Thank you Danay for being a great teacher.  

I’ve taken two classes at Arrowhead High School with Mrs. Danay.  Computer Essentials in my freshman year and Multigraphic Applications in my sophomore year.  Freshman and sophomore year were a free-for-all. Kids were shoving through the hallways, stopping abruptly in the middle of them and creating a blockade, yelling, and could sometimes be indistinguishable from a pack of feral hogs.

It was crazy, but Danay is one of the teachers that made it more interesting — and sensical.  Walking into her class was a relief from the other classes.  I knew that she was an understanding and laid-back person. She knew I had a better grip on computers than others in the class and put trust in me that I would get my work done.  This created a trustworthy connection between us, and let me be productive at my own pace.

After I got done with an assignment, she would have no problem with me being on my phone.  I don’t just respect her because she had let me on my phone, but because she had this trust in me that I would still get what I needed to, finished.  It means a lot that a teacher would put trust in a random high schooler, especially in the years where kids are the most trouble.

On that topic, dealing with the Freshman and Sophomores in her class, I could tell, was a whole different level of challenging.  The phrase “Ya heeear me” would be shouted almost every five minutes as the kids talked with what they perceived as a gangster accent.  Rap lyrics were repeated over and over again as some kids tried and failed at freestyle rapping. But Danay was impressively good at keeping collective.

Danay is also involved and dedicated to her job.  She wants to teach other kids her fascination of technology, hoping maybe one or more of them will click with it and possibly pursue it one day.  Every effort possible is made to help students. She stops what she is doing so that she can help with an issue someone is having — whether it be the old computers freezing when doing something simple in Photoshop, or a computer’s side panel randomly falling off.

But the side panel incident was real and had crossed the line for her.  She wanted to find out who had broken it off of the computer, and the first person she had asked was me.  She thought I would know and trusted I would give her an honest answer, which shows this trustworthy connection.

I’ve had great experiences in your classes Danay, and I know other students have too.  My friends have had only good things to say about you and their experience in your classes, and the same goes for me.  Thank you Danay for being a selfless, level-headed, and dedicated teacher.