ORLANDO, Fla. — An Orange County A+ teacher literally stumbled into teaching and, nearly nine years later, she's never looked back until now. 

One-on-one attention is a top priority in Amy Swederski's U.S. government class at Freedom High School in Orlando.

She encourages hands-on learning as her students utilize interactive notebooks.

"I use anything in my class where they can do sequencing, routines, and cutting and life skills within content," she said.

It's Swederski's first teaching job.

She said she literally stumbled into teaching. 

"I played tennis in high school which is the weirdest connection and I had a knee injury. My tennis coach was the Special Education P.E. teacher and asked me while I was recovering to help out in her P.E. class," she recalled.

Swederski enjoyed it so much, adding, "I decided I no longer wanted to be a architect and decided to be a teacher."

She credits her former coach Lori Gabriel with the turn around.

"She knew I had something in me to be a teacher that I never saw in myself. Without having her as my coach I'd probably be building houses today," Swederski said.

Now she's following in Gabriel's footsteps as the varsity boys tennis coach at Freedom High School, where she focuses on her students many abilities above all else.

Swederski says, "I think it's just easier to work with kids with special needs because they're true, they're honest, they always put forth their best effort. "

This A+ Teacher wouldn't have it any other way.

She added "My goal is for them to be as independent as possible after they graduate."