I usually am not interested in class--instead, I just let it pass by, and stroll to the next one. But this changed the first day I sat down in modern literature and was greeted with, "Hello,  Puberties."

I have had teachers look me in the eye and say, "I don't care if you succeed or fail. It's all up to you." But what I perceived about Mr. Freeburg was the opposite. The best teachers care about how well they are teaching, and want each student to do well. And that is Andrew Freeburg. His eyes shine with a hint of devil, ready to teach, as if making us succeed would keep the sun shine.

Even if I had a bad day, I was oddly excited to go to Mr. Freeburg's class. He started every class with a story about his life. I am convinced that he is a teenager that merely looks like an adult. Whether it was about his trips to weird Chinese stores to find foot-odor scented soap, or to herbal stores to find the mintiest mint in the world, he showed his students it's okay to be a little odd. And he also told stories about when he was younger--from the snot rocket that came out when he was talking to the prettiest girl in his school, to dating the prettiest girl in school, and then finding out all she was was a pretty face, to going through a phase of wearing all black and dating a goth chick who enjoyed screamo music. Mr. Freeburg didn't care what we thought of him, and he didn't treat us like children; instead, he related to us because he told stories we understood. This made me realize that even the educators that teach us have been in our shoes, and they turned out alright.

Not only did Mr. Freeburg share interesting stories, but he also helped me become a better writer and analyzer. One of the first books we read was Hater--a book about normal citizens turning into wild, blood thirsty, murderers. Mr. Freeburg has intelligence that not many people can reach, so it was difficult for me to come up with something mind boggling to say. But one day in class, I shared my perspective of what our book was about, and he stopped, opened his mouth, and said, "Uh uh uh uh. Never in my 10 years has any student brought that up, and I like it." In his language, this meant I cracked the code.

Mr. Freeburg takes everyone's ideas into consideration. He assigns essays to improve writing skills. But when he graded essays, there were comments and feedback of what we could do better to improve our writing, not just label our papers with a grade.

He also continuously tries to better himself as an English teacher. During his weekends, he took the highest English courses that UW-Milwaukee offered. He knew what it was like to write essays, to receive bad grades, and to try harder. He not only taught us, but he was also there right with us.

Mr. Freeburg didn't tell us he liked us. He didn't tell us he cares. But his actions showed us above and more. He not only improves his knowledge as a teacher everyday, but he made me want to better myself everyday too.