Teacher scolds 6-year-old girl who fell asleep in class and finds out she's starved at home

Teaching is a difficult job. Teachers work long hours beyond school hours, including evenings and weekends, and often are not appreciated enough.

Add to that list of concerns the overwhelming poverty faced by many students in the United States. Many students live below the poverty level, and teachers are forced to help them overcome the social and academic challenges they may face because of this.

Rachel Faust became a teacher of first-grade students at Van E. Blanton Elementary School in Miami when she had to witness something heartbreaking.

According to an NBC 6 South Florida report, when Faust was giving one of his classes in 2012, she noticed that one of his students was constantly falling asleep on his desk.

When she took the student to the hall to scold her, Faust learned what was really happening behind the girl’s lack of energy. Read more on our Twitter account @amomama_usa

Apparently, the girl was starving. Like many other students at the school, it seemed that the only food she ate was the one she was served at school.

"She said, 'I'm very sorry, Miss Faust,'" told the teacher. "I know I'm not doing the best I can, I'm so hungry. I missed my breakfast and I have not eaten since lunch yesterday. "

At that moment, Faust felt how her heart wrinkled and she thought she should do something for these students with family and personal issues.

The teacher then decided to send an email to the production of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, to talk about the institution in which she taught. To her surprise, she did get an answer and was invited to the Ellen show.

At first, Faust thought that she would simply appear as part of the program's audience, but was shocked to learn that she would actually be on stage with DeGeneres. But that was not all.

Ellen DeGeneres noted Faust's enormous intentions, and decided to surprise her with a trip to Hollywood and a $ 100,000 check from the JC Penney charitable foundation, 'JCP Cares'.

Faust said that the first thing she would do with the money would be to give her students a playground. The elementary school did not have one, so the students were forced to be creative in an empty field.

NBC 6 South Florida spoke with Faust just after his 24-hour trip to Los Angeles, just after surprising her students with the giant check.

"Oh, my God, they were impressed, I think because it was a big check," she said. "We talked about money, we're learning about money, so they definitely knew what it was, I'm still working to realize that it's $ 100,000."