By Brad Highland
Carbondale, IL – A Mt. Vernon teacher is making great efforts to promote literacy in her class room, and now she's getting recognized for it.
After 20 years teaching, Cathy Olsen, a Pre-K teacher at Benjamin Franklin Early Childhood Center, has been selected as a finalist for Illinois Teacher of the Year.
Olsen says she tries to use as many visual materials as possible to increase students' vocabulary and literacy. Olsen says she feels she needs to lay the groundwork for children to become life-long learners and that improving literacy is the way to do it.
The Illinois Teacher of the Year will be announced October 24th. The winner will go on to represent Illinois in the NASA Space Camp at Huntsville, Alabama, in addition to being entered in the National Teacher of the Year program.
