Former librarian switches to teaching, earns award

Former librarian Kim Johnston was a born teacher. It just took some help from other educators to realize that. Now only three years into teaching, she is receiving state recognition for helping early learners read.

Johnston, a first-grade teacher at East Layton Elementary, was selected to receive the first Governor Olene Walker Scholarship for Literacy, funded by Zions Bank. Johnston is the only teacher in the state selected for this award.

It was designed to help those who teach kindergarten through third grade pursue Utah level 1 reading endorsements. That program consists of 21 graduate credit hours to be completed in two years or less and taken through the University of Utah.

It is designed to be a part-time program so students can continue teaching as they earn their certificates — something Johnston is used to.

For more than six years Johnston was a school librarian. But her principal, Beth Johnston (no relation), felt that she was made for the classroom and encouraged her to go back to school and pursue a teaching degree.

"I just watched the woman work in library and knew she needed to be a certified teacher," Beth Johnston said. "She could control classes and handle all the various behaviors and complexities — she was just highly creative and took her job to the next level with good, strong academic and educational values."

Beth Johnston said the teacher shines when it comes to teaching students to read.

"All first-graders need to learn 100 sight words," Beth Johnston said. "But with the way they have taught it and set it, (Kim Johnston) and her team have kids reading 600."

Joel Kincart, assistant dean for the College of Education at the U., said the scholarship was a way to secure Walker's legacy of reading.

"She really made reading a focal point," Kincart said. "She will always be remembered as Utah's teacher."

Kim Johnston will start classes this fall but plans on going beyond the reading endorsement and getting her master's degree. Even so, she has no plans to leave the early elementary classrooms.

"I love the kids. It's so rewarding," Kim Johnston said. "In first grade you probably see the most growth because they come in still very dependant on you for everything and then they go out so independent — the light switch goes on and they can read and that is so enabling to them."

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E-mail: terickson@desnews.com