Andrea Johnson is passionate about teaching English to instill in students the reading, writing, and communication skills they need to achieve inside and outside the classroom. From her own experience, she knows an inspiring English teacher is a catalyst for students improving critical-thinking skills, working creatively to solve problems, demonstrating growth in reading and writing skills, and learning to communicate effectively – all skills necessary for success in the 21st Century workforce. Johnson believes her greatest contribution to the education of her students is loving them unconditionally and modeling an enthusiastic love for learning. Her students know she loves them and wants them to be successful, so she’s able to engage them in learning, and more importantly, she’s able to inspire them to discover how they will show up in the world. She accomplishes this by teaching a variety of literary works, infusing infectious enthusiasm into what she teaches, purposefully teaching students how to engage in civil discourse, and frequently communicating to students that rigorous content is proof she loves them and wants them to succeed. As a senior capstone project, she teaches students to create an online portfolio of workplace readiness skills, certifications, and documents, which they use upon graduation. Johnson’s ultimate goal is to help students discover their voice, understand their life story, and determine how they’ll communicate with the world around them. Reading well, writing well, communicating well, engaging in civil discourse, exploring human’s capacity for compassion – these are things Johnson seeks to inspire in her students.