DELTONA, Fla. — Math can be fun. That's the message A+ Teacher Michael Chase wants all his students to know.

He teaches at Deltona High School in Deltona and says, "So they're taking these courses to hopefully earn college credit and truly for the majority of them it's for fun. We want to joke around. We want to learn the material."

It's that spirit that led to Chase being selected as an A+ Teacher. 

He's well known for his innovative style of teaching calculus and statistics. He also oversees several clubs and school organizations. 

Just like in life, he teaches his students that no problem is too hard to solve.

"The one course that most of them thought that they were going to hate and it turns out to be the one class that they love the most," he says.

Chase can relate. He was a sophomore at Deltona High School when his answer to one simple question changed everything.

"They said, ‘What do you want to be?’ and I said, 'I want to be a math teacher at Deltona High School,’” recalled Chase.

That life-changing encounter came to be and is now coming full circle after one of his former students recently contacted him to tell him how his class changed everything for him. 

The math teacher shared, "He said, 'You know Mr. Chase I want to let you know I became a teacher.’ He said, ‘You know I had a safe spot at the school the entire time that I was there and that safe spot was always your classroom so I wanted to give students that same safe spot that you gave me.’"

Chase doesn't take himself too seriously and wants his students to know the lesson is to learn but to have fun doing it.

He says, "You know we'll make mistakes together. We're going to have fun doing it. And we're going to be learning during that entire process."