Every first Wednesday of the month, a teacher recognizes the work of a co-worker with the “Shared Values” teacher of the month award.

On Nov. 7, 2018, Rachel Kelley, a middle school English teacher at Imagine, got the award from a co-worker, Mr. Robert Bowley, also a teacher at Imagine. But this isn’t her first time getting the award.

“I won my first year, Mr. Ezra Sanchez gave it to me at the end of the year, so I have won once before,” Kelley said.

Kelley teaches only 6th-grade middle school but has taught high school once before.

“I teach 6th grade English and 6th-grade CCR [college, career, and readiness] which is college career readiness,” Kelley said.“Just 6th grade this year, but previously I taught a 9th-grade class too.”

Ms. Kelley loves her kids and even though they can be quite challenging, they are worth her while.

“My kids. I just love how sweet they are and sometimes they can be challenging,” Kelley said. “But it’s always good to like reach that challenging kid-definitely having relationships with the kids and figuring out who they are as people.”

Ms. Kelley has been at Imagine since 2015. She’s loved it ever since and has always wanted to be a teacher ever since she was little and used to play school with her sisters.

“I started my first year teaching,” Kelley said. “This is my third year teaching and I did a part of my internship here too, so that’s how I knew about this school, ‘cause I was with Ms. Boven [counselor at Imagine] and I loved her and she emailed me ‘we have a job opening’ and I applied.  I used to make my sisters play teacher with me-but yeah I never wanted to be anything else”.

Now, here are some random fasts about Ms. Kelley.

“I think I would be a really cool college professor,”Kelley said.

And what she would be if she wasn’t a teacher.

“I would be an event coordinator, as a wedding planner or like a party planner,” Kelley said.

Kelley is a fun and funny teacher to be around. If you ever see her in the halls, say hi, it wouldn’t hurt to.