Second-grade teacher Karen Kersey infuses creativity, enthusiasm and technology into her lessons at Alban Elementary School in St. Albans. She created "Second Grade Key Chains" to provide vocabulary practice tools for students and parents who might lack resources at home. Clearly, her skill-focused methods work well, as 100 percent of Mrs. Kersey's students have met the Accelerated Reader goal for the past several years, and 89 percent of them recently scored above the 50th percentile in math on the statewide assessment. Mrs. Kersey has trained teachers in new software, created model lessons in technology, and developed a Web site integrating art and technology lessons. Mrs. Kersey is co-chair of the school's tutoring program and is working at the district level on prioritizing curriculum for Reading/Language Arts.
