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. I think about what makes Carol special and I believe that it is the simple ability to foster and create and nurture a love of learning in her students. Oh look how is that NEA? Hey, Tori, do you see how you have that different color NEA's in the middle of that? Do you remember? I know a lot of her members. Why are they the loose green? We have some good pictures, so awesome pictures. Teaching is challenging but working together with her. Oh my gosh, there's a bug on it and even doing the video. It's fun. Totally do that. That is like so cool. To me, she's far above your average teacher. She wants her children to have a positive experience. She wants them to look forward to coming to her class. She's the type of teacher that you want to have teaching your kids. I wish I had her as my first grade teacher. For too long we've let others outside our profession define who we are and Carol is pushing back against that and that's one of the things I like about her because it's time that we stand up and we say, you know, this is who we are, this is what we do. We are professionals and we practice it every day. I didn't decide to come and teach her until a little bit later. I actually had a career in the Air Force first and I did some other things. But I kept finding that I really loved children and I loved being in the classroom. And so after a number of different things, I said, yeah, I need to try out teaching and I'm so glad I did. I really have some good guys that are popular. Something that drives me and helps me be passionate about what I'm doing is really I can go back to my parents. My parents were passionate about what they did. In fact, my mother was a schoolteacher, which was one of the reasons I wasn't going to be a schoolteacher, but I am now. And they passed that on to me that, you know, when you do something, you should do it to the best of your ability. And I think that makes a difference. I have a child with special needs and as a parent, you don't want to see your children struggle. And my child does struggle and Mrs. Bauer was able to look at my daughter through my eyes and individualize the curriculum in order for her to be successful. So as a mother, that makes me very happy that she's willing to do extra for her. Well, not just for her, I've seen her do it with all her kids, but for my own, I've been able to see her do extra. And that just makes me feel, I'm okay. It just makes me feel great. One last thing, what do you want to say to Mrs. Bauer? I think that she's a good teacher. She's the best teacher I could ever have. Well, I first want to tell her that she's done a great job and that she's probably the best teacher I've had and that I will ever have. One of the most important lessons I'd like my students to go away with is to become lifelong learners. That everyone has a story to share. Each one of them are important. Each one of them has gifts. Each one of them really made an impact on my life. And I hope that they go forward and make impacts on other people's lives. Five, four, three, two, one, let's go!