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Educator of the Year Contest

I am a senior at Riverway Learning Community, a Pre-K through 12th grade school that focuses on project based learning.  At the end of this year I will graduate. I’m going on my thirteenth year of attending school here. Riverway is the only school I’ve attended. I never had a chance to experience a public school with halls, desks, and lockers. I only have experience of projects, research, and hands on activities, not to mention building a community with the littles in our school. We’re a community!
For as long as I have been here, from four years old until now, there’s one teacher that’s been with me on this journey. Her name is Leslie Lehnertz, the Secondary Leader of Teaching and Learning and the math teacher for the Secondary students. She also hangs around throughout the day and helps us with our other work as well.
To me, Leslie is more than just a teacher, more than just the “grumpy math teacher” you see in front of the math classroom. She’s seen me grow from a seed that was planted here at Riverway. Leslie has seen me change over the years; she has seen what kind of a mess I can be; she has seen my mistakes and she has seen me succeed. But looking back, I know that she has always been there for me, and will continue to be there for me through thick and thin.
Since she’s seen me grow, she knows me and who I am. She knows what is best for me. When I get confused in my learning, she lets learning a different way become an option. Visually or hands on are the two best ways I learn. I’m not the best at reading out of a book and jotting down information for a project, but I am good at learning by using my hands. So she talks to me and tells me that I should do hands on projects instead, like making something to share with everyone, or make a model, a timeline, or just something that will help me to understand what I am learning, but also something interesting for others to learn during my presentations.
I took her advice and later did some research, and I looked into different hands on projects. I looked into some other ways of doing a project instead of a Powerpoint where I would look at the projected image and read the words off the slide. Instead, I wanted to do something that would engage the audience.
Since Leslie has been here for a very long time, it shows that her love for this school is tremendous. Her passion for us to get the best education is second to none. She pushes us to do our best. When I say “I can’t do it” she tells me I can; she knows I can. She helps me longer than she should if I am stuck, for then I understand what I just about gave up on! This teacher has done so much for me. She has told me about other ways to learn. For math she told her class to check out this website called Khan Academy. It was very helpful and math was more clear. She helps other students the same way. If they have questions about anything, you can find her at her desk if she isn’t taking care of other stuff around the school for us.
She has became a big part of my life and others’ as well. She has been there to help with any problem whether it be school related or not. Her focus seems to be for us to feel safe when we come to school here. It is important to Leslie that we feel like we’re a community. We are a community here at Riverway. It is a place I call home.