Educator Ron Clark is a personality you are unlikely to forget after meeting him or seeing his presentation.

Clark spoke to teachers, administrators, and student-teachers in Meridian Wednesday on the topic of 'success'.

Now entering his 15th year as a teacher, over the years Carter has been recognized by the White House, named Disney's Teacher of the Year and made many appearances on national networks for his efforts in helping under-performing students achieve the highest level of accomplishment.

Although Clark says art and music are incorporated into all his lessons, he says the main key to success is creating a good atmosphere within the classroom.

"A lot of the kids that I teach, and a lot of the kids that all teachers teach, they live in houses. They don't necessarily live in homes," said Clark. "And so what I try to do in my classroom is to build a home atmosphere. We're a family. We're cheering for each other. We're lifting each other up and that way, the kids are all successful."

So far, it seems Clark's philosophy is working. In fact, a class of 12-year-old students he taught improved their math scores from a fourth grade level to a 10th grade level during one school year. He is also credited with helping a class of fifth graders improve their scores from under-performing to over- achieving in one year's time.

"Too often in our society we are teaching to a test. We're trying to prepare kids to take a test and we're not trying to teach them to love learning," said Clark. "We all don't have to jump on desks. We just have to go in there and smile at those kids. Set the tone and let the kids know that we want to be there. That can happen when you put passion, heart and creativity into the classroom."