LaKeidra Love has known her whole life that she wanted to be a teacher when she grew up, so when she got to college she already had her mind made up.

Love, originally from Birmingham, earned her undergraduate degree from Alabama State University and went to Auburn University Montgomery for her graduate degree. Now, she is in her fifth year at Brantley Elementary School.

“Teaching is my inspiration, it is my passion. I just love to see their faces light up when they learn a new concept, or if they’re confused and I’m the person that can help them get from point A to point B,” Love said. “I’ve always known that teaching is what I was born to do.”

When she was just 4, Love would pretend to be a teacher to imaginary students and that turned into playing with real friends and making them be the students and now as a full-time educator.

“I remember being about 4 and I would take pieces of my older brother’s paper and I would pass it out to imaginary students and I would just teach the world to them,” Love said. “The older I got, my cousins and friends would come over and we always had to play school and I was the teacher. It’s just something I always knew I wanted to do.”

Love said she was inspired by her teachers through the years and would learn from them on how to teach.

“When I would sit in class, I would look at the way my teachers wrote on the board, the way they held a pencil. Everything about school fascinated me. I never wanted to leave,” Love said.  “When it came time to choose a profession or a career, I knew what it was. I never had to guess because I have been a teacher all my life.”

Love is currently a fifth and sixth grade reading, English language arts, writing and spelling teacher.

In her class Friday, Love had the students stand up and sing a song to help them remember their work. The students were smiling and raising their hands to be called on. Love said many nights she’ll have an idea for a song for school, and she’ll stay up writing and creating a new rhyme to help them with a certain topic.

“I enjoy my students and I enjoy teaching them and there’s just no greater career in the world than being a teacher,” Love said.

“You get to inspire a number of children on a daily basis and you get to make an impact in their lives that they’ll remember for the rest of their lives. I love my job.”