PLANT CITY, Fla. — Art Roberts is always on the move in his class of 23 IB students at Strawberry Crest High School in Plant City.

You can feel his passion for literature as he reads from Romeo and Juliet.

“She shall sleep for 2 and 40 hours and at the end of two and four hours she will awake,” he says in a dramatic voice.

This is International Baccalaureate English Class.  To say this is a challenging subject is an understatement. The course demands concentration and the ability to analyze the classsics.

“In IB we go more in depth with English class,” says IB freshman Valencia Carmen. “It becomes harder to understand looking for the plots and subplots in stories like Romeo and Juliet.”

Art Roberts, who has been teaching for 21 years, is a master at making it understandable.

“I got into teaching because I love literature and I just happen to like kids, and these kids are amazing.”

These students say Mr. Roberts is the amazing one. “I wouldn’t be able to get an A in this class if it was anyone else but him,” one student said.

"People say how do you get the strength. My daughter is where you get the strength. She is the warrior! I'm the worrier!" - A+ Teacher Art Roberts

There’s another story here.  Art Robert’s daughter, Samantha, is fighting reoccurring Lymphoma.  She’s been treated for the disease three different times.  

Her brother just donated his bone marrow for this latest attempt at stemming the cancer.

That’s also the reason for Art’s on again, off again beard.

“Since growing it back she is day 15 or 16 after the stem cell transplant. She is doing excellent. I just got her (blood cell) numbers this morning and she is doing great,” Roberts said. 

You can tell Art is relieved today.

The entire school has jumped in to raise money for Samantha with fund raisers.  A company donated T-shirts which the kids bought and wear on Wednesdays to show their support.  They’ve also started a GoFund me page hoping to raise $100,000 to help pay for Samantha’s treatments.

Art could not be more thankful. “People say how do you get the strength. My daughter is where you get the strength. She is the warrior! I'm the worrier!”

Amazingly, students say their teacher seldom mentions his challenges at home.

“He could be going through a real hard day but will come and like say, 'OK, let’s talk about Romeo and Juliet,'” say Devon Jones. “He will be smiling and joking and we won’t even know what he’s going through, and he’s a real good teacher.” 

That’s why we honor Art with our A+ Teachers Award.