The joy and the excitement is real.

In the early months of the 2017-2018 school year, I once again worked and traveled with the Milken Family Foundation photographing the Milken Educator Awards honoring the best and brightest educators across the country.

Being an educator is often a challenging and thankless job with long hours and few accolades of just how important their roles are in students' lives. Many educators in cash-strapped school districts often spend their own money for basic classroom needs. But if you ask any educator, they cannot see themselves doing anything else. They truly love their work and their students.

For 30 years, the Milken Educator Awards honors excellence in the world of education -- in a very public way -- by recognizing top educators around the country with a $25,000 award with no restrictions. The Milken Educator Awards targets early-to-mid career education professionals for their achievements and, more significantly, for the promise of what they will accomplish in the future.

This past school year, I traveled with the team at the Milken Educator Awards to: Alabama, Kansas, Kentucky, Iowa, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio, and South Carolina.

Let me tell you the joy and excitement, and utter shock, on the teachers faces is real and you can see it in the photos.

Every school year, I look forward to working with Milken Family Foundation and I hope to travel with them again for the 2018-2019 school year. We have fun, a lot of fun.

Congratulations to all the recipients.

Below are the highlights from the states and schools I visited.