These 6 Educators Truly Inspired Us In 2013

When a gunman showed up at Sparks Middle School in Nevada this past October, 45-year-old math teacher Michael Landsberry did not run away. Instead, he tried to convince the 12-year-old shooter to put down his gun.

Landsberry was not successful, and he was killed for his efforts. However, his actions gave children time to get away, and he has since been recognized as a hero.

"Mr. Landsberry's heroic actions, by stepping toward the shooter, allowed time for other students in the playground area to flee," Washoe County School District Police Chief Mike Mieras said at the time, according to CNN.

Jon Kitna went from being a hero on the field to a hero in the classroom.

After retiring as a professional football player for the NFL, Jon Kitna became a teacher at Lincoln High School in Tacoma, Wash.

Earlier this month, Kitna got back on the field for one game when he replaced Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo. He reportedly earned more than $50,000 for playing in the game -- a sum he is donating to the school where he teaches.

Teachers at International High School in the Brooklyn, N.Y., neighborhood of Prospect Heights want to make sure that all their students are given equal opportunities to succeed. Earlier this year, a group of teachers at the school created a scholarship fund for undocumented students. As of July, teachers had raised more than $36,000 for students, just through reaching out to family and friends.

“[These students] come into the country and we say, ‘Hey welcome to the U.S., we’re going to put you through high school.’ But by the time high school ends that’s not the case anymore,” Bob van Pelt, a social studies teacher at the school, told The Huffington Post. “It doesn’t matter if you get into a fancy college if you can’t pay for it.”

In August, elementary school clerk Antoinette Tuff saved countless lives when she convinced an armed gunman at her Atlanta elementary school to put down his weapon and give himself up to the police. As a result, no one in the school was harmed.

Tuff convinced the gunman to surrender by telling him about the struggles she's faced in her life.

"I told him, 'OK, we all have situations in our lives," she said. "It was going to be OK. If I could recover, he could, too."

Julie Culp, a school counselor in Tennessee, successfully taught her kids about Internet safety in November when she posted this picture (above) on her Facebook and watched it go viral. The photo ended up gaining millions of likes from around the world -- and showed that a little creativity can make a big difference when it comes to teaching.