Before I went to the Delaware Military Academy, I attended Skyline Middle School. There were many good teachers who were there, but only a few whose class I really enjoyed. One teacher who really stood out was Mr. Ronaghan, my chorus teacher from 6th to 8th grade. Mr. Ronaghan is the person I am nominating for the Educator of the Year award.

It is unusual to find a teacher who is as awesome and is a favorite to so, many but Mr. Ronaghan was that teacher. In the three years I spent at that school nothing brought Mr. R. down because of his fun and joking personality. There have been times he came to class a little upset about funding but he would never let that interfere with the lesson. He would always joke around with the class and make everyday the best. Nothing could bring Mr. Ronaghan down, he was always in his fun mood. Class was always made exciting by  either him or the songs we sang.

The final year I had with Mr. R. was my 8th grade year. That year was my favorite year with him. One of the reasons why is because we sang more complex songs and we had a separate concert reserved just for 8th graders. It was the Pops Concert which was one of my favorites because we sang pop songs and we had student soloists. Even Mr. R. did a song! Another great experience was the trip we took in May for Chorale, which is a group of selected students who went to Ohio to compete. We had to audition for the group and if we made it, we had after school practices. All those practices were very fun even though we worked really hard. At the competition we placed 2nd. We were all super proud.

Mr. R was everyone's favorite because he was such a funny person and because he cared so much about the students he taught. His philosophy was not to just teach us to sing songs but to be genuine musicians. He would always put the students first and he would attend sporting events for his students. He also ran the school’s play and he would spend days after school till nine at night if need be to make sure everything was ready for the cast the next day. He would also do this for his classes and would spend hours after school to make sure the lesson plan was ready for the next day.

Those are the reasons I am nominating Mr. Nick Ronaghan for Educator of the Year. He cares about his students more than any other teacher. I have never had a teacher as special as Mr. Ronaghan, and I  would be lucky to have another like him again. It is my honor to nominate him for the 2016 Educator of the Year, because he’s the teacher that deserves it!