My Most Influential Teacher

My most influential teacher was my grade two teacher, Mrs. M.

I was a gifted kid with an individual education plan, which, in the early-mid 00s, was hit and miss with how teachers treated it.  I had some teachers who were great and always had extra things for me to learn and discover, and I had others who left me with nothing to do but disrupt my neighbours or sit quietly by myself once I inevitably finished my work well before the other students.

Mrs. M was the best.  I still remember being eager to finish my work early and bring it up to her desk, because that meant I’d get to hear the magic words.

“What do you want to learn about today, Keely?”

It was glorious.  I already knew how to read and write and do math.  Once I showed her I knew what I was doing, I had the whole world ahead of me.  I could learn about anything I wanted: space, pirates, hippopotamuses, the daily life of twelfth century royalty.  Any topic I wanted, I’d tell her, and she’d give me a library pass, a clipboard, and a time to be back.

“Go learn everything you can about it,” she’d tell me, and I would.

I’d spend all my extra time in the library, filling my brain and the papers on my clipboard with everything I could find on whatever I was interested in.  Once I’d read every book in the library on the topic, I’d hand in my papers and tell her my next topic.  A few days later, I’d get my papers back and eagerly read her comments on what I’d learned.

Mrs. M was my most influential teacher because it was obvious how much she cared.  She saw that I was eager to learn and that I needed more than what she could conceivably teach me herself while also incorporating the needs of the rest of the class.  She went above and beyond in inspiring me to do more than what was simply required of me, to go after what I wanted to know and to learn everything I could.  In showing me that someone was willing to listen to whatever off the wall subject I wanted to research, her encouraging words and interested comments still inspire me to go after the things that I want.

I hope to be a teacher like Mrs. M one day.  I want to be able to inspire my students to take their learning beyond the classroom, to take their education into their own hands and learn anything they want.  I hope to be a teacher that can balance the different needs of students, and create a learning environment that allows them all to blossom to the best of their abilities.

Thank you, Mrs. M, for being amazing.