The Alabama Air Force Association recently honored an Alabaster teacher for her work with gifted students.

The association named Melissa Foster, Creek View Elementary School’s third-grade gifted teacher, its 2010 Alabama Air Force Association Teacher of the Year.

Forster received the award for integrating aerospace lessons into her classroom curriculum, according to an AFA press release.

Foster has taught lessons on the history of flight, several types of aerospace engineering, satellite usage and flight and rocketry principles. She has also taken her students to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, and to the University of Alabama at Huntsville’s engineering department.

“Melissa motivates her students to reach or exceed the goals they have set for themselves,” said Creek View Elementary Principal Joyce Dixon. “She challenges the students to take knowledge from the classroom and apply it to the field trips that are used to encourage them to see different jobs where higher-level thinking is used.”

Foster will travel to the Alabama AFA Annual Meeting in August, where she will receive $750, gift certificates, a flight jacket and other prizes.