Our latest A+ Teacher is now working at the same high school she graduated from.
What You Need To Know
- Tracey Gross Keim is this week's A+ Teacher
- Her "Keimdom" allows students to work at their own pace
- More A+ Teacher headlines
- Want to nominate an A+ Teacher? Click here
And Tracey Gross Keim is making an impact on lives far beyond the classroom - and inside a closet.
“The whole class is set up for success for everyone,” said Keim, who teaches English and English as a second language. “There is no reason not to be successful in the “Keimdom,” which is what i call my classroom, and the kids do, too. You can work at your own pace, which does create a little bit more work for me.”
The extra work is no problem for this Teacher of the year at St, Petersburg High School.
Love from the "Keimdom” stretches worldwide.
She holds nine copyrights for educational activities, showing teachers how to make it fun.
“I’ve enjoyed traveling all over the world and meeting so many people, and other educators from around the globe and working with children of all different ages and then coming back to my alma mater,” she said.
She graduated from the school in 1987.
"It was wonderful,” Keim said. “I have life-long friends from here. My grandmother graduated 50 years before I did from here, so I’m fifth-generation St. Petersburg.”
It’s a 6-by-9 closet that is her legacy.
The “Green Devil’s Pantry and Closet” has helped thousands of students with anything they need.
“Kids, of course, are still hungry,” Keim said. “They didn’t have book bags. They didn’t have deodorant. Deodorant is a big mover at the Green Devil’s Closet."
It is stocked by the community with food, household items, uniforms and undergarments.
Even former students come back.
They call her "Mama Keim" on campus. Her love is now modeled in similar closets across the country.