For the Educator of the Year contest, I have nominated my middle school teacher, Mrs. Tannenbaum. Mrs. Tannenbaum was my teacher since the sixth grade when I attended St. Matthew’s Catholic School. She taught me up until eighth grade when I attended All Saints Catholic School. At these schools, she was an exceptional math, science, and religion teacher for students in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. She was also the director of our schools Math League and Science Olympiad teams.


My first year of middle school at St. Matthew’s was very different from what I was used to. I played three sports, one in each of the seasons of the school year, and there was much more homework and school work than I was used to. Mrs. Tannenbaum was my first homeroom teacher in middle school. She made a really good first impression on everyone in her homeroom; we all really liked her as a teacher. Sometimes before our first class and after our last class she would take out Trivial Pursuit cards and ask us questions from them. Everyone always enjoyed that. She was also our science teacher in sixth grade. Most of the time we were in the lab, which was actually connected to our classroom, doing some sort of experiment that had to do with the unit we were on. Mrs. Tannenbaum really did make that one of the most fun classes I had that year. She was also our Science Olympiad coach and she made that really fun too. Mrs. Tannenbaum even made the practices fun. This was my first year in Science Olympiad, and she really helped me do well. That year I won a medal in every event that I participated in. I was her first student ever to do this, and I probably wouldn’t have been able to do that well without any other teacher.


In seventh grade, I had Mrs. Tannenbaum for both math and science. This was the first year that I had algebra, and I don’t think that there is a better teacher that could have introduced my class to such hard concepts as only seventh graders. She was phenomenal at introducing new concepts to the class and really helping us understand them. She was also the director of our Math League team. She did really well at preparing us for each competition so we would do well. When the students that participated in Math League put in the time and went to practices, she was able to help them get the eight questions that they needed right to get to the next round. Mrs. Tannenbaum was always willing to help anyone that wanted extra help. This was also St. Matthew’s last year as a school. June 10th was our last day. Mrs. Tannenbaum also really helped us all through this. None of us wanted St. Matthew’s to close, but Mrs. Tannenbaum made it much easier to except and helped us make an easier transition into the school that we were merging into, which was All Saints Catholic School.


All Saints was my final year of school before I entered Delaware Military Academy. It was also a very fun year. Mrs. Tannenbaum was one of the people that made All Saints a fun school to go to. She taught religion and math to my class that year. We merged with two other schools that year, so I only knew about one third of my class. In the beginning of the year in religion, Mrs. Tannenbaum really helped us get to know each other. Through that entire year, she was a great religion teacher. She really taught the material well. I also had Mrs. Tannenbaum in eighth grade for algebra. For the last few months of the year she also taught us some geometry. Out of all the new teachers that I had that year, none of them were as good as Mrs. Tannenbaum when it came to anything.


At my class’s eighth grade graduation, I felt as if I was completely ready for high school. And a big reason for this was Mrs. Tannenbaum. She didn’t only teach us about math, science, religion, and other school subjects, she taught everyone much more. She really did teach us life lessons that we can take into high school. I do take what she taught me into consideration everyday in high school, whether it’s a small test taking strategy or a strategy that she taught me to make major decisions way back in sixth grade. I will always consider her one of the absolute best educators that I have ever had. That is why I have nominated Mrs. Tannenbaum for the Educator of the Year contest.