ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Erin Cardinal is a passionate dance teacher at John Hopkins Middle School.

Though Cardinal said she never envisioned becoming an educator, she is now a Teacher of the Year and was recently recognized by Pinellas County Schools. 

“When I was younger, I never thought I would be a teacher," she said. "I wanted to be a performer. So that was not a focus of mine, so I went and got my degree, joined a company."

When she moved to Tampa, she started her own company and then got her master's in dance education. She's been teaching for 20 years, and it's her seventh year at John Hopkins Middle School.

“We all work very hard to make this a family," she said. "That it’s a place where you can come and make mistakes, you can be creative, you can explore."

She helps her students fine-tune their skills, which allows them to take what they've learned with them to the next level of dance.

“You know what the best for me?" Cardinal asked. "Is that they come back and say they miss middle school. Who misses middle school? So that’s very special that they actually miss their time here."