Jeffrey Rehbine

Connect Tell us why you became a teacher

I was inspired by the way my 6th grade teacher, Mr. Sprague, treated students with adult respect. Many people were telling me I was "good with kids" when volunteering in inner city Chicago. Lastly, I wanted to equip kids with better skills than I had, and make learning so fun and fascinating that it no longer felt like work to them.

Tell us about your most memorable teaching experience

Every spring after the snow melts I take the students out to remove all of the trash on campus collected over the winter. We then organize the types of trash, count and collate the data, and look for patterns. Next, each student adopts a piece of trash to research. They find out what effect their litter would have as it breaks down into the soil and water in the environment. Finally they write an informational narrative personifying their trash, it's life story from creation to litter.

What would you do with the $25,000?

I would return to the orphanage school campus in Zambia that I helped to build in 2016 and bring my daughter Lilah. While there, we'd share messages of hope, give away copies of my novel, and leave a gift of remaining money. The remaining amount would go toward building my small publishing business with more books and materials to motivate kids and adults to do remarkable things.