CNN PRODUCER NOTE     rmtsurf teaches at Thousand Oaks High School in California. Before teaching, he was an operations manager at a start-up company. 'I had no social life and I was frustrated with that. I felt like I was chasing money to be happy. Well ... I was laid off after a year due to the economy, so that was my chance to switch careers. I decided to teach because I wanted to work with kids, to teach them about their lives ahead of them.'

While he was studying to become a teacher, he started a small window cleaning and pressure washing business to support himself. 'I do that year-round still to this day, so that supplements the low pay that teachers get ... I do sometimes wonder what if I stayed in the corporate world and what that would look like. But now that I have 3 kids I would have to say that my job is an awesome family job. I get a lot of time off that most of my friends who are dads can never have. This year I can be home at 2:15, my kids love that!'
- dsashin, CNN iReport producer