Any good teacher knows how important it is to connect with students and understand our culture.

If we all understood we can learn from both older and younger people, then we'd have a better world.

My family joke that I'm really a very senior person who accidentally happens to be 11.

Any good teacher knows how important it is to connect with students and understand our culture.

Our words can have power that we don't think we have in everyday life - anyone can make a difference.

Students read for tests and because their parents ask them to, but I think it's very important to tell children that you can read for fun, too, and to understand human spirit. It builds empathy.

Hoping to instill my love of learning in other children, I taught my first class at a local elementary school the year my first book, 'Flying Fingers,' debuted; since then, I have spoken at hundreds of schools, classrooms and conferences around the world.