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Through this whole process, which has been such an honor, and I'm so
honored to be here with these other amazing educators,
but through this process, it really forced me to reflect kind of on my own
experiences. And I was thinking about what was the -- what kind of
experience that I had that had the greatest impact on me in my
profession and I keep coming back to the story of my own mom
who was, she was a teacher's aid by title,
but absolutely a teacher. A real teacher in every sense of the word.
And I watched her pour her
life into the lives of her students from as long as I
remember. All the way up until -- she did it
three months before her passing. She got ill and passed away about 10 years ago.
She every single day poured into the lives of
those children and when she finally had to quit, she went
fighting. She did not want to leave her students. But when it came time,
the students from that school got together and they created for her
a quilt. And on that quilt, each student -- it was about
120 students from that school -- each student put their
thumb print on that quilt and signed their name next to the thumb print.
And what it was representing, it was
to be a tangible example of the imprint
that she had left on their hearts and the imprint that they
had left on hers. And it was amazing.
And I remember, she would sit there. She had this amazing ability
to see the strength and the greatness in each and every one
of her students. And they felt that. And I remember
her last couple months, she had that quilt with her by her bed and she would rub the fingerprints
of the different students. And when she would see a particular name,
she'd start talking about them. And she'd start talking about her dreams and her hopes
for them. And she really
really inspired me because she really inspired her students
to have a belief that they were here on this earth to
contribute in a major way. And they had a special contribution to make that no one else
could. And even after her passing, letter after letter
and cards came from students that had had her
years before, still talking about the impact that
she had on their lives. And it was at that moment I realized it was
in my second year of teaching, I believe, at the time, and it was at that time that I realized,
"Oh my gosh, this is such important work that we do." And it really
instilled in me the importance of being
an educator and being able to impart that gift of
belief in our students. And the impact that just one teacher can have.
And I'm so honored to be here with so many teachers here tonight
who clearly have had a huge imprint on the lives
of their students. And it's been -- it's challenging
times right now in education, but it's also so exciting.
The last two years have been -- I've been teaching for 14 years and the last two years
the best because of all the amazing things on the horizon
for education. The Common Core they just spoke about where we're
able to put creativity and bring relevance into the students' lives and increase the
rigor. And then the last two years, I've been asked to be a part of
the inclusion teaching program where we're combining general education
and special education. Those students are all coming together
and working together and having an imprint on each other's lives.
It's been absolutely amazing. And I want to thank my
principal Elizabeth B. Hill who always pushes
me into doing these things, way out of my comfort zone.
And I appreciate it because she does. She does push me constantly out of my
comfort zone and I want to thank her for doing that. Dr. Roberts for
bringing these amazing programs to Sac City Unified. My co-teacher
Janelle Mercado who's taught me so much about how to use these
strategies with full inclusion and reach all students. It's been a miraculous
year. My husband, who I love, I love you honey,
and my -- who's always again, he's another pushing me out of my comfort zone.
Constantly. My step kids Trenton and Sophia who
always give me their input on what a good teacher does and does not
do. I get that regularly. Thanks for your help, guys.
And my sisters and my best friends who are here, who are all part of the education
field, ironically, I just want to thank you. And I am really
looking forward, I think, education -- it's a tough time, but it's an exciting time.
We've got some really great things on the horizon. And I look forward to
many more years with all of the other fabulous educators in this room.
Continuing to leave an imprint on many students' lives
as they leave imprints on ours. Thank you.