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Mrs. Smith
Mrs. Irene Smith is the Chorus and General Music teacher at Mabry. She has been teaching for 17 years, this being her 18th year in education. Immediately after graduating from college Mrs. Smith taught at several elementary schools in Florida for five years. She has been teaching private voice and piano lessons both in Florida and here in Georgia since college graduation. This will be her 13th year teaching at Mabry.
Mrs. Smith was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. She and her parents moved to Ft. Lauderdale, when she was four years old, where she lived until she met her husband, Tom, and moved to Georgia (22 years ago). She went to college on a full music scholarship and graduated from Florida Atlantic University. She added on her K-5 Classroom Education Certification from Kennesaw State University when she moved to Georgia. As everyone can tell, Mrs. Smith loves teaching.
She has two children, Julie (28) and Ryan (21), who is a senior at Clemson University. They too, like to sing and are involved with music. She enjoys spending time with her family, taking trips, attending Clemson football and basketball games (GO TIGERS!), and singing in the Mt. Bethel UMC adult choir. She has been a choir director/organist for numerous churches both here in Georgia and in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, since the age of fourteen. She has enjoyed playing duets at her church and has accompanied the GMEA Honor Chorus for the past ten years. She also enjoys going to their lake house, on Lake Hartwell, overlooking the Clemson Stadium. It is very relaxing.
Her Mabry choruses have always received Excellent and Superior ratings at GMEA Choral Performance Evaluations. They have also been invited numerous times to sing at the All Star Music Festival in Orlando, Florida, where they have received Superior ratings. The Georgia Six Flags Chorus Festival has been another favorite for the chorus to attend when they are not going to Florida.
Every year she has taken her chorus students to All State Chorus in Savannah. They represent our school well and perform in a fabulous concert. Mrs. Smith hosts the Mabry Talent Show each year and has staged two musical performances of The Music Man in the past four years. She hopes to present another musical this year, either Cinderella or Into These Woods. Our eighth grade chorus students go on to be great leaders in the choral department at LHS when they leave us.
Mrs. Smith was teacher of the month at Mabry Middle School in 1999-2000 and Teacher of the Year at Mabry for 2000-2001. She has had the honor of being in the Who's Who Among American Women, 24th Edition, and will be in this year's edition of Who's Who Among America's Teachers. She has written spirit songs for her elementary schools in Florida and wrote some for Shallowford Falls Elementary, Tritt Elementary, and Rocky Mount Elementary when they were the Warriors. Last but not least, she took her first on-line technology course this summer and had a great time!
Mrs. Smith said, "It has been a pleasure teaching at Mabry, and I look forward to meeting many more talented choral students in the years to come."
Posted by Dr. Tyson
