Dear High School Teachers,
You had the opportunity to teach me during some of the best and worst years of my life and may not have even known it. You provided me with opportunities to have small victories despite my failures and many of those have stayed with me to this day. When asked about my favorite teachers from high school, a few of you come to mind. Many of you taught my least favorite subjects, math and english, but found a way to still engage me in the material and get something out of the class. Sometimes you even made me begin to enjoy what I was learning. I didn’t always get the best grade in your class but that doesn’t mean I didn’t take something valuable away from it.
Thank you for keeping us nourished and entertained during your class. Although we spent a lot of time not doing math, (i.e. eating and playing board games) we always found a few minutes during class to go over notes and assignments. I still remember things I learned in your class even if it was that if you forget muffins you don’t get to eat the rest of the week. From interpretive dances in 9th grade to food-themed days in 11th, your class will always stand out to me as the most fun math class I ever took.
Your class was the last ever class I took at a high school in a building. I have a lot of good memories from your class including endlessly entertaining Hamlet skits, reading quizzes that always seemed to have problems, and heated discussions that ended up in debates and throwing a rubber ball at each other. I learned an immense amount about style, word choice, and format of a variety of different writing styles that I continue to reference to this day. I’m so thankful for the experience, and food parties, that your class provided me and I will hold those memories close to me for the rest of my life.
You were able to take a class that I hated, and had almost given up on, and help me not only pass it but also learn something and take pride and ownership in my small victories. I could still probably draw the unit circle from memory thanks to you. Although I am not planning on going into math at this point in my career, your patience and endless support of me in class, after class, and even after I was no longer your student, has inspired me to keep going and take pride in my little victories. Thank you.
You were one of my first teachers at an online school in one of my least favorite subjects of all time. As a seventh grader I still hadn’t grasped the idea that it was important to pay attention in class. I can’t tell you really anything specific that I learned but I remember the feeling I got when I had memorized a poem about wind, waves and a boat I think(?) ... I was so excited. I am still wondering a little why that was important but the feeling of having accomplished that small task was a feeling I will likely not forget any time soon. Even though I am not religious you had a message that still stuck with me. At the end of every class instead of wishing good things for us, you would ask us to go do good things for others and I think that was a very beneficial lesson for me to hear every week. It is something I have tried to embody since you instilled it in me only a few years ago.
Thank you to all of you for having an important role in helping me become the student I am today. No matter what subject you taught, you had other life lessons that have proven important as I have grown up.
Go be a blessing,
Annika
