Tybee Island Maritime Teacher Named Georgia Charter School Teacher of the Year

Tybee Island Maritime Academy math teacher Robin Allison has been named the Georgia Charter Schools Association’s 2025 Charter School Teacher of the Year. Ms. Allison received the award during the Georgia Charter Schools Association’s (GCSA) 22nd annual conference on Wednesday, March 12, 2025. The Charter School Teacher of the Year Award spotlights dynamic educators who have demonstrated an outstanding commitment to charter school students, their families, and their communities. 

According to the Association, Ms. Allison empowers her students by creating a dynamic, student-centered learning environment that connects math to real-world applications. Leveraging her engineering background and extensive experience in middle and high school math, she transforms traditional instruction into an engaging, collaborative, and problem-solving experience.

At TIMA, Ms. Allison’s innovative teaching methods allow students to explore complex, real-world engineering problems. Through project-based learning, she integrates the Georgia Standards of Excellence in creative and meaningful ways. Her students apply math concepts to hands-on projects, such as using Future Cities models to study scale and proportionality or calculating the tensile strength of leashes for TIMA’s Shorebirds Showcase. These projects not only deepen students’ understanding but also highlight the relevance of math in their lives and future careers.

Ms. Allison fosters a student-driven classroom where open-ended exploration, collaboration, and critical thinking thrive. She encourages students to work through problems at their own pace, emphasizing deep learning over speed. She told Savannah CBS affiliate WTOC in a recent interview, “For me, the most important thing about teaching is teaching students to problem solve, to have that perseverance and know that the mistakes are just part of the learning.”

GCSA is a nonpartisan advocate, partner and service provider for Georgia’s public charter schools working to increase the number of excellent public-school options for all Georgia students.

Congratulations to Ms. Allison!