Cindi Rigsbee, M.Ed., is a veteran teacher with more than 20 years of experience in the classroom. As the 2008 North Carolina Teacher of the Year, she traveled 10,000 miles around her home state speaking to teachers on the impact educators have on their students. Rigsbee writes frequently for teachermagazine.org and has a popular blog called The Dream Teacher (thedreamteacher.blogspot.com). She was one of four finalists for the prestigious 2009 National Teacher of the Year Award.