Tell us why you became a teacher

I was a life guard at a local pool during my teen years. Every summer I got to teach small children how to swim. Most of the time the children would come with little to no knowledge of water safety or the basics of swimming. Sometimes children had an extreme fear of the water. I loved seeing the light in their little eyes when they learned a new skill. I also loved finding ways to overcome the challenges to them learning a skill that could potentially save their life or someone else's.

Tell us about your most memorable teaching experience

I taught Math at a local middle school, and I had so many students that felt they were horrible at Math. It was sad that they already had a defeatist attitude, and they were only in middle school. Many kids would say that their Mom or Dad was terrible in math, and that's why they were not able to learn it. I cried when a former student came back to me later in life and said that he had his first victories over Math in my room. It inspired him to take challenging Math courses in highschool.

What would you do with the $25,000?

I currently teach U. S. History at a predominantly rural highschool. I would love to take some of my economically disadvantaged students on a field trip to our nation's capitol! Some of these kids will never get the chance to see our founding documents, the White House, or Congress!