Educator of the Year


I’ve had many teachers in my years in school. Most are just a name that I can remember and didn’t have an effect on me during my time in their class. But a few have transcended the classroom and have me feeling nostalgic about them and their class. One of those teachers is my eight grade English teacher, Mrs. Austin.
That eighth grade year was the only year that I even remotely enjoyed English, and it was actually my favorite class that year. From the start I knew it would be a good class. There were no pointless writing assignments about our summer or asking what our favorite food was, we just discussed our interests with her. This showed me that she wasn’t just throwing the façade that she cared about us like many teachers do, she genuinely cared. By the second day she had already known and memorized my name, and that’s very impressive for a teacher with hundreds of students. I felt like I was a real person to her, not just a name on a roll sheet.
Besides her really caring about other students and I, Mrs. Austin had a great teaching style. We would read books in depth, trying to find deep hidden messages, instead of speeding through books and not really learning anything. She would let us decipher the books’ more abstract themes in groups with our peers, and that way we got to hear all sorts of different explanations about things. It opened my mind to many other aspects of a book that I wouldn’t normally contemplate.
Mrs. Austin was a great teacher in the classroom, but out of it she was great as well. Despite her grueling teacher schedule, she found way to make it to all my home football games that year. She was a person you could talk to about anything, not just school. Outside of the classroom she was more like a friend than a teacher.

Mrs. Austin deserves the Educator of the Year award because, though she’s a phenomenal teacher, of her great relationships with students. The Educator of Year should do more than just teach, which only can make a minimal impact, they should really care and interact with students, and that’s what Mrs. Austin does so well.