Tommy Smigiel is a Leadership Teacher and Leadership Coordinator at Norview High School in Norfolk, Virginia. As the Leadership Coordinator he oversees 21 sections of 9th grade leadership classes as part of the school’s Small Learning Community initiative. Before switching to teach leadership, Tommy taught Earth Science for five years. During this time he helped guide his team to improve pass rates on the Virginia Standards of Learning tests from 49% to 84% in five years. He accomplished this by reworking the school’s Earth Science curriculum, updating his school’s test bank system and using team data to improve instructional practices. Tommy was recently named 2007 Norfolk Teacher of the Year, 2008 Virginia Teacher of the Year and is currently one of four finalists for 2008 National Teacher of the Year.