PORT ORANGE, Fla. — In Melissa Tse’s Creekside Middle School class, every moment of learning counts.

“You have to have a lot of different traits to be an effective teacher — hardworking, patience, diligence, knowledge,” she says.

Tse has her students work together in groups.

“We have just started a new unit with the essential question about what people will risk to be free,” she says.

In her advanced language arts class, students learn about abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass, Confederate Gen. William Steele, Underground Railroad leader Harriet Tubman and former president Abraham Lincoln.

She expects her students to study hard and dig deeper. 

“Today they’re kind of circulating through six different stations to learn about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad Pre-Civil War,” she says.

Teaching for 29 years now, Tse knows how to keep her students engaged and interested.

“Every once in a while, I like to do these group activities where they get a chance to collaborate and talk with each other," she says. "It gets them up and moving. Middle school kids like to be on the move a little bit. They don’t like to sit for too long.”

Tse says seeing her students learn and grow is the best reward.

“The results are that their tests scores are really good and their grades are good, and so, that’s what I’m proud of is that I know I’m moving them and they’re making progress by the end of the year,” she says.

“That’s it. It just gets you deep, and it makes it worth it each and every day to come back another day.”