"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson 
I love working with children, and I love to make a real difference. I believe each and every child has the potential to bring something unique and special to the world. I will help children to develop their potential by believing in them as capable individuals. I will assist children in discovering who they are, so they can express their own opinions and nurture their own ideas. I have a vision of a world where people learn to respect, accept, and embrace the differences between us, as the core of what makes life so fascinating. My classroom will be a caring, safe, and equitable environment where each child can blossom and grow. I will allow children to become responsible members of our classroom community by using strategies such as class meetings, positive discipline, and democratic principles. I believe that positive attitudes are essential to learning, and that the job of the teacher is to foster these attitudes in students – to help them become confident, motivated and self-sufficient learners. I love being with people who have positive attitudes. Positive and successful teachers not only make the student think, but they make the student want to think. They pose challenges to the student. In showing children how to become responsible for themselves as well as their own learning, I am giving them the tools to become successful in life, to believe in themselves, and to love themselves.
Teaching is a lifelong learning process of learning about new philosophies and new strategies, learning from the parents and community, learning from colleagues, and especially learning from the children. Children have taught me to open my mind and my heart to the joys, the innocence, and the diversity of ideas in the world. Because of this, I will never forget how to smile with the new, cherish the old, and laugh with the children.
Sincerely,
Lacey Lee Averett Ard
Hammond Eastside Magnet School
"IT TAKES A WORLD OF DIFFERENCES
TO MAKE A DIFFERENT WORLD"