I needed to lead my team. They were relying on me, and I had to win it for them.

It's really unfair to our young teachers and discouraging them from entering the profession, particularly in the most challenging teaching environments where they're most needed.

I would say in many ways it's not a good time to be a teacher. Going to teach at a school identified as needing improvement is very challenging. In a sense, your school has been tarred. Teachers are blamed.

You can be sure there will be a teacher in every classroom, but how well prepared that teacher is is questionable when there's such a disparity between supply and demand.

We play against each other all the time. We compete hard against each other. He makes me compete hard against him.

This win means a lot. We were tired of losing to them. We needed to win.