Nick Hamilton, Audelia Creek Elementary teacher: Youtube.com

Nick Hamilton, Audelia Creek Elementary teacher: Youtube.com

Though the recent survey says some Richardson ISD students feel unchallenged, this impressive video, featuring interviews with STAR-recognized RISD teachers, highlights plenty of teachers who inspire, challenge and care.

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Several of the teachers featured in this video mention the socioeconomic disadvantages with which many RISD/Lake Highlands students live. These teachers and RISD programs such as AVID make it possible for this generation of students to break free from poverty cycles in which they frequently find themselves.

For example, Nick Hamilton at Audelia Creek Elementary in Lake Highlands keeps kids engaged by creating a “weird and fun” classroom. For students whose “world is the apartment complex they live in,” field trips and creative education show them how much more is out there for them, he adds.

Christina Fuller, a physical education teacher at Lake Highlands Elementary says teaching is her passion. And it shows in her action. “Just because this is a gym, doesn’t mean the teaching stops,” she says. Watch how she uses physical education to plant the idea of college in the minds of 4th and 5th graders.

Every May for the past several years, we have written a cover story about graduating high school seniors who overcame seemingly insurmountable odds to succeed academically. Links to some of those stories provided below. It should be mentioned that these amazing kids would not have such remarkable stories without the teachers who supported them and believed in them along the way.

2014 “No excuses: The power and persistence of tomorrow’s leaders

2013 “Kids these days

2012 “Never, never, never give up: high school seniors who beat the odds

2011 “Test of strength (with video)

2010 “Measure of Success”