacher for Law and Public Safety teachers for our entire county. I share my lesson plans, projects, and assessments with other LPS teachers throughout the county, thus impacting students at other schools as well. Recently, one of the teachers I coach shared with me that she used my idea for a mock trial and reached out to local attorneys for assistance in conducting it. She is also at a Title I school, which a mostly Hispanic population who have never had contact with anyone in the legal field on this level before and she happened to get volunteers from a firm with Immigration attorneys. These attorneys are now coming out to her school frequently to work with the students and are discussing some job shadow opportunities for them. The teachers from other schools sometimes come shadow me to see how I run certain activities in my classroom like the CPR training and student interviews. I also meet with other Law teachers throughout the state to get ideas and plan.
- Cluster-wide Advisory Board Very similar to the Local School Advisory Board, we have a county-wide advisory board that meets twice a year. The goal of both of the advisory boards is to connect with professionals in the field of Law and Public Safety to create programs where students participate in real-life projects and activities and to also assess our curricula to make sure we are teaching up-to-date material and reflecting current market trends and needs. Members of the county advisory board include lawyers, police officers, someone from Emergency Management, our local Fire Chief, two professors from local colleges, two admission counselors from local colleges, and former students.
- I also frequently connect my students with any and all law-related opportunities outside of school, including internships, job shadows, scholarships, and jobs. These are posted on my whiteboard in my classroom as well as on my eClass pages for student access. I just posted the Morris, Manning, and Martin Internship for Diverse Students this week. This is a paid internship at a large law firm that offers the opportunity for students to shadow attorneys in any and all aspects of law including entertainment law, contract law, property law, immigration law, international law, business law and many, many more! I have had several students earn these highly-competitive spots prior to Covid and am confident that several will be accepted this year.
- I recently started a Law Interest Group at our school with over 80 students expressing interest. I bring in some of the partners mentioned above to do case studies with them.
- As part of my curriculum, I require my students to create a job-ready resume. As an academy school, our students are on pathways. Meaning, they take three years in a concentrated field. My school is one of the only schools in the state of Georgia to offer not one, but TWO pathways in the field of Law. One is Applications of Law (for students wishing to work in the courthouse) and one is for Forensic Science and Criminal Investigations (for students wishing to work at the crime scenes and out in the field before the case makes it to trial). I have turned the pathway into a true spiraling curricula, meaning I build off of the prior year. So, in the intro class, their resume can be basic and I focus primarily on grammar, spelling and formatting. Then, in the second class, I require some content from the field they are pursuing (granted, most of this comes from in-class activities like CPR Certification, CERT Training, Stop the Bleed Certification, etc). Then, by the third year, in order to score high on the resume, they must show some Law-Related activity outside of school. This can be the SMILE Program or any internship, job shadow, etc. Included in this is also any civic activity including attending or participating in any City Council meeting, serving as volunteer security monitors at school sporting events, or involvement in JROTC activities). But, the point is, by their third year with me, they ALL have had ample opportunity to build an actual resume that will put them as front-runners for scholarships, jobs, or any other future in the field of law.
- Each year, I also submit names to the National Civics and Law Honor Roll for students that maintain a B or higher average in my class and participate in 6 hours of any civic-related activity including the ones I mentioned above. I typically have 10 – 15 students per year that qualify for this honor.
- I also write many letters of recommendation for college admissions and scholarships. This year, one young lady shared with me that she not only got accepted into college (first in her family) but that the letter offered her a FULL-RIDE scholarship based on the letter of recommendation from me and the activities she participated in through my classes.