Teddie Polak is a Social Studies Teacher Leader at DelSesto Middle School in Providence, Rhode Island. He has been teaching middle school for the last 28 years in the Providence Public School District. He is a founding member of the PEAK Academy at DelSesto Middle School when he volunteered to participate and receive training in Personalized Learning using the Summit platform, at the Summit Basecamp in San Francisco, CA. This opportunity broadened his knowledge to incorporate 21st century learning into his classroom to benefit all of his students. As teacher leader, he shares best practices and participates in panel discussions at the school, as well as the district level. He has participated at various conferences including most recently the Innovation Showcase at the Learn Launch Conference, at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston. He believes that workshops and professional learning opportunities help teachers learn and grow and have helped him immensely. However, most important for him is to personally get to know all his students, as it helps him improve his techniques in the classroom. As he gets to build positive relationships with his students, he feels that he is better equipped to create lessons that have tiers of support allowing to build on strengths as well as weakness of all his students. He loves to create lessons and projects that make all students more engaged in their learning.