Millboro teacher honored By Amanda Isley • Staff writer
MILLBORO - Kimberlyn Cress Lancaster, Title 1 reading specialist and adult education instructor at Millboro Elementary School, has been named Reading Teacher of the Year by the Virginia State Reading Association.
 | | Kim Lancaster, Title 1 Reading Specialist and adult education instructor at Millboro Elementary School, reads to kindergarten students Megan Nicely (left) and Austin Hubbard. (Photo courtesy Bath County Public Schools)
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Lancaster was nominated by the Shenandoah Valley Reading Council, for which she currently serves as corresponding secretary, and was selected from other statewide nominees. She has been employed by Bath County Public Schools since 1980.
Sue Hirsh, director of instruction and personnel for Bath schools, commended Lancaster for her years of dedication to reading.
"Mrs. Lancaster's selection as Virginia's Reading Teacher of the Year acknowledges her long commitment to literacy instruction and we are proud that she is a teacher in Bath County," she said.
In recognition of Lancaster's skill in teaching reading and her commitment to literacy instruction she will receive the 2007 Ofie T. Rubin Reading Teacher of the Year grant on March 15 at the 40th Annual VSRA Conference at Hotel Roanoke.
The recognition will include a cash award to be used for personal staff development in reading or to implement an activity or project directly related to providing a quality reading program.
She plans to use the money for an activity with upcoming kindergarten students at MES to provide children and parents with ideas and materials to promote literacy in the home.
"I want to hold a parent education fair to promote families becoming actively involved with reading; in Bath we don't really have a full-time preschool or day care through the school system," she said.
Some activities and workshops offered to parents and other family members at the fair will cover reading aloud, alphabet knowledge, fine motor skills and writing, use of technology, and strategies to teach the ability to recognize and manipulate sounds in words.
Lancaster plans to create a theme to make it fun and engaging. Some of the money will go toward advertising costs and providing information packets for parents.
Noting statistics which show early learning increases performance in kindergarten and beyond, Lancaster points out reading is the foundation of knowledge and the basis for functioning successfully in today's society.
"Early literacy really has an impact on later school performance," she said.
On being recognized by her peers, Lancaster notes she is more excited about the recognition Bath will receive rather than the individual glory. Often, large school divisions receive these awards and she is happy to show people in the mountains receive as good an education, she said. "Yes, one person gets the award, but that one person is representative of all the people who work together to teach these kids."
This year's theme at the VSRA conference is "Reading Lights the Way." Lancaster said she doesn't see teachers as the light, but more like prisms, refracting the light they have gathered from peers, mentors, classes, and leaders.
In particular, she noted, it has been a great resource working with MES principal Martha Reish, who is also a reading specialist. Most of all, she thought of former teacher Betty Gilchrest when she learned about her award.
"She was such a mentor, such an inspiration to me and really helped to show me the light," she said.
The annual grant has been made possible by the Life of Virginia Insurance Co. in honor of Mrs. Ofie T. Rubin, past VSRA president.
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