WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. — A+ Teacher Lisa Sumrall is passionate about cultivating a genuine love of learning and helps her students at Choices in Learning Elementary Charter school build a solid foundation.

“As a kindergarten teacher, you have a front-row seat to witness the incredible growth and development of young minds. Through teaching, I get to nurture creativity, curiosity, and confidence in each child," Sumrall said. "Seeing their progress is a constant source of inspiration. Each milestone reached with my students reinforces the importance of my role as an educator.”

She said there is something really special about Choices in Learning Elementary Charter school in Winter Springs.

“We are a cooperative learning school, so they think care, share and speak together and bounce answers off each other and they learn from each other that way,” she said.

Sumrall likes this approach so much that she enrolled her own three children in the school where she teaches.

“They’re like little sponges, so what you give them, they will just take, and they will grow with it," she said. "For example, there’s so much higher level questions with math and reading and so again, at ages 5 and 6, they’re able to do it.”

Sumrall likes to challenge them.

“Just keep reaching — reaching because they’re so capable,” she said.

She said creating the right atmosphere is critical.

“They’re here to have fun, but yet they’re here to grow together. And I also like creating a class family because we live together. We’re here every day. We spend more time together than sometimes with our families,” she said.

Sumrall said her third-grade teacher Ms. Watson inspired her to choose a career in the classroom.

“She cared about us so much that she invited us to her wedding. She just made learning so much fun, and she just inspired me to want to change lives as well because she changed mine drastically,” Sumrall expressed.

It is that solid foundation she wants to make sure her students get, too.

“That’s what I preach to my kids here. You can be whatever you want to be, but you have to be able to read. You have to be able to write. Some will say, ‘Oh, I want to play baseball or even football.’ Well, you need to be able to read the plays. We talk about that even at this age because they desire, and they have goals themselves,” Sumrall explained.

Those are goals that Sumrall wants each of them to reach.