VALDOSTA — Dr. Marilyn McCluskey serves cups full of knowledge at Newbern Middle School.

The eighth grade physical science teacher has taken an unorthodox approach to classroom set-up.

Upon walking in the door, students are met with a learning cafe, complete with cafe tables, chairs, booths, and menus.

McCluskey began decorating her room in the cafe motif in 1998.

“I wanted to do something a little different because I wanted to be the type of teacher that I wish I had when I was growing up,” she said. “As an ADHD child and individual, it’s stimulating to have a nice atmosphere. Interactive stuff keeps your mind from wandering and keeps you on task.”

This is McCluskey’s third year at Newbern Middle School, the second she has taught in the learning cafe.

Her learning cafe began when she was teaching in Augusta. To inspire the students, who were learning in a trailer, McCluskey decided to paint and change the connotation of what learning in the trailer meant to some of the students, she said.

The first cafe had a Hard Rock Cafe-type feel and McCluskey has constantly updated and changed the feel and look of the cafe over the years.

“The response was so good as far as student behavior,” McCluskey said. “Just being in a different setting was really good.”

The current cafe has a bistro feel with the booths and small two-person tables.



Importance

of education



The importance of education has been a focal point for McCluskey her entire life.

The Dixie native’s grandfather, Ulysses Marable, stressed the importance of education as much as he stressed the importance of hard work on his farm, she said.

“My granddaddy taught me that an

education will elevate you,” she said. “He made sure that if you did not get an education you worked real hard on his farm. When you work hard on the farm, education is a breeze.”

Ulysses and Johnnie May Marable, her grandparents, are the reason so many in the family have pursued higher education, McCluskey said.

Her grandmother was not able to finish her college degree at Albany State but has pushed her children, grandchildren and nieces and nephews to achieve.

McCluskey said her grandmother doesn’t miss a graduation.

The pillar of the family and community, Ulysses Marable, passed away last February.

“It’s kind of ironic I’m in education because everybody in my family are dentists,” McCluskey said. “I have three uncles that are dentists, I have three cousins that are practicing dentists, I have a brother in dental school and I have a cousin in dental school.”

In addition to the dentists, there are five teachers in McCluskey’s extended family.

Her mother recently retired after teaching for 34 years in the Brooks County School System and her uncle now teaches at the high school after serving on the Brook County Board of Education, she said.

McCluskey said she is the only person in her family to get an educational doctorate, which she earned in 2007 from the University of Georgia.



A knack for kids



As an undergrad at Fort Valley State, McCluskey had originally intended to become an obstetrician-gynecologist.

After having her first child, a son, she realized that working with pregnant women was not exactly something she enjoyed.

She did enjoy, however, interacting with her son and watching him discover new things.

“Being there and interacting with him, I realized I had a knack for kids,” she said.

McCluskey said her motto for education is this: “All students can learn. My job is to ignite their passion for learning.”

She is certified in all middle grade subjects, in agriculture and home economics.

Farming and hard work makes a person appreciate things, she said.

“I worked in the field from the time I was 5 and even when I came back from college I worked,” McCluskey said. “It was nothing to find at least five or six doctors in his squash patch on Saturday.”

McCluskey’s grandfather only had a seventh grade education, as the high school was too far away from his home to attend.

He enjoyed school so much he went through the seventh grade a second time, she said.

“He wanted to go to school so bad, he went back,” she said.

He also made sure all 10 of his children got a college degree, McCluskey said.



Making the learning cafe



The current tables and chairs in McCluskey’s room she purchased with her own money off of Craigslist. The booths came from JP’s Pizza in Quitman.

“It’s like going to a nice restaurant,” McCluskey said. “When you go to a nice restaurant, don’t you act differently than if you were going to a fast food joint? Your whole demeanor changes and that’s one of the best things I’ve seen from it — is the behavior.”

The students help keep the cafe clean, she said.

“They want it to look nice and it’s something about being in a nice atmosphere that makes you want to learn and feel good about yourself,” McCluskey said.

McCluskey said she loves teaching at the middle school level.

“I am at that particular point in a child’s life where I can create a change,” she said. “I think a lot of people don’t understand that children really do want guidance, children need guidance and a lot of them just want you to show that you care.”

Middle school children are at an important point in their lives, she said.

“That’s the time when you really don’t know if you want to go left or go right. You’re confused, so you need somebody very positive in your life at that particular point to guide you in the right direction,” McCluskey said.

Her son, now in the ninth grade at Brooks County High School, has also provided McCluskey with firsthand experience into the mind of a middle schooler.

“I tell them often that I understand exactly where they are coming from because I have one of you living in my house,” she said. “All teachers should treat all kids like they are theirs and you will be amazed at the response they will give you.”

It would be easy to shut them off at this age, but that is a dangerous action, McCluskey said.

“If we don’t teach these kids, crime and education go hand in hand,” she said. “If you look at the crime report every week, you will notice something — most of the crime is being committed between an age group of 20 to 30.”

If a person could look at the transcripts of those people committing the crimes, they would probably find that very few graduated from high school and some probably even dropped out in middle school, she said.

“My job is to try as hard as I can and in any way that I can to reach them,” she said. “Because I might be the last person that has an opportunity to do that.”



Returning to South Georgia



She returned to South Georgia when her husband, Army Major Derrick McCluskey, was deployed to Iraq and she needed assistance in caring for a newborn and her other children.

McCluskey has four children, Marion, 15, Mckenzie, 5, Blanche, 4 and Derrick II, 1.

Due to Major McCluskey’s job, the family is supposed to move every two years, but last year she postponed the next move to stay another year and teach.

McCluskey is the 2009-2010 Teacher of the Year for Newbern Middle School.

The McCluskey family will next move to Virginia and be located in the Washington D.C. area, she said.

McCluskey currently manages some properties on Jones Street for her uncle and has taken it upon herself to see the area is cleaned up.

“I got in touch with the detectives and said, ‘Look, I’m trying to teach and I’m trying to get kids to believe in themselves and I can’t do that with these people thinking it’s all right to sell drugs and it’s OK to influence these kids in bad ways,” she said. “That’s my crusade and I think more people should start doing that instead of just turning a blind eye. They need to start going back to this village mentality. It takes a village to raise a child, and we need to understand that.”

Though teaching is a great joy for McCluskey she has begun to contemplate ways to reach a wider audience of students and teachers.

For her classroom McCluskey designs games that resemble gin rummy and dominos but are played with students learning different facets of the lessons being taught.

“These are MTV kids, as I call them, and we got to be more engaging, and that’s something I’m glad they allow me to do,” she said.

Production of educational games is currently on McCluskey’s list of possible future plans and many of her games already bear the moniker, Cafe Learn Productions.

At Fort Valley State, McCluskey received her bachelor of science in Animal Science and her master’s in middle grades education.

“There are over 30 members of my family who have graduated from Fort Valley State,” she said. “Somebody from my family has been at Fort Valley State since 1964, with a break from 1985-1990.”

McCluskey was the 14th person in her family to graduate from Fort Valley State.

“That’s why I know education works and I know it will change things,” McCluskey said.

In her free time McCluskey said she is working on a book. She first started a non-fiction novel called “Lesson Plans” but has now decided to pursue a motivational book for teenagers.

She wants to share the story of her family and let teenagers know that they can make it if they try and work hard, she said.