LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Celeste Ochal was nominated anonymously.

In Ms. Ochal's classroom, the first step she takes to create a positive classroom environment is building relationships with her students and their parents. She believes that getting to know her students' strengths, weaknesses, interests, and concerns helps her not only build great relationships but also ensures that the students feel safe and have a secure space at school. To promote positivity, she and her students sing songs that inspire them, take breaks to just "talk" about things, get exercise, and do yoga to give their brains a break.

Ms. Ochal also has many classroom incentives that the students love. Outside of receiving points for following essential agreements that the students set, students enjoy visiting the treasure box, earning a lottery ticket with a special prize, and even using the claw machine. Ms. Ochal celebrates exceptional achievements by students, whether these are extracurricular activities, accomplishments made at home, or in school. She praises and acknowledges things that students have done. Students are happy and eager to learn and be in class.

Ms. Ochal's achievements include maintaining positive and consistent communication with classroom parents. She has a 100% approval rating on a classroom survey from students, who find her to be supportive and approachable. They feel like she provides a safe environment and genuinely cares about them. She has implemented a classroom behavior management system that has resulted in a 95% decrease in office referrals and incident reports. She has increased reading and math MAPS scores. Ms. Ochal also serves as the team lead for her second-grade peers.