Kathleen E. Crowley St. Agnes School

Kathy Crowley is a kindergarten teacher and has taught kindergarten, preschool, and the elementary grades for many years. She was director of an afterschool program and a member of the South Dakota Early Learning Guidelines Panel. Serving as a teacher leader for a statewide mathematics initiative, she provides training to other teachers on innovative math strategies. An active member of several professional organizations, she has presented at numerous state, regional, and national conferences. Crowley served as vice president of the South Dakota Association for the Education of Young Children and received the SDAEYC state service award in 2006. Her community named her the Teacher of the Year in 2007.

Crowley and her coauthor Gera Jacobs have helped to organize an annual statewide kindergarten academy for many years in South Dakota and have presented at kindergarten institutes in other states. They are the coauthors of Play, Projects, and Preschool Standards: Nurturing Children’s Sense of Wonder and Joy in Learning, published by Corwin Press and winner of a 2008 Teachers’ Choice Award, sponsored by Learning Magazine and a 2007 Distinguished Achievement Award from the Association of Educational Publishers. Their collaboration began many years ago as team-teachers in a kindergarten classroom.