Tell us why you became a teacher

I always loved babysitting growing up, over any other job. The interactions between myself and kids came so naturally to me and I always enjoyed being around them. In college I started somewhere different and just felt the pull into education. I followed my heart and have been teaching now for 11 years. My mother is also a teacher and was always such a great inspiration. No wonder 2/3 of us (her children) went into teaching!

Tell us about your most memorable teaching experience

I find the most memorable moments are when things come full circle for kids. My favorite moment was when I took my class to the Raptor center after spending weeks researching types of birds in the classroom. They were thrilled to see birds in person, and use their background knowledge to help understand further into the mission of the Raptor center and why they are important. When you make lifetime memories for kids it feels like the biggest impact in shaping their minds in for the future.

What would you do with the $25,000?

Support my growing family! We were blessed with twins 5 months ago. On a teacher salary and already having a toddler this immediately made our home life a lot more difficult. It would be lovely to relieve some of the financial stress we feel on our family so that I can continue to do my job and spend more time on that rather than working on side hustles. Family is so important, and if that aspect of life in any right, the domino affect impacts my performance at school with my class.