TITUSVILLE, Fla. — Tonya Anderson is on a mission in her sixth-grade math class at Coquina Elementary School in Titusville: Let no student fall behind.

Anderson says she loves teaching middle school students.

"They're starting to get their sense of self and get their own opinion of life, and I can guide them with not just academics, but lifelong skills," she said.

Anderson is so driven, in fact, that it's hard to believe she didn't initially choose teaching as a career.

"I actually started going to school to be a pharmacist," she said.

But that all changed when she crossed paths with a fellow college student who was about to lose her scholarship because she was failing math. 

"I started tutoring her," Anderson said. "She quit going to her classes and was just coming to me and would go to her exams, and she ended up passing, and I was like, 'This is what I want to do.'"

Her unique teaching style is to challenge her students, but she also strives to be supportive.

"I love trying to teach them how to teach and help one another," she said. "We have a learning community."

Student Luke Latherow's father nominated Anderson as an A+ Teacher.

"She always has different methods, too, so if one way doesn't work out for you then she might have another one that does," Luke said.      

The No. 1 rule in her classroom is posted on a sign: "No Judgement Zone."

"We never put anybody down," she said. "Learning is a process, and if someone doesn't understand something, they don't understand it yet, but they will."