Every student comes across countless teachers throughout their education. However, there are only a few who can leave a lasting impact on your life and motivate you to push through your struggles. My current 8th grade English teacher, Mrs. Hernandez, is one of the select few who leaves you inspired. Mrs. Hernandez is a unique teacher who not only allows flexibility in the classroom with the activities done but also introduces engaging activities that improve one’s skills.

To commence, I used to think writing was not my strength, which it isn’t, but her lessons helped me regain the confidence I had lost due to a negative relationship with my dad. One example of how I was able to regain my confidence is when she has us journal every week for 10-15 minutes, and she occasionally reads from her journal from her teenage years. That particularly helped me as I could relate to her feelings, as her parents also immigrated to the United States. The things she went through as a child and the feelings she felt were relatable, and listening to how she overcame her issues was uplifting. We also had a mini-lesson on poetry where she printed out the lyrics of a song, “Papercut” by Linkin Park, to show how songs we listen to in our day-to-day lives also have a poetic angle to them, in the sense that they also have a deeper meaning that we can read “in between the lines” with. Mrs. Hernandez also gave us an opportunity to interview someone close to our heart and write a paper about them to inform people about the person we chose to write about. This gave me an opportunity to write about my maternal grandfather, who went through many struggles from an early age to survive and flourish. Being able to interview him was an experience I will remember my entire life.

Additionally, she also helps students come up with solutions to any of their problems. After we write in our journals, she reads them when we allow her to, and she comes up with a well-thought-out response for us to improve our situation. She also has ways of discipline without being strict. For example, we have state testing in two weeks, so she introduced a series of games in which teams work together to represent a county of choice. She somehow manages to find a way to change even your worst nightmare into the best day.

In conclusion, Mrs. Hernandez should be declared the “Educator of the Year” because she has the ability to change the course of one’s life, and she chooses to do so in a positive way rather than other methods that would be harder and more dreadful. Moreover, she should win because she’s a teacher who says, “Okay, here’s the problem I’ve been noticing that you’ve been facing, and here’s what we can do to improve it.”