Apopka, Fla. — A+ Teacher Rosalind Lamphere knows firsthand the opportunities that education can provide. She says, “My goal is to make them want to come to school and want to learn and also teach them to take ownership of their own education, being responsible for their education.”

What You Need To Know

When Lamphere is busy teaching, she makes the rounds in her classroom interacting with her third-graders at Apopka Elementary school.

Lamphere says it is important that her students also get the time to work together. She adds, “They like to learn from each other and then there are more ideas for them to work with than just me, so it’s important for them to be able to collaborate.”

While she really enjoys teaching, it was not her first career choice.

Before teaching, Lamphere spent a decade or so working in medical billing but decided she needed a change. She adds, “I really enjoyed it so much that I decided to go back and complete my college education I started many, many moons ago and decided to get my teaching degree.”

Teaching has become her passion.

Lamphere adds, “There’s a lot of things I like. My favorite thing is when a student has been working for some time with a particular skill and they finally get it and you can usually tell when they get it before they tell you because their eyes usually light up and they usually smile and they give you that, ‘Oh!’ and then you know they did finally understand whatever it was that you were teaching them.”

The atmosphere created in Lamphere’s class is important to her. She wants it to always be a safe space where students think positive and are not afraid of making mistakes. She utilizes unique teaching techniques so that her students are having fun but also learning.

Lamphere adds, “As I teach them that every day you can learn something. It doesn’t matter if you’re in school or not, you’re always learning. Learning is a lifelong experience. It never ends. Besides the standards that I’m teaching them, one thing that I keep telling them over and over is how important their education is and how their education is their future.”