Tyler Mogilefsky

Tell us why you became a teacher

I became a teacher because a teacher believed in me. My father passed away, my mother was doing her best, but I had a teacher who came early, stayed late, and made sure that I knew that someone cared about me. The opportunity to provide that for a single other human was enough reason for me to pursue a career in education. It has been, and always will be, about the kids. My philosophy on education is simple: All kids can learn, and all kids matter. That is why I teach.

Tell us about your most memorable teaching experience

My most memorable teaching experience comes from teaching middle school science. After a week of teaching the scientific method, generating good, testable questions, researching past examples, formulating a hypothesis, understanding how to set up an appropriate test, and what accurate data analysis looked like, we were finally ready to test how many rubber bands it took to make a watermelon implode. What a great, hands-on opportunity it was, and former students still talk about it today!

What would you do with the $25,000?

My parent teacher organization has raised $19,000 dollars for playground renovations. I would use part of the $25,000 to aid in that renovation project, and some of the funds, I would use to bolster our "Morning Meeting" where students have access to different STEAM activities, coloring, reading, and puzzles to do before school starts in the morning. These funds would have a greater impact than we may ever know!