I became a teacher to give my students the experiences I had always wished I had while in school. I try to keep an upbeat mood each day, happy to see my students so that at least while they are with me, they can focus on their work and get lost in the magic of learning. I take 4 trips a year and as I travel, I take videos and pictures that relate to what we are learning in class. This helps my students connect to the outside world and experience things they normally would not see.

My most memorable teaching experience was having small groups all around the room researching and making artifacts from what they learned with parent volunteers helping at each group. I was covered in pulp showing students how to make paper as the superintendent of schools walked in with 5 other adults having to step over and around students so deep in conversations and activities they didn’t even notice him. He had to ask who was the teacher in the room due to so many great discussions.

Now that I am teaching virtually and teaching ancient history, if I won the $25,000, I would love to travel to Egypt, Isreal, Rome, or Greece and take footage for my students to teach them about these ancient civilizations from the location. I would also love to be able to purchase some things for them to do more hands-on activities, purchase items related to these civilizations, and take them on an in-person field trip that related to what we were learning that would be cross-curricular.