The Teacher that Changed My Life Essay

The best teacher I’ve ever had was my Honors English teacher, who was the strictest and harshest grader I’ve ever come across. With her as my teacher, I spent the majority of my sophomore year stressed out. What I didn’t realize, however, was that the only reason I was struggling, was because I refused to acknowledge that what she was doing was teaching. The teachers I had previously, never challenged me in the way that she did and, because of that, I could do the bare minimum and still pass. After I finished her class, I realized that she didn’t just set me up to pass her class, but set me up to excel in the future. She changed the way I looked at education, and made me acknowledge that having trouble in a class didn’t mean that I was incapable;

I am a fortunate soul. I have two loving parents who raised me in a Christian home. We went to church every Sunday, both my parents worked, and they gave me everything I needed. My mother and father both gave me everything that I wanted, or better yet everything I asked for they tried to get. They didn’t just give me anything, no questions asked, there was discipline, respect, love, and humility. They thought I deserved the world and they tried to provide it. Was that so bad?

There is a quote that I have embraced during my professional journey I like that state, “The influence of a good teacher can never be erased”. As a product of the Muscogee County School district, my life mirrors that statement. If it were not for my awesome teachers I would not be the person and teacher I am today. Growing up poor, I lived in Wilson Apartments and attended Fox Elementary School. It was my kindergarten teacher Mrs. Vignery that ignited my passion to become a teacher. She would always hold my hand and made me feel loved despite my many issues. As a result, I wanted to pass this love to my students. I cannot remember not one single thing that she taught me, but I will never forget how she made me feel. I find myself holding

Coach Fowler moved to Muscle Shoals High School to take a job coaching football and Baseball when I was in the 7th grade and was going to also be my history teacher. In 7th grade I never knew that he would end up making a big impact on me and make one of my most dreaded classes one of my favorites. He would always have hands on learning activities, like using the smart board and having the whole class get into groups and do a projects and study guides together. He really kept the whole class involved in the lessons by walking around the room and asking random people random questions about the lesson just to see if the class is paying attention, while also keeping a smile on everyone’s faces. He is a really outgoing person, he rarely has bad days and always had a good vibe in his classroom. He taught me my sophomore year and senior year of high school as well. By the time that I was a senior we

For every change within a society, personal changes with “self” must happen. These social changes are important to people while, people who don’t benefit from it think changes within the self isn’t important for social changes. Personal change is a journey a person takes of discovering something within themselves and acting upon a social change. That social change is society evolving to better ways. Jane Goodall talks about her experience in a moment of truth with self being absent in a moment of need in her writing titled In the Forest of Gombe, where she spends a few weeks in the forest following chimpanzees has helped her cope with her grief of her husband. She comes to the realization that her “self” was nonexistent and everyone in

I learned quickly that being an effective teacher is an art that takes time and devotion. Many times, teachers are not provided with the necessary materials in order to maintain the various learning styles in a classroom. It is up to the teacher to create an environment where students can succeed. This is a full time job, meaning that a teacher’s work is not done once they leave the school. A teacher must contribute a significant amount of time and effort in order to see positive results in the school and in his or her own classroom. After observing my cooperating teacher’s strategies and learning more about the profession, I knew that I was going in the right direction with my life. I took a significant amount of knowledge away from this experience and have continued to strive to be the type of educator that I was blessed to work with during this experience. .

On a frigid afternoon junior year, Mr. Richmond, my beloved high school theatre teacher, changed my life. Lecture days in theatre class typically invited sighs from our energetic class of predominantly kinesthetic learners. On this particular day, Mr. Richmond announced he would be lecturing and the class energy dropped, as was to be expected. Nothing average occurred past that point, though. Our teacher proceeded to pass out a one-page handout that would impact me forever: a page of remarkable quotes on passion. As Mr. Richmond spoke, I scanned the handout. Toward the bottom, I found my all-time favorite quote. Gabrielle Berstein said, “Allow your passion to become your purpose and it will one day become your profession.” I suddenly found an articulate explanation of my innermost desire: to live purposefully. I still refer to the quote in times when I feel lost. Mr. Richmond’s lecture helped me acknowledge my passion for helping autism-spectrum kids in addition to theatre; and Berstein’s quote enabled me to articulate and follow my dreams.

These past four years have really been a life changing experience. From a childish freshmen not only at school but at home too, to a still sometimes childish senior, one who knows when and how to control himself. This school and its teachers have taught me so many lessons that will not be forgotten any time soon.

The three things that have made the biggest impact on and have influenced my life that shaped me into the person I am today are family background, experiences from my school year, and religious beliefs. Our culture provides a lens through which we view the world and interpret our everyday experiences. In order to know who I am today, I must look at who you’ve been. Many educators around the country are interested in developing a multicultural approach in their teaching. They find themselves in classrooms with 25 children of varying racial and cultural backgrounds, and are looking for ways to connect what they do in the classroom to the cultures represented by their students. Before we can begin to understand others, however, we need to understand ourselves and what we bring to our interactions with others.

In my life, I have been exposed to a challenge called change. Change can occur in many different ways and is dealt with in many different ways. I have come to the awareness that change can be the deepest of all things. I always thought that change occurred when you moved to a state or when you lost someone real close to you. Those are a challenge to change, yes, but change doesn’t have to occur over a climactic incident. It can just appear overnight when your brain winds up when it’s time to do something different. Even with friends that you used to have and know that move on. For example, most of my friends from elementary school, I don’t even talk to them anymore.

There have been very few events throughout my lifetime that I feel have impacted or inspired me with such noteworthiness and that I know will change my outlook on the world and affect me forever. One of those events occurred when I traveled to Portugal, my parent’s homeland. From this excursion in 2007, I learned the importance of family, most importantly the distant kind. It provided me with a totally different perspective on the world and how large and extended one’s family can really be; even across cultures and continents. I felt so fortunate learning this lesson at a young age and growing to appreciate the ideals I was brought up with as a child. The family I have in Portugal has always been there; however, their faces have aged and

For some reason or another certain students are drawn to particular teachers while other students are more fond of others. In my life I have studied under three memorable teachers. Teachers with which I was able to connect, to laugh, to share my misgivings. While I may have been close with each of these teachers, it is very clear, in retrospect, that each was very unique, and represented an entirely different class of teacher.

As children, we absorb information and learn from experiences that mold us into who we are. Many individuals impact a child’s life, but the most powerful and influential role lies in a devoted teacher, a teacher provides growth to students as a gardener would to a garden of flowers. Each child can bloom into a thriving flower so long as you water their garden with optimism, love, patience, and guidance. Throughout my educational experiences I was lucky enough to have educators who poured their knowledge and optimism into me, and now I would like to reciprocate that back to students who are in the position I was once in. Balancing life and school is hard enough for a student, but a powerful and caring teacher can steer you in the right direction. In this autobiography you will read about my educational background, experiences that influenced my decision to become a teacher, and what I believe the role of a teacher should be in a student’s life.

The end of school came eventually, and I abandoned dreams of the sixth grade. Luckily, I was transferring to another elementary school, but this offered me little consolation. Only dummies have to repeat a grade.

When I think about teachers that I have had in the past, several different ones come to my mind. Each of these educators stands out in my mind for a variety of diverse reasons. Whether it is their sense of humor, their tactfulness, their love of the subject matter, their fanatical and sporadic behavior, or their yearning to be childish themselves, I can still remember at least one quality of every teacher I have ever encountered. Every one of these teachers conveyed subject material to their students just as they were educated and employed to do. However, I trust that every professional in the world has an abundance of opportunity for improvement; teachers could discover and improve themselves merely by having