On the first day of school in the eighth grade, my best friend and I slowly made our way into math class, dreading it as if it were any other math class. But little did we know, this class and this teacher, was completely different. I had no idea that now, in my junior year of high school, his advice would still be in the back of my mind and I would appreciate the life lessons he’d taught me.
In the beginning, Mr. Henning was just a math teacher, nothing special. As we warmed up to him as the year went on, he became the math teacher who made math funny, the math teacher who sacrificed so much of his time to help us understand, the math teacher who gave us all nicknames and let us call him H-dog, and the math teacher we could actually relate to.
Everyday he’d start the class off with a joke to get our attention. As he worked his way through the lesson, he’d start conversations and add his own funny stories to keep us with him. Mr. Henning knows every math student asks, when will we ever use this? Well, he gave us examples before anyone got a chance to ask. Math was still difficult for me. But when we asked for additional help, he arranged times that were the best for both me and him to work together.
I was spending so much time after school getting help that we really got to know each other. I considered him as not only a teacher, but a friend I could trust. I vented to him about fights with friends...everyday middle school stuff, and he gave me advice that was so deep that I still remember it and use it today. Somehow, he compared middle school issues to bigger things, like college, or getting a job. I still don’t know how he did that, but it stuck with me.
Mr. Henning was the most memorable teacher I’ve ever had. The way he cares about his students, both academically and personally, should make him educator of the year.