LEWISVILLE, Texas – A little goes a long way, especially when teaching children. As an educator and Lewisville native, Carly Naragon plants seeds of knowledge in hopes that her students will grow into productive citizens with an appreciation for their community.

A young and beautiful Carly Naragon gracefully walks halls of Creekside Elementary busy with children. The children are eager to receive attention from Naragon for they instantly perk up and seek eye contact as she walks toward them. Naragon speaks briefly to some students, as a famous politician would at a public venture, and swiftly corrects minor misbehaviors. The fussy children are quick to mind her. They express embarrassment as they get caught by a teacher they genuinely like and from whom they desperately seek approval. It is instantly clear that the fifth grade teacher is a class favorite among the young students.

Naragon's classroom is a highly decorated one, busy with colorful and glossy posters that gleam making the room even brighter. She sits at a spacious table strewn with graded papers and a healthy half- eaten lunch of tuna salad and rice cakes. This is where she spends her time during her conference hours when she does not have a meeting with a student's parent. Naragon likes to remain productive during her free time and spends it grading papers or visiting with teachers about lesson plans and state exams. Her curly blond hair and bright white smile make a warm impression on anyone who meets her.

“My first impression was that she is a very positive happy person and she is setting a great example for her students,” said Coralee Lennert, executive director of Keep Lewisville Beautiful.

This is Naragon's first year to teach fifth grade. She teaches an hour of social studies four times a day and reading and writing once a day. She has been teaching for five years and started at Creekside Elementary with the first grade class. Naragon said reading is the primary focus for first graders and to see them grow into more advanced readers is very rewarding. She spoke of her first grade class with pure adulation.

She noticed that fifth graders are more challenging because they are not as free with their affection as her first graders, but Naragon is quick to adjust her teaching style to the more ornery students. This may be because teaching is in Naragon's blood.

“Teaching is pretty much all I've ever known because my grandparents, my mom, and all my aunts and uncles are in education,” said the 28-year-old.

Naragon and her students have been volunteering through Keep Lewisville Beautiful since last year. Keep Lewisville Beautiful is a nonprofit organization that promotes the beautification and education of local citizens on how to take greater responsibility for their community.

“I wanted to teach the kids about community and doing their part. Just making sure that they know that other people do throw stuff out in the street, and that they do things they shouldn't be doing. Even adults do things they shouldn't be doing,” she said. Naragon signed up for the Adopt-A-Spot program after seeing someone else taking care of their designated area. This program, operated by Keep Lewisville Beautiful, gives community members a chance to adopt a small area in the city to help keep litter-free. Naragon's spot is of walking distance from the school. She has incorporated the maintenance of the spot into her regular lesson plan. So far, the project has exceeded her expectations.

“My first graders took a lot of pride in doing Adopt-A-Spot. They loved it. They thought they were special,” Naragon said. She said Keep Lewisville Beautiful provided her with everything she could imagine for the project, from trash bags and orange safety vests to sunscreen and first-aid supplies. Naragon continued to take her entire class once a month for one year. She said the project was more of a reward than a chore for her first grade students and greatly influenced their good behavior. Naragon did not have as good of a reception from her fifth grade students.

“Unfortunately the fifth graders are a little sarcastic and did not care to do it as much, which really offended me and I told them that it did,” she said. Compared to her fifth grade class, Naragon said the first graders never hesitated to pick up trash and always followed her rules. On the first day she took her fifth-grade class, she had a student run out into the street. That is when she decided to cancel the project or open it entirely to another class. When the fifth graders saw how disappointed Naragon was, they begged her for another chance. It's easy to see why children would want to please her. Naragon has an air about her that is sincere and she exudes a genuine passion for helping others. To see disappointment expressed in her clear green eyes made the children feel bad about themselves and they worked feverishly to redeem themselves. Currently Naragon's class has a clipboard that records their daily classroom behavior. Students with more than three marks of bad behavior in a week are not allowed to participate in the spot cleanup. She is finding that more and more students are really starting to get into taking care of their adopted spot.

Other teachers and Lewisville citizens take notice to Naragon's active role in the community. Marilyn Cusano, also a fifth grade teacher, volunteered with Naragon and their students for Keep Lewisville Beautiful's Daffodil Project this month. The teachers and their students helped plant 4,000 Daffodils around Lewisville parkways. Cusano says Naragon is very dedicated and a lifelong learner.

Cusano hopes that through volunteering, students realize that they are a part of a community and not just within their school or neighborhood, and that there is always something that they can do to help someone else. Lennert agrees that volunteering is one of the best ways to educate students. She says students learn in a variety of ways, and doing hands on work is one of the most effective ways to learn for all types of students. Lennert said Naragon is extremely consistent in her efforts and always brings more students along with her.

When Naragon talks about her students, her tone becomes very sincere as if they were her own children. Every year she has her students write a story about their favorite things from her class. She creates a class memory book from the student's stories and keeps them for herself to remember her students for years to come. During Naragon's first year at Creekside a first grader wrote about a day that she sat in Naragon's lap and read a story for her. That was one of the three most special and memorable things about first grade for the student.

“I would have never known how much that one thing meant to her if I didn't have the memory book,” Naragon said.

Naragon says that school seems a lot more fun than when she was an elementary student. They are a lot more active in her social studies class and some kind of technology is used everyday. She enjoys using new computer programs and learns them quickly. The only thing she says stresses her sometimes is extra added paperwork. Naragon maintains a smile on her face even as she speaks of stress and discouragement.

Naragon majored in vocal performance at Texas A&M Commerce. She has always had a passion for music and travel. She loves to sing and incorporates music into her lesson plans. Civil War songs can be heard in the background as her students study historical events. Naragon has always wanted to travel and finally got an opportunity after graduating college. Her first trip was thirty days spent experiencing the wonders of Europe with her two best friends. She visited many cities, among them were London, Paris, and Athens.

Her favorite part of the trip was her stay at a vineyard in Bourgeoisie, France. She explained with wonderment on her face the rolling hills and countryside that greeted her when she opened her room window. Pictures from her travels are posted around her room and each one clearly expresses what a free and fun-loving person she is.

Naragon is currently working on her master's in education through Concordia, a cohort system for people who are working full time. With her master's she says she can earn her certification to be a principal and broaden her options in the education field.

Naragon's overall attitude is that of a young educator that both gives knowledge and learns lessons from her students. Naragon will continues to motivate her students to literally take matters into their own hands through volunteering, to create positive habits that will stick with them forever.