"I feel like a lot of math is confidence," Sladkey said. "If my lower-level students have confidence, they just soar. You can see that they've been beaten down by this or that, or people's impressions that they're in the lower level math, and they just feel like they can't do it, and when you feel like you can't, you usually can't."

Who was that one teacher in your life who inflluenced you? Who are some other standout teachers deserving credit in Naperville schools?