I became a teacher for two primary reasons. First and foremost is because of my fifth-grade teacher who took a very shy and introverted girl and made her feel special and important. I decided to earn my Master of Education degree after working in the corporate world and seeing a great disparity in the values I was brought up with and the values demonstrated by both consumers and businesses. My father always tells me that if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. So, I enrolled in graduate school to become a teacher. In the last 18 years as an educator, I've striven to make each student understand their uniqueness and importance while hopefully providing a model of a person who knows their values and honors them each day. I chose social studies because history is a great love of mine and easier to sell than Shakespeare (another love of mine). I firmly believe that it is the relationship and mutual respect between teacher and student that is the key to excellent teaching, not the subject matter. I always want to learn about each student, their interests and their strengths, because once we understand and respect each other, anything is possible.