As I walked into my homeroom of 8th grade year, I didn’t expect it to be any different from last year. I thought it was going to be boring and the teacher would be yelling at everyone, and it was just going to make my eighth grade year horrible. As my classmates and I sat at our assigned seats when the bell rang, my teacher Mrs. Patterson started talking about her life before she came to St. Anthony of Padua. She told us she had “street cred” and that her students before us at St. Paul’s called her “ P-Dizzle”. That made everyone laugh, as my friends and I sat at our desks in four, we all looked at each other smiling and then she started to say that she had a rap about herself. Of course, everyone wanted to hear it, so she rapped it. It was really cool to see that my eight grade teacher was nice, funny, and loved to have a great time! After the first week of school time went on and on and we all noticed that at the start of every religion class, Mrs. Patterson would always begin with a country song. We really loved that; Mrs. Patterson started to become our a part of our family.

When I walked in everyday, I would see Mrs. Patterson’s smile; she had a smile on her face no matter what, and it just made everyone’s day better and lit up the whole room. Her personality is just amazing; she would always make you laugh, and if you needed someone, she would always be there for you. You could go to her with anything. She’s the sweetest and the funniest person I know. Although, like any other normal teacher and class, we had our ups and downs, but we got through them all no matter how hard it was.


During my basketball and volleyball seasons, my teammates and I would go up to Mrs. Patterson and say “ Mrs. Patterson! Can you come to our game tonight? Please!” she would say “I’ll try”. When we saw her at our games, it was the best feeling; not only was she our teacher, but she was always our number one supporter. She came to every game she could, and she would bring her husband who was also really nice. Even though you could tell sometimes we got on her nerves, we all still got along. Mrs. Patterson didn’t care who you were; she would love you no matter what. I believe it was about 4 months into the school year when we all just loved her with all our hearts; none of us wanted the school year to end!

I remember the end of the school year started to come faster than ever, and the work became hard. If someone didn’t understand something, she would explain it so that all of us would understand. She’s such a good teacher. She even got involved with some science projects we did; she also helped with our homework when we needed some, especially math homework for most of us. I learned more from her than anyone.

Graduation is always the hardest thing. In May, we all realized that the family we built over the years we wouldn’t have anymore because everyone was going to different schools for the ninth grade. As the girls cried, the boys hugged, and Mrs. Patterson just smiled at as us all and said she loved us and started to cry. We all just ran and gave her a big group hug. It was the last couple of days before we were about to graduate from 8th grade and move on with our lives. We walked down the isle of the church, and we got our 8th grade diploma and had a party in the school cafeteria; we cried because the school year was over with the best teacher ever. Even though the school year, the parties, and the field trips are over we still have the memories; I’m proud to say Mrs. Patterson is my nomination of Educator of the Year.