There 3.1 million public school teachers in the U.S., 86,997 public school teachers in Michigan alone. Teaching is a misunderstood profession, for some people undermine the amount of work and dedication it put into classes and students.

“I think teaching has one of the largest professions in the United States, but we really don’t celebrate ourselves,” English teacher Mrs. Kelley Cusmano said. “We say it’s for the kids and that’s really important, but until we start to take ourselves seriously, than other people may not take us seriously.”

A news report from Scholastic and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, reported on average teachers spend about 53 hours a week invested in their class. Mrs. Cusmano is involved in the conference Elevating and Celebrating Effective Teaching (ECET), which plans to acknowledge the exceptional Michigan teachers.

“The goal is that you are surrounded by this elite group of people, so the hope is that, there is three different sections, grow, collaborate, and lead,” Mrs. Cusmano said. “It is going to hook you up with different teachers around the state that are amazing at what they do. So you can get ideas to bring back to your district. Also you learn different strategies that you can bring to your district, and learn different ways of teaching. So it is like another conference, with just a little twist.”