Whenever I have been in class, a lot of times, it sounds like the adults from the Charlie Brown specials: wa wa wa, wa wa wa, wawawa. It's boring, it's not fun, and it's definitely making the information look good enough to go inside my brain. As a rather selfmotivated student, I absorb the information no matter what. But it was so drab and much like a broken record. Thankfully, when I got to middle school, things changed, especially when I got to 8th grade this year, and for that, I have to thank my Language Arts teacher, Ms. Shellhorn.

I think all of my classmates and I agree with Ms. Shellhorn when she calls herself a 'language artist'. She always has something to talk about, and it's usually highly entertaining. And she is always able to add some sort of joke to anything we're learning. She makes the classroom fun and not heavy with boredom. There's jokes and laughs, silly things, but also things that I don't think ever would have engraved themselves in my head if not for Ms. Shellhorn.

As the nerd that I am, all my life I have taken what I do for school and for any other learning purposes very seriously. But Ms. Shellhorn makes it fun, and that's a hard thing to do for her, especially in our wonderful district of Jeffco.

Ms. Shellhorn is also much more thoughtful than other teachers. She is kind and gives great advice. For the first part of this school year, I was getting over a bike accident and was going through a hard time considering that I was the one getting nailed by the law. Ms. Shellhorn helped me through it, with every hilarious comment and great word of advice. She gave me someone to talk to, and to me, that is one of the best qualities a teacher can have, because it means that they care.

The best quality of Ms. Shellhorn is that she is a great example to kids who are bullied. Her middle name is Gay, which is what she goes by, and anyone who makes fun of her is a fool, for she has no reaction and only tells them to get a life. It shows that you should be confident in who you are, and it's better than the lecture we get every year from the principle that basically says that they shouldn't have to care about what anyone else thinks.

I would like to nominate Ms. Shellhorn for the Educator of the Year Award because she brings the classroom to life, which is something that I will never forget. Thank you, Ms. Shellhorn.