Connect Tell us why you became a teacher

I had always admired my teachers when I was a student, they looked out for us and were always present for us. I realized during the pandemic how important schooling was for me and I decided to take my classes more seriously. I fell in love with school and realized I wanted to be the same implement for joy and education for young students.

Tell us about your most memorable teaching experience

We are an outdoor school and take our students out camping. I was teaching a forest fire unit; as we were trying to make our campfire, the students began talking about the fire triangle and what components were needed to make the campfire started. When they added more fuel to the fire and realized that it wasn't the issue, they started talking about the other components of fire triangle and what else was needed. It was a really good real life learning moment for the students.

What would you do with the $25,000?

I would spend it on new chemistry sets, we have none in our school. I would also purchase new microscopes we only have two working ones in our school. We are a charter school with only 64 students but are unable to properly teach chemistry or biology due to lack of funding and supplies, I spend my own personal money to get supplies for our lessons.