Dear the World’s Greatest Writing Teacher,

The day I walked into class in fourth grade, you terrified me. You had a strict set of expectations, and the big words you talked about really intimidated me. I never had a teacher who did not baby us until you, and being in your class was truly life changing year for me.

When you handed back our first assignment, I remember the highest grade in the entire class being an 88, since you knew everyone could always improve so much more. At first, I believed you were the meanest and worst fourth grade teacher I could have possibly gotten, but I subconsciously pushed myself to absorb all your advice and techniques because of the bad grade.

Every Friday you would pull out an SAT vocabulary book and colorful notecards to help prepare us for a brighter future. I cannot count the number of times I used the words loquacious, gregarious and tenacious in my writing. To this day, your strong verbs and adjectives books push me to use words such as exhibits instead of shows or dissatisfied instead of sad. After a year of constantly referring to your cute, helpful handouts, I found myself exploring a much wider vocabulary and never submitting any essays without consulting my beloved thesaurus first.

Once I finally adjusted to your intense teaching style, I grew fonder of you and began to really look up to you. Not only were you incredibly passionate about writing, you also genuinely cared about your students’ success. Despite your expectations and strict grading, you always encouraged us and tried to make the learning experience as enjoyable as possible. Sitting under umbrellas while writing or reading our rough drafts to ourselves through PVC pipes even motivated those who despised writing to produce decent results. My personal favorite by far, however, was the four alligator stuffed animals we played with while we wrote our hearts out.

Ever since sixth grade, I feel as if the quality of my writing instruction declined significantly. Whether you raised the bar too high or they really are not that great, I remember and use every little detail you taught me. I wish all the English teachers could be like you, because it is you who initially sparked my interest in writing. If my frightened fourth grade self never walked into your classroom that day, I would not be nearly as high achieving as I am today. I would probably refuse to take any AP English classes without you, and I would definitely dread writing each and every essay assigned. You gave me the ability to work with the worst of prompts and overcome my writer’s block, which really got me through the last few years of school. Although I'm terrified of what you may think of my writing if you read this, it was your compassion, encouragement and creativity that gave me the opportunity to publish this for you.

Sincerely,
The Luckiest Student Ever