I nominate Mrs. Smith for Educator of the Year. Mrs. Smith was my sixth grade math teacher and my middle school field hockey coach at Brandywine Springs. Mrs. Smith is an amazing role model in and out of school, and there are so many reasons why she should be recognized. My dad knew Mrs. Smith before I went into middle school, and he told me that I would love her. He was 100% right! She is the type of person that wants to make sure everyone is being the best they can be. We were never allowed to say, “I can’t” or “I don’t know”; there was even a stop sign in her room that said it. She would explain it over again, and the whole class would get an extra explanation.

Mrs. Smith likes to make sure everyone was engaged, so she always tried to make things as fun as possible; I was never bored. Whether it was in class or on the field, we were always doing something to better our skills. She is also not afraid to help you or slow down if you’re confused; we would also learn multiple strategies for things because some people found things easier than others. I remember a time when I was struggling with math in eighth grade, and I went to her for some help, and she gladly gave me some when I couldn’t get any from my other teacher. This shows how she is always available and willing to help anyone even if we aren’t in her class or grade anymore.

Mrs. Smith taught me how to be a great goalie and how to work with my team and be a leader. By my eight grade year, we finally won the district championship, which was something I wanted to do since sixth grade.  Without her amazing dedication to us and the team we could have never done that. She was a great role model and an amazing coach for the entire team. She always wanted everyone to put their heart and soul into our practices and games. She would teach the entire team how to be leaders and help others. When we wouldn’t do good in a game or we lost, she would explain what we could do better, she would also make it very clear that we should not be doing whatever we were doing. It was great constructive criticism. She would also ask us our opinions on what went wrong and how we could fix it so that we would incorporate that in our next practice so we could improve. If she did not ask for the teams’ opinion; I personally think that we might not have made it as far as we did. I think that is why our team was so good at certain times.

Her personality is amazing, and the way she put herself out to us made it very clear that we could talk to her if we needed. By doing this everyone felt very comfortable talking to her and having fun. Mrs. Smith can be strict, but she knows how to have fun, and I believe that this is an amazing quality to have. If someone wasn’t doing great in a class, she told them that they should not be at practice and be with the teacher trying to get help because we are student-athletes not athlete-students. She was always happy, and it made things exciting; she was never boring or monotone, and we knew she wanted to be there. By my eighth grade year I felt like I was so close to her because of how open she is and how she will talk to you if needed. Sometimes I needed to talk to someone, and she was there to talk to, at practice or in class.

She puts in an amazing amount of effort to make sure that everyone can be the best. Not every teacher does this, and I am beyond thankful that I got to have a teacher and a coach like her. She taught me how to be a better person when it comes to sportsmanship, good leadership, and being a great student. If she wasn’t as persuasive and as good of a coach that she was to me, I probably would not be in the position I am in for hockey, or on the teams I am on. I am so grateful for her, and I could talk forever about the amazing things she has done for me and other people. For all of the reasons and more, I nominate Mrs. Smith for the Educator of the Year.