Not everyone can easily say what inspires them.

But for Michele Bittner, the answer is simple. The kids.

Bittner, a longtime educator at West Penn Elementary School of Tamaqua, uses their daily inspiration to guide, grow and inspire her fifth-grade students.

What goes around, comes around, and she deserves exactly what she’s getting — a chance to become the 2020 Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year.

“I received an email from the Pennsylvania Department of Education that a parent and a colleague both nominated me for the Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year Award,” said Bittner. “I completed an application process, and once I made it to the second round, I had to do a phone interview. I am now in the third phase.”

Bittner is one of 12 finalists from the state. The winner will have a chance to compete for another award at the national level. Any educator who teaches K-12 is eligible to be nominated, but few are selected to be finalists.

“Next week I will teach a lesson in the classroom, videotape that lesson, and send it on to the Pennsylvania Department of Education for scoring,” she said. “At the end of the summer, all of the scores will be compared, and in December, we’ll find out who the actual teacher of the year will be from Pennsylvania.”

And sometimes, what truly goes around, does indeed come around.

“Playing teacher was not something unusual you would find me doing as a child,” said Bittner. “It was natural for me to go into that career. I had some really great teachers that inspired me. Rochelle Evanousky is one of the teachers that I wholeheartedly believe got me to where I am today and is a big part of this award.”

Evanousky was Bittner’s fifth-grader teacher. At the time, neither of them knew they’d be collaborating on many different levels over the years.

“My first memories of Michele were this bubbly, blonde, curly-haired little girl in first grade, who was an outstanding dancer and just a sweet girl and excellent student,” Evanousky said. “She brought life to the classroom as a student.”

Evanousky went from being Bittner’s fifth-grade teacher — to her mentor when Bittner student-taught — to her colleague, when Bittner also became a fifth-grade educator for the Tamaqua Area School District.

“Time went by, and lo and behold, I got student teacher and I found out it’s Michele,” said Evanousky. “I was so thrilled to have her and she was so excited to be on her way to becoming a teacher. We blended seamlessly working together as student-teacher and mentor. Her heart was always in the right place, and her enthusiasm was always over the top. She puts her heart and soul into whatever she does.”

Both educators taught the same grade-level, in the same school district, but in different buildings. “My only disappointment was that we weren’t able to teach together in the same building, that would have been awesome,” Evanousky added.

Bittner knew she wanted to teach since she was in fifth grade, much thanks to Evanousky’s inspiration. “I don’t know that there would be anything else that I would want to do,” Bittner said. “I love what I do and I’m passionate about it.”

Bittner was once the student and aspiring educator sitting in Evanousky’s classroom. Now, thanks to her passion to teach and selfless personality, it’s a safe bet that there will always be new aspiring teachers coming from West Penn Elementary School. Especially after spending a year in Mrs. Bittner’s fifth-grade class.

“Every day is different,” said Bittner. “You walk in every day and you don’t really know what you’re going to have. Those kids, no matter if I walk in in a bad mood, they’re the ones that bring me back to a good mood, just seeing their faces. Even when they’re having bad days, it encourages me even more to be in a good mood and bring them up. It’s the kids, they energize me. I truly believe in the phrase that I’m teaching tomorrow’s future. And I’m going to tell you, our future is very bright. It’s amazing, the things that they can do.”