Living her dream👍

 I am not allowed to forget how I reacted when my daughter first told me she wanted to become a teacher. For all I could think of was how badly paid they were. But to her, it was a family tradition which she would be carrying on.

She received this award on her daughter's birthday! 

And now she has broken many barriers by being named Educator of the Year, twice in 10 years! 

When I was in Colorado for Christmas, she got the news and was in shock as she never dreamed anyone was so rewarded more than once in a lifetime.

But she did it.

When Michele first gave up her stint in the hotel industry to get a teacher's license, her first school was with Coyote Hill Elementary in an upscale and racist suburb of Denver. (Anonymous parents even burnt a cross in front of the school once😡).

There she was the only non-white teacher on staff and naturally there were not 

many minorities, but she felt called to become a role model for the few non- white kids there. 

 That's where she was first named Educator of the Year.

In Colorado, schools get resources from property taxes, so the poorer a neighborhood is, the more neglected their schools are. 

Seeing how many children were being left behind in the poorer neighborhoods, she got a transfer and headed for Village East Elementary School in a high poverty area. There they have homeless kids, orphans and on and on 

 When you listen to her passionate stories about the challenges being faced by families in this kind of environment, you know that's where she will be staying.

A past student hugs her former teacher. She hopes to become a teacher too.

Even after she earned her PhD after years of hard work, she insisted that neither going into administration nor seeking tenure at a university, were her calling so she was staying right where she was needed.

That's commitment, thats focus👏.

Ps. Its spring here.