Irene Morales came to her Somerset Elementary classroom through tenacity and hard work. She worked at the school as a full-time substitute and classroom aide while she studied to become a teacher. As an 8-year-old migrant non-English speaking student, she enrolled at the same elementary school in Somerset ISD where she teaches today. "I tell my students, when they come to my bi-lingual classroom not speaking English, 'I was one of you. I came to school here from Mexico when I was eight but we didn't have a bi-lingual classroom. I just had to do the best I could.'"

She empathizes with her students and she sets her expectations high. "You set the bar high, you encourage, you are consistent, you help them believe in themselves, and you do it every day. You have to be dedicated to what you do. They can do it; my students know the meaning of perseverance." She celebrates their successes, large and small, and each student's success is a personal victory for her. She instills in her students the drive to succeed.

Her results have been spectacular. Many of her students each year move out of the bi-lingual program into the mainstream English classroom. They move, however with not just English fluency, but they also have higher level thinking skills, because she insists that they apply what they have learned across the disciplines. "Once you've applied what you've learned, you'll use it the rest of your life," she maintains. Her motto in the classroom is "Good is the enemy of Great." She knows that if you accept good as a result, you don't have room for great. "No matter what you do," she says, "work to greatness."