In the first semester of my sophomore year at Arrowhead High School, walking into my sixth-hour study hall, I was greeted by Mrs. Danay. The first thing I noticed was her curly light blonde hair and how she was always smiling. She was positive all the time. She made coming to study hall fun and motivating. 

       She’s a Business Education teacher and the Yearbook Advisor. I got lucky and had her as my study hall teacher. Her room had walls covered in the projects her students made. Her room was different than other teacher's rooms.

       She made it known to us that if we needed help in a class that we could come to her. She would go through our grades and tell us to keep working hard and keep up the great work. She did this because she wanted to see us all succeed and keep getting good grades.

       I remember her being encouraging and positive in that study hall. She would try her best to make sure that my grades weren't D’s or lower. She would check my grades to see if I had any missing work or if I needed help.

One time I had no motivation to do my math homework. She told me if I get some work done, she will give me fruit snacks as a reward. By doing that, it gave me the motivation to get my work done and work more on math. It made me realize she cares about me and the other kids in the study hall. 

       After I got back a test or quiz, I would talk to her about it and the grade I got on it. Most of the time I was proud of myself because I got a good grade on it. She would encourage me to keep up my work and not get behind.

       She treated us as if we were her own kids. This one time kids and I were talking about birthdays and I found out one of the kids had the same birthday as me. She heard us talking about how we had the same birthday and we decided we were going to have a birthday party. She told us she would bring in brownies for us to celebrate which I thought was very kind. 

She made me feel comfortable and was always so encouraging. She was basically like another mother-like figure to me. 

      Mrs. Danay, I am so thankful I got put into your study hall class during my sophomore year. I am so thankful that you taught me how to keep motivated even if I didn’t feel like it.