Meet the Atlanta Families’ Awards winners: Kenya Greer

We continue our series on the Atlanta Families’ Awards winners with a look at Kenya Greer, a first grade teacher at Cascade Elementary School. This is her 13th year of teaching on the elementary level. She earned her B.S. degree in elementary education from Alabama State University in 1997. Greer has taught in the Fulton County, Birmingham City and Atlanta Public school systems. She feels each school has allowed her to experience many successes and challenges, but has learned to add her own creativity and style while adapting to different environments. Greeris flexible when it comes to change, and has a positive outlook because it helps her to grow into the person that she is.

Greer considers herself as a lifelong learner, and always is open-minded to the latest teaching methods and trends in Education. Last December, she completed an Educational Specialist Degree in Educational Leadership and Supervision from Lincoln Memorial University. After finishing, Kenya felt empowered to volunteer more in the community and facilitate at several local conferences. In Fulton, she has also mentored many Georgia Teacher Alternative Preparation Program (GTAPP) student-teachers from Georgia State University. She has served on numerous committees and facilitated a few workshops at Cascade.

Throughout the summer months, you can find Greer working as a camp coordinator for performing arts with the Southwest Arts Center or just traveling. Last May, she recently finished a TESA Reading Endorsement certificate with Atlanta Public Schools. She finds complete fulfillment in helping children grow and learn in the classroom. She is hoping to work more with curriculum development, staff development and even write several children’s books in the near future. To push her education limits further, she started her doctoral degree in Leadership. She should be finishing in May 2011. Her plans are to always make a difference in the lives of all children and in the community.

For her Atlanta Families’ Awards project, “Growing Young Minds” Greer will provide an opportunity for children to explore science. Her project will allow teachers to teach with indoor gardens throughout the year. The project will consist of five mobile science labs that will be shared among the grade levels. “We already have an outdoor garden, but it doesn’t allow the students to utilize it throughout the year,” she explains. “We want to have one for each grade level, and rotate it among the grade levels. Our science test scores have declined and we think we can align this project with the Georgia Performance Standards, and not just with science, but also with math, literature and social studies.