Not many people can say they found inspiration in a television commercial, but Rhonda Mosley can.

“The first time I ever saw the TV commercial stating Troy University’s motto, ‘Educate the mind to think, the heart to feel, the body to act,’ I realized that is the exact motto I strive to live by as an educator,” Mosley says.

Mosley is currently a sixth grade reading and language arts teacher at Robertsdale Elementary.

She spent her first two years in Baldwin County teaching fourth and sixth grade students at Orange Beach Elementary. Prior to moving to Baldwin County in July of 2012, she taught 20 years in the Covington County School System in Andalusia.

Mosley says she wants make a difference in the world by teaching her students both inside and outside of her classroom.

“I want students to understand that I care about them as individuals, and I want to have a positive impact on each one of them as a whole individual and not just in the area of academics, “ she says.

Mosley says she had several teachers during her childhood who invested themselves in her life outside of the classroom.

As tragedies befell her family — First when her father passed away while she was in the second grade and again in the eighth grade when her family’s house burned to the ground — Mosley says her teachers reached out to her family to offer help and support.

“Not only were they concerned about my wellbeing and success as a student in their classrooms, they were genuinely concerned about me as a human being,” Mosley says. “I truly believe the empathy and concern shown to me by my own teachers in elementary and junior high school helped me confirm my career choice of becoming an elementary teacher.”

Mosley says those teachers also inspired her to be an active member of the community outside of her school.

“I have taught Sunday school classes, Vacation Bible School classes, served as preschool choir director and I was a member of the children’s activities committee,” she says. “I eagerly served as a 4-H leader for 18 years.”

After all these years of teaching, Mosley says her favorite thing about teaching remains working with each individual student to help them discover which teaching method works best for them.

“The way I execute my lesson plans to accommodate students' diverse learning styles is an example of the passion I have to help each child be successful,” Mosley says. “I try several different ways of teaching a concept in hopes that one of the ways of explaining it will ‘stick with’ the students.”

Name: Rhonda Mosley

School: Robertsdale Elementary School

Subject(s) taught: Sixth grade; reading and language arts

Something interesting about yourself: My husband and I own a Harley Davidson motorcycle and we ride almost every weekend and participate in various benefits to raise money for things such as the Ronald McDonald House charities.