Among the many challenges teachers face, often the most difficult is how to engage students who seem unreachable, who resist learning activities, or who disrupt them for others. This is also one of the challenges that skilled teachers have some control over. In my nine years of teaching high school, I’ve found that one of the best approaches to engaging challenging students is to develop their intrinsic motivation. Our staff include many of the most talented people with whom I’ve ever worked. Their dedication to their roles, whether directly serving students, or in many other domains, is unparalleled and gives new meaning to the term excellence. Yet, we are never satisfied and believe wholeheartedly in persistent and continued improvement. Our strategic plan, featuring short and long term goals and objectives, is dynamic with frequent updates to reflect the ever changing needs of our students and other populations. Our worst enemies are ignorance, indifference, and apathy. Learning is not something that is done by someone else to you or for you. Learning is not a spectator sport! It is very hard to determine what is important for you to learn and what is necessary for me to teach. Just like a tiny child must first learn to walk and then run, so too are some things that seem unimportant at the time most critical to your development as a person.