Talk about going above and beyond. Not only does Sherry Hicks teach technology, collaborate with teachers, and attend all grade-level meetings to ensure she's on top of the curriculum, but she's also personally invested in the lives of her largely minority, high-poverty, Title-I student population. It's an accomplishment that's earned the certified media specialist at Striplin Elementary School in Gadsden, AL her district's Teacher of the Year Award—which gives her a shot at winning at the state level next month. SLJ caught up with Hicks to talk about what motivates this dynamo and what inspires her to keep going. You obviously love your job. What makes it so rewarding? Teaching is more than a career choice. It's an opportunity to invest in the lives of others. As a teacher, I have the opportunity—the power—to place a permanent fingerprint on the life of each student who enters my classroom. It's one they'll wear for a lifetime. With such power comes a responsibility to be a teacher of much more than the curriculum. In my classroom students will observe firsthand, by my words and my actions, those life lessons that I value, just as I did with my teachers. With failure or inspiration, I will model lessons of work ethic, respect for self and others, kindness, compassion, honesty, patience, and honor. Every child will take with them a small invisible piece of all that I am as a teacher. My aspiration is to emulate the great teachers of my life—those whose print I still wear. So, if I make can make an impact, even a small one, that will somehow make the lives of my students better, I'm content. It's not settling for mediocrity, but an achievement of quiet greatness. I know that each one of my students will make their own print on the world. And though that print will be their own, it'll also be a bit of me, and all those teachers who went before me. What a great legacy my job affords me. Now I understand why you say you're in a position of power. My motivation to teach comes from the belief that teaching was both a noble and powerful ambition. For me, learning was exciting, but to teach—that was power—power to create change in the lives of others for good. Over the years, I came to the realization that this power had nothing to do with the number of zeros on a paycheck or the size of an office. It didn't stem from money, force, or fear, but from the ability to change the world through inspiration, motivation, and knowledge. This power had to do with knowledge and the ability to have a profound impact on the lives of others, and in turn, change the world we live in. Then I discovered an important truth: the power of a great teacher is a mighty thing. What's the significance that you—a school librarian—won this teacher of the year award? As a public school librarian, I feel it offers validity and positive recognition for the work that we do as library media specialists and educators. It resounds the message that our contribution as library media specialists is worthy of merit. Tell us one way you've touched the lives of your students in more ways than most librarians have. For the past 14 years, I've kept a stash of clothing, coats, hats, and gloves in my office to share with my students. As I assist with bus duty each day, or as students come in and out of the library, I try to be attuned to children who arrive or depart without a coat, and allow them to take one from my office. My daughters, now 27 and 30, have joined me in this endeavor with their generosity—shopping, begging, and bartering for items that might be helpful to students in need. You must have an extremely close relationship with your students? Over the years, I've had various opportunities to visit my students and their families in their homes in the event of illness, accident, or death. I've learned that barriers of socio-economic level, race, age, and language are lessened in the presence of human compassion. Even small gestures of kindness—like food or hospital visits—speak loudly without saying a word. I witness the supernatural on a daily basis as I—a most ordinary person—attempt to accomplish extraordinary things, under impossible conditions. I've celebrated the joy of success with a student that others have written off as being un-teachable. I've witnessed the light of inspiration in the face of a student with no self worth. And I've watched the power of human compassion comfort the sadness of neglect, abandonment, abuse, and even death.

Hicks with some of her students.

What's the most important role you play for your students? Enthusiasm for learning and teaching is contagious. I've discovered that my success as a teacher has less to do with my college degree than my ability to share knowledge and skills with a variety of learners. When I approach teaching with an attitude of challenge, rather than routine, I find that it sparks an excitement and interest of even the most reluctant learners. What's your goal? To be a perpetuator of independent learning that leaves [students] wanting more. I find encouragement daily in the voices of students who complain that class time has come to an end and a sweet reward in hearing, "We get to come to the library today!" What are some of the biggest contributions you've made to the kids you serve? Although the final outcome can't be measured as of yet, I'm confident that my greatest contribution to education is my vestige in the lives of my students. My aspiration has been to use each teaching opportunity to share knowledge, to motivate, to inspire, to guide, and to develop self-confidence of my students. My accolades, my position, and my career, are of little value apart from that which has somehow helped me become a better teacher to my students. I've worked with the understanding that even one life changed for the better is a noble thing. For that one could become the snowflake that causes the avalanche witnessed by the world. I am both proud and humbled to say that my legacy as a teacher has no limit, no boundary to the distance or time. My role as teacher has allowed me opportunity to prod and challenge the gifted to soar, and give without reservation to the least of these. Though many of my contributions to education remain invisible, they'll live in the hearts and lives of my students. I have a legacy that extends far beyond my classroom. It's best summarized in the words of Henry Brooks Adams: "A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." Has any student in particular left a lasting memory with you? I always enjoy those sweet little souls that enter the library excited to share about how much they loved their latest read—the student who devours good writing as though it were a scrumptious dessert, the ones that make a teacher's heart sing. I enjoyed one such student all the way from kindergarten through fifth grade. However, in fourth grade she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and began the battle for her life. Throughout her two-year battle, I would go to her home, and to the Children's Hospital in Birmingham, always with a book in my hand, so that we could read together. As she became weaker and weaker, I would read aloud to her. Sometimes she would smile and say, "Just one more page...please..." A bond developed with both she and her family that etched a place in my heart and in my life forever. I was both saddened and honored to receive the call from her family asking me to come to the hospital to be with her and with them during the last moments of her life. For years I had struggled with the language barriers between myself and her family, always asking one of the children to translate. But on that day, no translator was needed as I watched a mother say goodbye to her first-born child. I have since had the opportunity to teach all of her siblings—each one is special to me because we shared the bond that changed us all. And sometimes when I read one of "her favorites," I almost expect to hear a little voice say, "Just one more page...please..."