 Teachers deserve our utmost gratitude for all that they do every day to improve the future of our students. Every year we honor outstanding educators for instructional excellence and advocacy for the teaching profession with the NEA Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence. Guided by a distinguished national panel, we selected five educators from a pool of state nominees for this prestigious national award. Listen to what they have to say about their experience, learn how students benefit from the program and prepare to be inspired. It's important for educators to be recognized for the work, the time, the passion and their sheer energy that they put into their teaching profession. Across the country, teachers are not getting that recognition that they truly deserve and to have a foundation that not only sees the need for that but also recognizes that the wonderful work that these teachers do is certainly a boost for our public schools. This program definitely forces us out of our box, out into a more public view so that we can advocate for our students, advocate for our professions, show what is best teaching practices and what's happening out there and making it more real. This award highlights my students' ability to do anything. I work with preschoolers and they're open minds and open hearts. They want to do everything. They want to try everything. They are physicists. They are artists. They are biologists. They are explorers. And it gives them the chance to show what they can do and for me to share those wonderful things that they're learning. I'm a special education teacher so for my students, a lot of times their world stops within the classroom. A lot of times they don't have the ability to see past what's beyond their town or what's beyond their own community and the fact that here's a national recognition that's coming to them and that they're getting such great rewards such as video digital training in the classroom, opportunities that they may never have experienced before and they now see that, you know what, there's more out there for them and that there's a world of possibilities that they can certainly achieve and grab hold of and hopefully it's an inspiration for them to fulfill their dreams. My students are benefiting from the award in ways they never think of. For example, to be sitting here right now, I had to spend hours thinking about what it meant to be a teacher. The application process, for example, involves writing essays and so forth, like we ask kids to do. And in the process of writing essays and in the process of thinking about what I believe in my philosophies, I learned a lot about being a better teacher. And then by coming together in an awards format and interacting with teachers from all over the country, I learned lots of things. When I go back to my classroom, I am a better teacher for my students. I'm more globally connected and I'm also more aware of some of the struggles that are going on around the country, not just in my own neck of the woods. This award enhances the profession by highlighting what accomplished teachers do, their commitment to their students, to helping others learn, other teachers learn through professional development, through collaboration, through reflection, and talking about what it is we do together. I truly believe that the most powerful tool that a teacher can have are other teachers. And the fact that all of these award winners are coming together from all areas of the country is such a powerful learning opportunity because now we can network with other teachers across the country and learn from them. The application process, starting with the essay, was a really good opportunity to reflect on everything you've done in your career. At first the five questions didn't seem to relate to each other, and as I continued to write and continued to reflect, they started to come together and it was a really great opportunity, kind of a professional development opportunity, just to really think about everything that you've done and everything that your colleagues have done and what you've done as a school and as a district. I think every single teacher should have to complete an application process like that on a regular basis as part of the professional development. I learned about myself by doing that. Go for it. There's a reason why you're a teacher. There's a reason why you love what you do. And when you're filling out that application, just let your heart lead you. Let your passion be your guide and be yourself and look back to those things that you love about education.