Paying attention in class was my strong suit.  But retaining the information was not.  I am not the best student, and I typically never get an “A” as a final grade. I could study for hours and still get a “C” on the final exam.  I felt like nothing would change, that I was a failure, and that my lifelong dream of a health and wellness major was to never be. But during the second semester of my sophomore year, everything changed.

  “GOOD AFTERNOON CLASS!” boomed like thunder throughout the classroom as the door slammed.  This wasn’t just your ordinary teacher--this was Mr. Hall.

It was my first day of biology and I was already regretting it.  What did I get myself into?  But after having Mr. Hall for a week, I realized it was just his personality and he wasn’t out to murder us.

Mr. Hall helped me in so many ways.  As it was, his personality pushed me to do better.  I won’t say I got “A’s” on my tests, but I did better than I thought I would. 

He pushed my limits, my mental capacity, and my ability to learn. 

He joked and asked me questions.  He would ask, “Am I making you uncomfortable right now?” and I would say, “Yes” back.  But it was not because I felt uncomfortable with him picking on me (or maybe it was).  It was because he cared.  He cared about everyone's ability to learn.

His daily game of “Let’s see what you have learned,” taunted me because I could never remember what the previous day’s lesson was about. But Mr. Hall still picked on me. I know it wasn’t to make me look like a fool, but instead, to encourage me to do better, to retain the information and to learn.

He always teased me that his four year old daughter was able to name all the bones in the body, all the organs and their functions, and all other sorts of science related topics that he taught. But this did not offend me. Instead, it encouraged me to do better.

His quirkiness gives him his reputation. His screaming in the beginning of each period can be heard anywhere in the school. 

You know when he’s started class. But his screaming wasn’t only in the classroom. I tried to dodge him in the hallways because whenever I passed him, he would yell, “HELLO, JOSIE!” down the hallway and pull attention towards me. But then I realized there was no way to dodge him, so I dealt with it with a smile.

Mr. Hall helped me so much. His final was difficult, but I persevered. Since we were sophomores, we were able to skip his final if we scored high enough on the WKCE (Wisconsin Knowledge and Concept Examination). I passed so I could skip his final, but Mr. Hall encouraged me to still take it. I realized if I failed, my grade may falter from the B+, but if I got a good grade, my grade would go up. So I took the final.

He said he’d put four extra points back on to the final test for those who came in.  After the exam, as he walked back in, the room was quiet. 

“One of you scored so high, I can only put two points back on.”

And that was all that was said.  No name. No word. Just silence.

He put the grades in, and sent them off. I checked my grades...100%. Final grade…“A.”  

Mr. Hall is the teacher who finally understood me. He is the teacher that could help. And he is the teacher I now have for Anatomy my senior year. 

Mr. Hall’s craziness helped me achieve my lifelong dream...of getting a health and wellness major—a major only accepted at one college in the University of Wisconsin system: UW Stevens Point. 

I never liked Biology. I never liked Chemistry. And I never liked science. Period. But Mr. Hall changed my view. He made me understand, he made me like science, and he helped me retain information. 

I will never forget Mr. Hall.  He taught in the way learning should be taught--with care.