LONGWOOD, Fla. — We're kicking off the new year with a new segment: It's called A+ Teachers and highlights Central Florida’s best educators, nominated by their own students.

Our first A+ Teacher is Lisa King from Rock Lake Middle School in Longwood.

Two words: "upbeat" and "fun." That's the way many of King's students describe her language arts classes at Rock Lake Middle School, and that's the relationship King makes with her classes.

"To me, the basis of teaching is creating really strong relationships so that kids trust you enough to learn from you," King said.

Rock Lake Middle Principal Jordan Rodriguez said that year after year, King's students are demonstrating the highest learning gains within the school's English department.

Student Cassidy Howard is an example of those gains.

"Before this class, I didn't know a lot of words," Howard said. "I wasn't doing super well in reading before... and then afterwards, my grades started going up a lot more and I've gotten a lot better at it, especially with finding vocabulary words, finding more evidence, and writing out essays.”

Another of King's students, Conner Woods, says King's teaching style is a slam dunk. They often play a learning game called "trashketball."

"What we do is we take a quiz, and then based on how you do in the quiz, you get to take a certain number of basketball shots," Woods said.

King says that the learning game has been a hit with the kids. "They love it," King said. "It's competitive and the winning teams get big parties at the end of the year, so it's fun."

Before she became a teacher, King worked in marketing, a profession where she honed her skills at creating a connection.

"The one thing that you don't realize until you become a teacher is how connected you get to the kids," King said.

That connection with her kids has made King an A+ Teacher.