It was my first day of my senior year. Having failed psychology last year, I dreaded taking it again. Then second hour rolled along and I walked into my new psychology classroom. From the moment I walked in the room, I could tell the atmosphere was different. When I took a seat in that class, I never would have guessed by the end of the semester, I would score over 100% on my semester exam.

Everyday, Mr. Chris Herriot would start with current events. He would get there early before school to look up things that were happening in other places and make a PowerPoint to keep us in check with the world. One of my favorite things about him was how, when we would talk about the presidential election in our current events, he would stay neutral. He strived to keep us being free-thinkers; he never wanted to skew our opinions.

Mr. Herriot did everything he could to make psychology exhilarating. As a student, I believe that one of the easiest ways to learn is through activities that relate to us. I always learn better with a hands on activity.And Mr. Herriot would find interactive ways online of learning. For example, one of the hardest things for me to learn in my first psych class was the brain. In his class, we did an interactive activity to learn about the brain and it made me ace that test. He came up with games. My favorite was when we learned about perception and wore up-side-down goggles. Students in the class made their own obstacle course and then we would have races with the goggles on. It taught us how, as humans, we adapt to our surroundings.

Outside of school, he spends his time coaching the Arrowhead track team, leading his team to state every year. He inspires the students of Arrowhead in and outside of school! In addition to devoting his time to that, he also does a massive food collection for the local food pantry. He collects over 3,000 items for the food pantry a year. Through all this, Mr. Herriot still finds time to spend time with his wife and two children.

Mr. Herriot evolved a girl who despised psychology into someone who couldn’t wait to study it. He taught me I should stay in touch with the world and never give up, even when something gets hard. He is a teacher I will always remember and every time I see him in the halls, I don’t hesitate to wave and ask him how he is. Without him, I would have never gotten over 100% on my psychology exam.