Since I started  school I never truly tried my hardest. Whether it was English, Science, Social Studies, Math, or extra curricular. It was mainly due to the fact that none of my teachers truly challenged me to work my hardest and push myself. Till freshmen year, last row back corner seat, had the usual thoughts.

“Snorefest class, SWEET!”
That’s when the teacher walked in, young, black hair, green polo, and the most hipster prescription glasses I had ever seen. He sat down at the desk and like all teachers began the class.
“whoop de doo.” I found myself thinking “looks like this class will be just great class to unwind and just listen to music during.”

As this seemingly lackadaisical teacher went through the class he noticed me sitting there in the back. Like most teachers he never payed any attention to me-since the class was about doing shorthand for college, it was nearly impossible for me to get lower than a B+.

As the semester went on I actually began to pay attention to class, and started participating. When I suddenly was moved to the front. One of the highest grades in the class I sat there making conversation with the teacher before and after class. This seemingly docile teacher was the coolest guy I had ever met. Whether he was at a concert the night before or just talking computer, this was the first teacher to truly get me engaged in class. Dahle, I would commonly refer to him as the all knowing Dahle Llama, during my first year with him he pushed at me as I did him of course not knowing what lie in future years at Arrowhead High School.

Sophomore year came around and I was Pumped,
“Computer essentials… with MR DAHLE, YES!” I screamed like a banshee, nearly waking the entire house.
As I sat down in the lab for my first day I go my assigned seat, like last year I was not the most popular so I didn’t really talk to anyone but the teacher.

“Gavin your work isn’t good enough.” Was something I heard a lot that year. I was trying my hardest and I couldn’t produce better answers unless I took the answers from him. That's when I realized it. This teacher Is going to break me like a dog. Assignment after assignment I slaved away trying to get the max quality product completed-however I would get the same line,

“Gavin your work isn’t good enough.”
After passing the class with an A, I realized he might have thought I was capable of going deeper in a field with computers.

“Desktop Publishing… I will beat you this year Mr. Dahle!”  Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes I marched into that class, sat front row nearest the center lane. Prepared for whatever the class I signed up for was I sat there and waited.

“Okay class open up Photoshop and recreate what’s on the board.” Mr dahle said with a calm tone.
“...Umm open what now?” I shrunk in my seat. Barely clicking the Photoshop application in the start menu.
Now to be frank, I had never used adobe photoshop till that class. I had used hodgepodge things like Sumo Paint, and I had no real ability with photoshop. But I wouldn’t let that beat me. I spent nights searching macros and quick edits so I could compete with the more talented kids in the class.I will be blunt I wasn’t the best at it and i'm still not, but all I knew was Dahle won’t beat me not this year. As if he as keyboard king I watched as he did something that would take me a day take him minutes. All semester I fought and did I beat that wizard of keys, I could only wish.

Never once had I gotten that complement I was searching for.

“Gavin your project looks good.”

I still don’t know if it was his strategy to get me to work harder to push myself as a student but I believe it was. After taking his classes I took a class called commercial art,(an advanced placement graphic arts class.) In that class I learned technique- I finally felt as if I could prove Dahle wrong and say finally this product is good enough for dahle to congratulate me on. For some strange reason I never showed him- ever since I actually talked to the rock and roller teacher Mike Dahle I wanted to be better at what he does than him.

There are not many people I would like to thank for pushing me to be a harder worker, but Mr. Dahle he was different whether it was his youth that I could relate to or whether it was the way he pushed me everyday. So I nominate Mike Dahle, sensei Dahle of the computer lab as educator of the month,if it wasn’t for him I probably would have tried to drop out of highschool, thank you Mr. Dahle I couldn’t have done anything without your guidance.