🏆 A Moment of Impact: What Winning the 2025 Teacher Leader Award Taught Me About Resilience

This year, I was honored with the 2025 Teacher Leader Impact Award—a recognition that brought joy and deep reflection. While the award bears my name, the truth is that it represents the collective heart of every educator, parent, and advocate who shows up daily for our children.

This blog isn’t just a celebration—it’s a reflection on what it takes to lead, to keep showing up, and to do the inner and outer work of building resilient kids and thriving classrooms.

💡 What Leadership Looks Like

I didn’t step into teaching for the accolades. I became a teacher because I was the child who needed support, guidance, and belief. Over time, I’ve realized that leadership isn’t about being in the front of the room—it’s about standing in the gap. It’s about:

• Having the courage to speak up when it’s easier to stay quiet.

• Advocating when others are overwhelmed.

• Modeling hope in the face of challenge.

Leadership in education doesn’t always come with applause. It comes as a reassuring nod from a colleague, a parent who feels seen, or a student who finally believes they can succeed. This award affirms that those moments matter more than we realize.

🔄 Living the RISE Framework

The foundation of Rising Resilience is the RISE Framework:
Reflect, Identify, Stand, and Emerge.
This year, that wasn’t just theory—it was my reality.

• I reflected on what wasn’t working in the classroom, with students, and within the system itself.

• I identified the behavioral, emotional, and academic gaps and looked deeper into the why.

• I made a choice to Stand—for collaboration, for mental health, for consistent expectations, and for underserved voices.

• And through it all, I Emerged as a stronger, more aligned version of myself—one committed to using my voice and experience to help others rise, too.

RISE isn’t a destination—it’s a cycle. One that pushes us to evolve as educators, leaders, and partners in our students’ growth.

🌱 It’s Not Just About Me

This award belongs to:

• Every teacher who stays late to mentor a student.

• Every parent who reaches out instead of giving up.

• Every student who walks into class each day with invisible battles.

• Every colleague who says, “Let’s figure this out together.”

It is a symbol of hope—for what’s possible when we believe in the power of reflection, collaboration, and action.

📣 Using the Platform to Serve a Bigger Mission

This recognition isn't an end—it's a launchpad. My mission moving forward is to continue building bridges between parents and teachers, and to use my voice to advocate for systems that truly serve children.

That’s why I created the Resilient Kids, Thriving Classrooms podcast—an ongoing conversation centered around transforming behavior, communication, and partnership between home and school.

Because when parents and teachers rise together, students thrive.

🎯 Join the Movement

This is your invitation to be part of the Rising Resilience movement:

✅ Subscribe to the podcast to get strategies that make a real difference
✅ Share this post with someone who needs encouragement right now
✅ Tag me @RisingResilience and tell me how YOU are standing in the gap for kids
✅ Reflect on this: What challenge have you faced—and how did you emerge from it stronger?

Let’s continue to Reflect.
Let’s boldly Identify what’s broken.
Let’s Stand for what’s right.
And let’s Emerge—together.

💛 Because resilient kids are built by resilient adults.