“Good morning, Anthony!” -- that’s how every other morning at Arrowhead High School  started for me. I never thought anything at school would make me happy but Ms. Bonlender changed that. She was my algebra teacher freshman year and she actually cared about her students and treated everyone equally.

On the first day, she wanted to know everyone's name and was excited to get to know them. She was one of the few teachers that i’ve had that wanted to get to know their students. She teaches a class that gives extra help to algebra students that don’t quite fully understand the material. With that class and her as the teacher, she helped me with my homework and explained material I didn’t understand which overall helped me succeed in math.

I never thought I would say this, but she made algebra fun with puzzles and online activities. When we had homework, a student would be picked to roll a giant die to see if she would collect it. That’s when my classmates got nervous and crossed their fingers it wouldn’t be collected.

Sophomore year I didn’t have her as a teacher anymore, but she wanted to make sure I was succeeding in math and other classes. Whenever she was free during one of my study halls, she would invite me into her classroom to talk about how school was going and homework that I had. And if I had questions or concerns, she would help me or give me advice.

Ms. Bonlender is dedicated to her job as a teacher, made class fun for every student, and cared for her students. And for all these reasons I’m nominating Ms. Bonlender as educator of the year.