[DJay23]

As a teacher, thanks for saying that. I teach in a very supportive district, but I've had people, friends and relatives, make the old jokes and it gets old. I'm definitely not in it for the money, I do it because I love helping kids to become responsible independent thinkers. I honestly feel love for the kids I have in class, I miss them when they leave me for the next grade, and it makes my week when one or two of them come back to visit.

I was inspired to be a teacher by 2 I had in high school. My Anatomy and Physiology teacher my senior year had so much passion for his subject and just thought it was so cool that he got to show it off to us, I was amazed by him. It didn't hurt that I loved the subject too.

The other teacher was an algebra teacher I had when I first moved to PA from Colorado. It was the 4th move for my family in a little less than 5 years. She was known as a ball buster who would call you out if you didn't know your stuff and demanded perfection. One day after school she was helping me get caught up to where they were when I moved there, I broke down, I think because of the stress of moving so much had finally caught up with me. She was the nicest, most sincerely compassionate person I've ever been around in that moment. She didn't let me off the hook in class because of that, but my perspective of her was so different from my classmates that I requested to have her the next year too.

I'm 10 1/2 years into my career. If I can have an affect on one kid like these two mentors had on me, I'll consider it all a success.