I love you
Mrs. Anderson...Nancy...I love you so much. I know that you will be smiling down on me from heaven. I wish I could have said goodbye before you left...I will NEVER EVER forget you and know that you have changed my life forever. To love another person is to see the face of god...well I have seen the face of god in you. You gave everyone everything you had without expecting anything in return. You were a funny, caring, giving, extraordinary person whom i was blessed to know. I feel bad for all of those who did not get to know the amazing woman that you were. Things will never be the same. We will meet again some day...till then though may you walk humbly with god and enter into his eternal kingdom...goodby dear friend...
Here's an essay I wrote in October about her:
The Perfect Teacher
One of my friends in high school was thirty-eight years older than I was, and was married with two children, both graduates of fine universities. Nancy, also known as Mrs. Anderson to most students at Holy Trinity High School in Hicksville, New York, is an extremely unique person. With sparkling personalities and dazzling teaching skills, teachers such as Mrs. Anderson are treasured by students. The memories made with these “treasures” are kept safe by students, locked away in their hearts and minds forever.
It is a typical school day at Holy Trinity High School, and after stumbling off the bus in a drowsy stupor, I head towards my first period class, bypassing my locker for lack of time. On this ordinary morning, my rotating class schedule has brought me to Mrs. Anderson’s room for English class. I step into her always frigid, movie poster decorated room and am greeted by the surprisingly satisfying smell of cigarettes mixed with perfume. I then spot the no more than five-foot tall woman, with short dyed blonde hair, sitting behind her obsessively organized desk sipping a diet coke out of a Barnes and Noble coffee mug. Her skin is tanned from a recent cruise and worn with wrinkles from years of smoking. She opens her mouth and out comes a raspy almost man-like voice,which is so distinctive that if I heard it years from now I would still remember it. As the class settles in, her amazing report with the students is immediately evident as she is heard cackling with another student across the room. She quickly walks to the front of the room and the magic begins. Today’s discussion is about Beowulf, which while sometimes difficult to understand and not liked by all, is made interesting and easy to understand by Mrs. Anderson. Her teaching methods are such that it is impossible to get bored. While she does give traditional notes and handouts, she makes it more exciting for the students. Mrs. Anderson makes sure that she brings the material down to our level and doesn’t try to sound far superior to us with her vast knowledge of the topic. She also tries to relate what she teaches to more current events so that we get a better understanding of what she is trying to say. With each piece that we read, she assigns a creative writing project to make sure that the class really understands what they have read. For Beowulf, we have to write a sequel trying to incorporate the style of old English that it was written in. After class, there is a small group of students huddled around her desk, not to talk about the assignment or a recent test, but to speak with her as a friend. As her “reality-television soul-mate,” I discuss last week’s riveting episode of “Survivor.” We tell each other our favorite players, and which ones we want to see kicked off. As the homeroom bell sounds, I tell her that I’ll e-mail her later about our latest obsession, “American Idol” and sprint up the two flights of stairs that it takes me to get to my homeroom on the fourth floor.
After the morning rituals of saying “The Pledge of Allegiance” and the “Our Father,” I visit my locker and pick up the books needed for my next class. Realizing that it is AP Biology, I angrily grab the “green monster” also known as Campbell’s Biology, and slowly shuffle off to the classroom. I sit at my desk barely keeping my droopy eyes
open, listening to Dr. Jones read almost verbatim from the review book, which we all have on our desks, and every now and then pretending to be interested in his digressions about his other job as a chiropractor. Time seems to crawl and I look at my watch expecting the period to be almost done when in reality there are still twenty minutes left. Finally, after a torturous period of not really learning anything I awake from an almost comatose state and dart out of the room as if I was just released from prison.
It isn’t that Dr. Jones was a bad guy, because he was actually very nice and relaxed about grading, allowing the class to fail almost every test but still making sure we didn’t get kicked off of the honor roll. However, when putting him up against Mrs. Anderson, there is no comparison. The difference between the two teachers is the perfect example of what separates a good teacher from a bad teacher. Mrs. Anderson is everything that a teacher strives to be. She is well liked by her students, well liked by the faculty, experienced, creative, and a model teacher. It may seem difficult to some to describe what makes a good teacher however, after having one of the best it becomes very easy. Good teachers such as Mrs. Anderson make sure that the material is well understood and even if the students don’t like it or find it boring they can still appreciate the value of learning it. Not once did I feel as if I was wasting my time reading another mundane novel about people I had no connection to or a poem based upon the incoherent thoughts of its author. On the other hand, a bad teacher will just spout out ideas without input from the students and the hope that the material is understood. Positive reinforcement is also key.
Sometimes teachers can get too obsessed with marking things wrong and using their red pens to make our papers colorful, that they can overlook what is good. Teachers such as Dr. Jones teach as if the school was run on time cards and the students punch in and out of class without ever being offered overtime. They could be teaching five students or one hundred students and their teaching methods would not change. Teachers such as this simply lecture with little to no input from the class and a sense of interruption when a question is asked. In contrast, good teachers take the time to get to know the students individually and while it is not possible to have a personal relationship with each student, it is imperative that the teacher at least makes an effort to get to know something about the student outside of his or her grades. Mrs. Anderson made sure that she was always available for everything from discussion about my essays to talk about my plans for the weekend. This is not to say that every teacher that I have had and considered to be good has gotten to know my life story. I have had plenty of good teachers who just taught the material and did so in such a way that they made the material interesting and fresh while still dashing out of school at two-thirty as soon as last period ends.
Truly exceptional teachers will be remembered by their students for years to come and the students will talk about people such as Mrs. Anderson at reunions and get-togethers with fellow students. Most teachers I have had, even the following year after I had their class, I did not talk with them and stop to actually see how they were doing.
However, teachers such as Mrs. Anderson make sure that they don’t lose touch with their students. Teachers want to know what their students will be doing in the future and take
a genuine interest in learning about a student’s goals and plans. My senior year of high school, I was in Mrs. Anderson’s classroom almost everyday discussing college
decisions, possible majors, the stresses of the week, or the complexities of teenage life. She would listen intently and then dole out advice as to what she thought was best. In situations such as this, students and teachers are no longer just in a relationship where there are tests and homework that culminate in a final exam. Students and teachers can truly become friends and begin to understand each other. Some teachers would do anything for their students and make sure that they know, constantly going out of their way to accommodate a student’s needs and tend to students problems. When students
feel so comfortable with a teacher that they can tell the teacher things that they won’t even tell their parents, then this is sign of an extremely special relationship. I think that
teachers want to get to know their students well just as much as students want to get to know their teachers.
Well it is finally the end of senior year and there are so many people I will miss, including Mrs. Anderson. Over the past year we have grown very close because I helped her with her grading, and was president of the volunteer club which she lead. The powerful recommendation she wrote for my college applications was extraordinary and moved me to tears when I read it. Towards the end of the year she summoned all of her “loveys,” as she called a group of seniors that she had become especially close with, to tell us that she was retiring and wanted to tell us even before her fellow co-workers or some of her friends because she wanted us to know that she was retiring for us. She had never had a greater class and felt that it was time to leave and she wanted to “graduate” with us. After school ended, we took the astonishingly great Mrs. Anderson out to dinner and ended a chapter in our lives that was enriched and enhanced because of her actions. Some time during the dinner, a woman who had been watching us from across the room the entire time came up to us and said, “Gee you must have some great teacher to take you all out to dinner on a Saturday night.” To which Mrs. Anderson replied, “No I have some great group of friends who wanted to celebrate my retirement with me on a Saturday night.” She glanced at all of us as huge smiles formed on our faces and cackled in her ever so distinguishable laugh. Turning serious she thanked us for all that we had given her this past year and said, “Thank you for sharing your thoughts, dreams, creativity and most of all friendship with me. You are a blessing in my life.” With no way to respond verbally, we gave Mrs. Anderson a standing ovation and smothered her with hugs. We finished eating dinner at nine o’clock and stood outside the restaurant until ten thirty talking and enjoying one of the last times we would all be together with Mrs. Anderson. Finally, we departed, and as I drove off in my dad’s silver Mazda, I decided not to turn on the radio but to just enjoy the moment and appreciate all that Mrs. Anderson brought to my life.
Teaching is one profession in which if a teacher does not give all of himself the students suffer. The best teachers don’t just hand out tests and papers with the goal of putting a grade on a report card. They make sure that their students grow as people and expand their minds. By doing this, teachers can develop such great bonds that at the end of the year, sadness overcomes them as they lose their students and move on. The same sadness can come over students and when this happens it is truly something special, and the greatness of that teacher is recognized to the fullest potential.
Here's an essay I wrote in October about her:
The Perfect Teacher
One of my friends in high school was thirty-eight years older than I was, and was married with two children, both graduates of fine universities. Nancy, also known as Mrs. Anderson to most students at Holy Trinity High School in Hicksville, New York, is an extremely unique person. With sparkling personalities and dazzling teaching skills, teachers such as Mrs. Anderson are treasured by students. The memories made with these “treasures” are kept safe by students, locked away in their hearts and minds forever.
It is a typical school day at Holy Trinity High School, and after stumbling off the bus in a drowsy stupor, I head towards my first period class, bypassing my locker for lack of time. On this ordinary morning, my rotating class schedule has brought me to Mrs. Anderson’s room for English class. I step into her always frigid, movie poster decorated room and am greeted by the surprisingly satisfying smell of cigarettes mixed with perfume. I then spot the no more than five-foot tall woman, with short dyed blonde hair, sitting behind her obsessively organized desk sipping a diet coke out of a Barnes and Noble coffee mug. Her skin is tanned from a recent cruise and worn with wrinkles from years of smoking. She opens her mouth and out comes a raspy almost man-like voice,which is so distinctive that if I heard it years from now I would still remember it. As the class settles in, her amazing report with the students is immediately evident as she is heard cackling with another student across the room. She quickly walks to the front of the room and the magic begins. Today’s discussion is about Beowulf, which while sometimes difficult to understand and not liked by all, is made interesting and easy to understand by Mrs. Anderson. Her teaching methods are such that it is impossible to get bored. While she does give traditional notes and handouts, she makes it more exciting for the students. Mrs. Anderson makes sure that she brings the material down to our level and doesn’t try to sound far superior to us with her vast knowledge of the topic. She also tries to relate what she teaches to more current events so that we get a better understanding of what she is trying to say. With each piece that we read, she assigns a creative writing project to make sure that the class really understands what they have read. For Beowulf, we have to write a sequel trying to incorporate the style of old English that it was written in. After class, there is a small group of students huddled around her desk, not to talk about the assignment or a recent test, but to speak with her as a friend. As her “reality-television soul-mate,” I discuss last week’s riveting episode of “Survivor.” We tell each other our favorite players, and which ones we want to see kicked off. As the homeroom bell sounds, I tell her that I’ll e-mail her later about our latest obsession, “American Idol” and sprint up the two flights of stairs that it takes me to get to my homeroom on the fourth floor.
After the morning rituals of saying “The Pledge of Allegiance” and the “Our Father,” I visit my locker and pick up the books needed for my next class. Realizing that it is AP Biology, I angrily grab the “green monster” also known as Campbell’s Biology, and slowly shuffle off to the classroom. I sit at my desk barely keeping my droopy eyes
open, listening to Dr. Jones read almost verbatim from the review book, which we all have on our desks, and every now and then pretending to be interested in his digressions about his other job as a chiropractor. Time seems to crawl and I look at my watch expecting the period to be almost done when in reality there are still twenty minutes left. Finally, after a torturous period of not really learning anything I awake from an almost comatose state and dart out of the room as if I was just released from prison.
It isn’t that Dr. Jones was a bad guy, because he was actually very nice and relaxed about grading, allowing the class to fail almost every test but still making sure we didn’t get kicked off of the honor roll. However, when putting him up against Mrs. Anderson, there is no comparison. The difference between the two teachers is the perfect example of what separates a good teacher from a bad teacher. Mrs. Anderson is everything that a teacher strives to be. She is well liked by her students, well liked by the faculty, experienced, creative, and a model teacher. It may seem difficult to some to describe what makes a good teacher however, after having one of the best it becomes very easy. Good teachers such as Mrs. Anderson make sure that the material is well understood and even if the students don’t like it or find it boring they can still appreciate the value of learning it. Not once did I feel as if I was wasting my time reading another mundane novel about people I had no connection to or a poem based upon the incoherent thoughts of its author. On the other hand, a bad teacher will just spout out ideas without input from the students and the hope that the material is understood. Positive reinforcement is also key.
Sometimes teachers can get too obsessed with marking things wrong and using their red pens to make our papers colorful, that they can overlook what is good. Teachers such as Dr. Jones teach as if the school was run on time cards and the students punch in and out of class without ever being offered overtime. They could be teaching five students or one hundred students and their teaching methods would not change. Teachers such as this simply lecture with little to no input from the class and a sense of interruption when a question is asked. In contrast, good teachers take the time to get to know the students individually and while it is not possible to have a personal relationship with each student, it is imperative that the teacher at least makes an effort to get to know something about the student outside of his or her grades. Mrs. Anderson made sure that she was always available for everything from discussion about my essays to talk about my plans for the weekend. This is not to say that every teacher that I have had and considered to be good has gotten to know my life story. I have had plenty of good teachers who just taught the material and did so in such a way that they made the material interesting and fresh while still dashing out of school at two-thirty as soon as last period ends.
Truly exceptional teachers will be remembered by their students for years to come and the students will talk about people such as Mrs. Anderson at reunions and get-togethers with fellow students. Most teachers I have had, even the following year after I had their class, I did not talk with them and stop to actually see how they were doing.
However, teachers such as Mrs. Anderson make sure that they don’t lose touch with their students. Teachers want to know what their students will be doing in the future and take
a genuine interest in learning about a student’s goals and plans. My senior year of high school, I was in Mrs. Anderson’s classroom almost everyday discussing college
decisions, possible majors, the stresses of the week, or the complexities of teenage life. She would listen intently and then dole out advice as to what she thought was best. In situations such as this, students and teachers are no longer just in a relationship where there are tests and homework that culminate in a final exam. Students and teachers can truly become friends and begin to understand each other. Some teachers would do anything for their students and make sure that they know, constantly going out of their way to accommodate a student’s needs and tend to students problems. When students
feel so comfortable with a teacher that they can tell the teacher things that they won’t even tell their parents, then this is sign of an extremely special relationship. I think that
teachers want to get to know their students well just as much as students want to get to know their teachers.
Well it is finally the end of senior year and there are so many people I will miss, including Mrs. Anderson. Over the past year we have grown very close because I helped her with her grading, and was president of the volunteer club which she lead. The powerful recommendation she wrote for my college applications was extraordinary and moved me to tears when I read it. Towards the end of the year she summoned all of her “loveys,” as she called a group of seniors that she had become especially close with, to tell us that she was retiring and wanted to tell us even before her fellow co-workers or some of her friends because she wanted us to know that she was retiring for us. She had never had a greater class and felt that it was time to leave and she wanted to “graduate” with us. After school ended, we took the astonishingly great Mrs. Anderson out to dinner and ended a chapter in our lives that was enriched and enhanced because of her actions. Some time during the dinner, a woman who had been watching us from across the room the entire time came up to us and said, “Gee you must have some great teacher to take you all out to dinner on a Saturday night.” To which Mrs. Anderson replied, “No I have some great group of friends who wanted to celebrate my retirement with me on a Saturday night.” She glanced at all of us as huge smiles formed on our faces and cackled in her ever so distinguishable laugh. Turning serious she thanked us for all that we had given her this past year and said, “Thank you for sharing your thoughts, dreams, creativity and most of all friendship with me. You are a blessing in my life.” With no way to respond verbally, we gave Mrs. Anderson a standing ovation and smothered her with hugs. We finished eating dinner at nine o’clock and stood outside the restaurant until ten thirty talking and enjoying one of the last times we would all be together with Mrs. Anderson. Finally, we departed, and as I drove off in my dad’s silver Mazda, I decided not to turn on the radio but to just enjoy the moment and appreciate all that Mrs. Anderson brought to my life.
Teaching is one profession in which if a teacher does not give all of himself the students suffer. The best teachers don’t just hand out tests and papers with the goal of putting a grade on a report card. They make sure that their students grow as people and expand their minds. By doing this, teachers can develop such great bonds that at the end of the year, sadness overcomes them as they lose their students and move on. The same sadness can come over students and when this happens it is truly something special, and the greatness of that teacher is recognized to the fullest potential.