Tell us why you became a teacher

I became a teacher because I love to learn and share the experience. I find new places, people, and things fascinating, and I find we learn more when we share the experience than simply relying on our own. As a teacher, I get to see students find joy in new knowledge, or find that they can do things they didn't think they could.

Tell us about your most memorable teaching experience

In the middle of reading part of Milton's "Paradise Lost" the principal came in to do an observation just as I'm excitedly and enthusiastically yelling to rise up and build Pandemonium. Then, the principal sits next to the student that sleeps most of my class, only to have that student rock out an explanation of the political allegory of Satan as an antihero during Cromwells ruling of England. I've never been so scared nor so proud.

What would you do with the $25,000?

Part would go to Donors choose projects (mine and others), part would go to paying off my car, part in savings, and part to a trip to Greece.