It was my first day of 7th grade; I was in a new school, and I was very nervous. On the first day of school homeroom was extended, so we didn’t go to our first class; I went to ELA, taught by Mrs. Boswick-Regler. I sat there thinking, she sounds mean, her name is intimidating, and happy thoughts like that. So when the bell rang, the butterflies in my stomach and I got up and had to will myself to walk all the way to the classroom next door. And, then I walked through the door and my butterflies flew away. She had an inviting smile and without even saying a word she seemed like a nice teacher. The first class was like a Classroom Olympics; we played team building games with our teacher giving crazy things to do like arrange ourselves in order of earliest birthday to latest birthday…but we couldn’t talk. We had a great time, and when the bell rang, this time I didn’t want to leave. She was my first class and already she was my favorite teacher.

One of the most exciting parts of class was the very beginning. Mrs. Regler, as she insisted on being called, would put a warm-up prompt on the board. But, she would make the prompts challenge our imagination. For example, one day it said, you found a jewel encrusted box from ancient times, tell me about where you found it and what it was. So we all described wild goose chases and funny events that led to us getting this box, each different, some funny, some serious. But the reason we all loved this time is we all had the opportunity to share. We would share funny or sad, and we enjoyed the small break in our day, and so did she; she liked seeing us happy. Then she would say a few words on her opinion on the prompt and what she would do. Then she would start her lessons.



Before ELA, which I had every other day because of block scheduling I had Family and Consumer Sciences which was a very boring class, say for the one or two times we cooked. But if I could just make it through that class, my day got a little bit brighter. Of the many assignments we had, a few stand out. One is when we read The Giver. Mrs.Regler gave us what she thought was a way we could understand the book. When we didn’t get something about to world with any creativity or color, which was the setting the main character Jonas lived in, she would try and put it into something we could understand. It was great the way she could mold having daily family pow-wows about what you dreamt (in the book) into needing a therapist or something of the like. Also, we had an end of the year project, it was to be a research paper about one of the 25 topics. The topic I ended up with was Live Aid, among topics of Elvis, Prohibition, and the Nazi camps. I had to cover a concert that had happened years ago. And it was fun but the reason it stuck out is when anyone went up to her with questions, you didn’t need to tell her your topic, she already knew, and would help you like a friend. That’s why we all loved her; she was not just a teacher but a friend.


I was extremely sad when the year was over because she wouldn’t be my teacher anymore. But there was a light in the dark. I had qualified and gotten into The National Junior Honor Society. It happened that she co-ran it. It was awesome. Having your favorite teacher interact with you once a week in a non-classroom environment is as good as it gets. She also made our service projects fun. For instance when we were packing care packages for the troops, we were making sure that the magazines they were getting had things she considered necessary, which then was Jon and Kate plus 8 getting a divorce and the entire Tiger Woods incident. She always made Honor Society a fun time no matter what we were doing whether it was helping out at a retirement home or having a car wash or just a regular meeting.


Mrs. Regler was many peoples favorite teacher in my grade. In fact she was banned from the eight grade lunch because half the students would go up to talk to her. She was a teacher that got down on your level personally, so she was a better teacher and was more likeable. She didn’t just teach what was required, she made sure we understood everything plus a little bit. Mrs. Regler is my favorite English teacher ever, and probably my favorite teacher overall. Mrs. Regler is a friend and no one disliked her. She deserves more than just the Educator of the Year award, but hey, it’s a start.