 For more than a decade, Horace Mann has sponsored the NEA Foundation Awards for teaching excellence. Because we know how important and deserving it is to shine a light on outstanding teachers who make a difference in their students' lives and who continue to elevate the role. So please join me in congratulating and honoring five individuals who have been singled out by their peers for going above and beyond and becoming this year's Horace Mann Award recipients. There's no other job outside that of a parent that has the power and the potential to move students in a positive direction. There was a term I learned in my undergrad, the Latin term for guardian, and it's called inlocoparentis, which literally means in place of the parent. And so that's what I see myself as. Six and a half hours every day I stand in place of the parent. Wouldn't it be boring if we all looked the same, acted the same, spoke the same language, right? It wouldn't be very fun. So before school even begins in the summer, she goes to every single one of her students' homes to visit and meet with their families to figure out what their culture is, who they are, where they come from, what their values are, what their beliefs are, and how she can better help. Because she takes the time to get to know each student and their family and she develops and designs their lessons specifically for those students, her students have such a great opportunity with a teacher like that to be very successful in life. We have, including English, 18 languages spoken in this school, a very high number of frame-reduced lunch recipients and bringing your A-game means that you need to go above and beyond. I said yesterday, the conversation's not done, right? This involves me because you're my kids. This is our school, this is our community, this is our family in this classroom. That's the first question I ask at every home visit, is tell me what's great about your kid and I get to hear them brag about their own child and for a few moments when I've just met them, I see their child the way they see their child. You know, therefore, while my daughter had some struggles and some home things that affected her at school or emotions, Ms. Galavies helped to empower my daughter, not only educating but helping her problems solve, her grades improve, her behavior improve, her overall functioning at the school had improved and she was happy, it felt safe. That's one of the areas that she is a teacher leader in that just how she treats her students. She holds them accountable when she holds them accountable with love and she holds them accountable where they work together. Sonia is passionate about giving every student an equal and high quality education. She's passionate about demonstrating to them that they are valued and important part of society as a whole. And she does it with love. She is Mama G in her room to her kids and they will do anything for her and they will work so hard and they know that she's going to advocate for them. And she's the kind of teacher that when a student is 35 years old they're going to come back and look for her and thank her for what she did at their elementary school.