It was my first day of senior year at Arrowhead High school when I walked into Mr. Hessler’s, my math teacher, room. It was seventh period right after I ate lunch, and I remember everyone saying “Oh that sucks Mr. Leoni is way better because he gives extra credit.” This made me have a negative thought about the class before I even met Mr. Hessler, but Mr. Hessler quickly made me think differently.

Everyday in class, Mr. Hessler made the class fun and entertaining. He understood me and the other students. He would say, “I know you guys might think this is boring, but we gotta learn it.” He would be strict and say, “Seniors, this is for you, and next year it’s going to be harder, so pay attention.”

I still remember when he made a connection to math and freshmen girls being annoying. He would create names for math processes like ''Big Red'' that would help me remember. He would relate math to different jobs in the medical field to business to engineering. This made every student interested. He has his everyday sayings like: “Have a little moxie in your game” or “You guys know this from Fector and the boys.” He also says, “I know you guys don’t like helicopter parents so I’m not going to be a helicopter teacher,” which I appreciated. His way of teaching clicked with my way of understanding.

One day I didn’t come to school. I accidently left my car running overnight with my garage closed. This caused my house to fill up with carbon monoxide and my family to go to the hospital. Luckily, that was all that happened and no one got more seriously hurt or killed! The next day the whole school knew—and somehow even Mr. Hessler heard. He emailed me saying how concerned he was and how he had a similar situation happen to his grandparents. This made my day and showed how much he cares for his students.

Everyday when I run into Mr. Hessler’s class (right as the bell is about to ring) he says, “Come on Bella, let’s go” in a stern but funny tone. But hey, I make it everytime! He then says I need to leave my house earlier to get to school and I say it is not my fault the school traffic is so bad. We laugh and he goes on to teach Pre-Calc, making the class laugh or smile.

Even though I like Mr. Hessler and the way he teaches, this does not mean I like math. Pre Calc has been the hardest math class I have ever taken, so it is important I spend time studying and getting help. I go in tenth hour with two of my other friends and we give Mr. Hessler a hard time. We say, “What the heck is this? We never learned this in class” or “Mr. Hessler, why is this so hard? We do not understand this at all.” Mr. Hessler laughs and makes fun of us back, but he also helps us learn the material and helps us for our tests. Spending his break times with three complaining girls, he has a positive attitude and strives to make us learn.

Mr. Hessler has a wall above his desk and on it is pinned photographs with his students from previous years. I noticed these right away, and now I know why. He makes a connection with his students and he cares deeply about them (maybe even more than math)! In the beginning of the year, everyone told me to wish for Mr. Leoni, but now I tell everyone to wish for Mr. Hessler. Thank you Mr. Hessler for making math class as enjoyable as it can get, for the hours of extra help you gave me, and for always putting a smile on my face.