our team
Because of the small size of our school at this time, Our Team consists of 2 amazing founding educators, Kim Hawkins and Alexia Gonzalez. Both Kim and Alexia are part of our amazing team who serve extraordinary children with Dyslexia, ADHD and Non-Traditional Learners at The Academy GA in Marietta, Ga.
Kim Hawkins - Founding Executive Director
I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand. The application of this quote has been the guiding force of my educational journey for 20 years. Students always learn best when they are actively engaged in learning.
Here at The Academy GA, our vision is to uphold the principles of this quote through our five pathways of learning that include:
- Structured Literacy
- Interactive & Multi-Sensory
- Real-Life Application
- PBL
- Life-Coaching
As an educator, one of my passions over the last 10 years has been to provide students with the opportunity to experience learning through real-world application. Many times classroom experiences only include opportunities to memorize concepts that capitalize on a students’ short term memory.
Our Team at The Academy GA serves extraordinary children with Dyslexia, ADHD and Non-Traditional Learners in Marietta, Ga.
Through the use of Project Based Learning (PBL) I have been able to engage students in critical thinking, an integral part of learning that can sometimes be forgotten in a world of preparing to pass a test. In my PBL classrooms, students have experienced collaboration, communication, and had the opportunity to express their creativity. These experiences are not only skills that employers are looking for, but because the work is relevant to the student’s world, the knowledge is encoded into their long-term memory bank. As a bonus, PBL is fun and students enjoy it!
While PBL is the heart and soul of my existence as an educator, I realize students cannot be successful at PBL if they don’t have the core foundations in literacy and math. My realization that phonemic awareness and phonics needed to be taught explicitly, led me to acquire my certification with Orton-Gillingham, (OG), a structured literacy program similar to the Wilson Reading Program. As an OG instructor, I have used a variety of multi-sensory learning strategies to help all students. However, my students who struggled with phonics, fluency, and/or comprehension benefited most from the daily, explicit, multi-sensory teachings that OG provided. As a co-taught classroom teacher of students with a large range of academic struggles, both diagnosed and undiagnosed, I saw my OG efforts really boost student reading development.
I am confident that The Academy "Way" of teaching and learning will produce the successful academic achievement and success of our student population. I look forward to leading this charge. Our Team at The Academy GA serves extraordinary children with Dyslexia, ADHD and Non-Traditional Learners in Marietta, Ga.
Alexia Gonzalez - Math/Science Teacher
Miss Alexia recently moved to Georgia from Maryland. In Maryland she attended McDaniel College where she received hands-on experiences in the classroom through internships and her student teaching. After graduating with a major in Elementary Education and a minor in Spanish she was able to start her teaching career where she taught fourth and second grade. She had the opportunity to work with students of various levels and needs and helped them progress throughout the school year.
Alexia is excited to have the opportunity to teach math and science to the amazing kids at The Academy GA!
Our team at The Academy GA serves extraordinary children with Dyslexia, ADHD and Non-Traditional Learners in Marietta, Ga.