As students and teachers head back to school in the National Capital Area, some have a little extra spring in their step. That’s because Bethesda Magazine just announced their list of Extraordinary Educators.

The six extraordinary educators are high school teachers, middle school teachers, and elementary school teachers. They teach literature, music, science, math, and kindergarten. They are new educators and seasoned professionals. But what they all have in common is a commitment to connecting with students to not only educate them in a particular subject but to make learning come alive and lay the foundations for life-long learning.

Said Jeff Davidson, a music educator at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland , “The chorus is a community of people that has to coexist and cooperate with each other to create one sound,” Davidson says. “They learn to work in a group.”

Seeing the benefit of their lessons beyond the classroom is one thing that all six extraordinary educators hold in common. For Sunila Varghese, who teaches science at Robert Frost Middle School in Rockville, Maryland, the ultimate success is endowing each student with the power “to make a difference—by recycling, limiting their energy use at home or raising money for an environmental cause.” Whereas Eytan Apter of Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, also in Rockville, Maryland, wants to equip his students to be able to handle the difficult issues we face today: “Too often, students want to debate and ‘win’ without building consensus and understanding why we engage in discussions.”

Here’s the complete list of extraordinary educators:

• Karl Danso, St Johns’ College High School, District of Columbia
• Sunila Varghese, Robert Frost Middle School, Rockville, Maryland
• Genevieve Raze, Sligo Creek Elementary School, Silver Spring, Maryland
• Eytan Apter, Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, Rockville, Maryland
• Rachel Rabin, Bells Mill Elementary School, Potomac, Maryland
• Jeff Davidson, Walt Whitman High School, Bethesda, Maryland

You can read their stories and learn more about how they make a difference in their students’ lives here.