“Where do you go everyday fifth hour?” I asked my friend, Katie, who seemed to disappear from study hall. “I go to Mrs. Carnell’s room; she helps me out with school work,” Katie told me. Mrs. Carnell is a teacher who I later discovered takes hours out of her own time to help the students most other teachers have given up on by now: the trouble makers. Mrs. Carnell has a drive, a need, and a desire to make these kids not only do their work, but also care and want to do it. She makes them want to succeed and that’s a task most thought was impossible.



Kids don’t like to do their work, they don’t like to wake up and go to school, or go in after school to get help with what they don’t understand. Some kids have the ability to force themselves to do this, even though they don’t want to. But the ones who can’t do that are the ones Mrs. Carnell helps. She sees how little they care, and she knows they need someone to help them. And she is that someone for me and for Katie and for hundreds of others.



Mrs. Carnell takes hours every day to help these students. Printing out lists of missing work, she’s on a mission. During her free period, she allows students to come into her room and work with her. She is patient and helps persuade them to want to do well. Crossing items off the list, one by one, her goal is slowly revealing itself as attainable.



As the grades begin to climb higher and higher, the students are noticeably prouder, and even happier about their scores. This is something they didn’t know they could actually care about. Asking her if they could come in and stay after school to finish their project on time or going to the library or studying, she is happy to be there for them. She takes the time, even after school to help, to explain work, that’s not even for her class.



Mrs. Carnell is more than just a teacher. She has the ability to make a connection with the kids most other teachers have dropped, or given up on. She has the ability to spark a fire in students, whose fire was thought to have gone out a long time ago. She works hard so they can get good grades in not only her class, but also in every other class they have.
Now I also go to her room fifth hour. But, it’s not for help with my grades. It’s for her inspiration. She has made me want to help just like she does. She has given me an idea for my future: I want to help the troublemakers.