I became a NYC teacher to inspire and motivate students to strive for success, even in the face of adversity. I believe that the gates of large goals are lined with small accomplishments (Heath and Heath, 2010), and I require students to take ownership of their daily learning through consistent collaboration and continuous assessment. I create lessons that are reachable, specific and incorporate cross-curricular extended opportunities and technology-based instruction, to increase student engagement. There is definitely autonomy through accountability and students should be responsible for taking assessments and using their performance data to identify their specific learning needs. I use data to target and differentiate classroom instruction and meet student learning needs. I consider myself a lead learner among my colleagues. Academic optimism and growth mindset through reflection among peers is important. I collaborate with my colleagues to support their continual growth and improvement as educators.