Three names float around my brain; all ranging from different stages of my education. Thinking about these past teachers, who I won’t name, inspired the list that I composed of those who’ve not only influenced my education but inspired me as a pupil. Don’t get me wrong all teachers, are important and influential. I’m thankful for all the teachers I've had and the education I received. Every teacher deserves to be recognized for their attributions for changing the lives of adolescents. I wanted to pay homage to those I personally believe are part of the reason I am who I am today.

My List:

My First and Second Grade teacher

My Fifth Grade teacher

My Eleventh and Twelfth Grade English teacher

My list is short; very short in fact. I would write about all the teachers I’ve had, but I knew right away who I would include simply because I didn't have to think about it. That's kind of the point-- I didn't have to think if they were influential; I know they were, looking back its so palpable.

It’s hard to remember back to the first and second grade, I’m sure every kid thinks their elementary school teachers were great. I happen to think my teacher was better than great, she was inspirational. Second Grade sure had some rad times, with all the arts and crafts, math without letters in it, and learning the alphabet.

What I remember most from first grade is that my teacher wanted to do a second year with us, so we had her again in Second Grade. It was rare for a teacher to do a Leap year but I'm glad she decided to. Everyone already knew each other in our second grade class, which made friendships stronger and learning exceptionally easier and more fun. My teacher inspired my life in a huge way that year. She encouraged us to write stories, have fun and be creative. Obviously, It’s the Second Grade, what do you expect?

Nonetheless, looking back this is a huge growth period for me. I started writing silly little stories during our writing time complete with horrible crayon illustrations, and now many years later I still think about those stories. We would read them to the class and I remember being encouraged to write more and more.

Eventually, Second Grade me wrote her first series. Pages filled with a plethora of errors, very short sentences, and were about five pages long-- but stories nonetheless. I stashed those somewhere around my house. I loved those stories, still love those stories-- it was about a pencil, it sounds weird now, maybe you had to be there. My teacher from second grade impacted my life with just that simple encouragement.

I love to read and write now that I'm older, and she helped inspire a yearning to act on it at a young age. In Second Grade, at age eight, I was inspired by a teacher without really realizing so. She was, by the way, the nicest First and Second Grade teacher-- she always had a smile everyday. This is one of the few times I can remember loving going to school to learn. Even if it was Second Grade, that doesn't really matter or dismiss the fact that she entered my life at that moment and changed it, set me on my creative path. My life is unimaginable without being in a creative field.

Fifth grade-- I remember what I wore on the first day of school. It was a horrific blue strapless shirt bedazzled at the bottom. Unlike my shirt, my teacher wasn’t horrific I can picture her perfectly in my head. She wore dark clothes majority of the time. I do that now too, but that's not the reason she's one of the inspiring teachers on my list.

She taught my sister a few years prior so I had heard all about her. The stories were true, she's the best. As a math teacher, her corner classroom was filled with math posters, textbooks, Mad-Minutes and a digital clock because we, the students, didn't like to read the analog clock.

She was a strict teacher, but in free moments before and after class, she cracked a smile and made the effort to know her students. She’s a great person. She gave me a pin with a character from Twilight on it. I still have it and makes me smile when I remember who gave it to me. I was reading the Twilight series that year, and so was my teacher. She even borrowed one of the books from me. I was nervous to take on that big of a book but once we started talking about it, I found out I really enjoyed it and she introduced me to other students who were reading it which lead to me making a whole new group of friends. These friends basically became my core group until high school. My fifth grade math teacher gave me the confidence to be myself, to find people who actually liked me and had stuff in common.

Not only did she help my math skills and inspire and strengthen my love of reading fantasy novels, but she was a teacher that cared for her students. Yes, she was strict and older, and as a consequence I'm sure some of my peers didn't like her but she was there for me when I needed an adult to talk to while in school.

She became a friend of sorts. For instance she was the first person in school who ever saw me wear eye glasses. My glasses made me insecure sometimes but I was so excited to show her. I have a cornucopia of happy memories from being in her class. She really inspired me to be myself. I was scared of what others thought of me. Through reading the same book and meeting new people, she gave me the confidence to do my own thing.

Now for the last on my list. Where do I even start. She happened to be my English teacher for half of my high school career. Its a very strange and unsettling feeling to not have her as a teacher anymore. I remember in my Honors English class on one of the first days of Junior year she said that she liked teaching the higher grades more than the younger students. That always made me laugh a little. It almost describes her as a person but in the best way possible. She didn't want to deal with the immaturity that came with the younger kids.

She definitely is one of my favorite teachers from high school. She was a very genuine and caring teacher. She almost could come across as sarcastic and sassy occasionally but she taught us like we were real people, not like we were below her like some teachers do. It was refreshing to be in that environment. It opened my eyes to being more social during the class and gave me a more optimistic and realistic view of learning and the world.

It wasn't an easy class; she was a tough grader for her honors students. Maybe I was just really bad at the class. I don't know, but I was new to the whole ‘honors’ grading. She pushed me to work harder, to try harder, and I'm grateful she did. In past English classes I did well-- a little studying here and there, but it wasn't difficult to to grasp the concepts and make a good grade. Yet I was faced with a new situation.
My teacher gave us vocabulary words every week and we had to memorize the word, definition, and fill in the blank test on Fridays. If you couldn't remember a word, well tough luck. She wouldn't give you a hint. This made me develop a new study system that made the words stick in my mind better, and as a result I got better grades. I use this studying technique constantly now for multitudes of subjects.

She had us think deeper about what we were reading and the possibilities it had, all while pointing out her favorite characters and her least favorite characters. I mentioned that she was far from a languid grader, especially on our essays. I don’t think I ever got a grade that I didn't deserve. Sure I complained about it constantly to my parents at the time, but now I see how beneficial that was. She gave you the grade the work you handed in was worth. I worked awfully hard on those essays and I thought they were good but my grade wasn't reflecting that. By the end of that year, I got the higher grade I wanted for an essay I’m incredibly proud of. My teacher took no sass, she kept our classes on track, and focused. She understood that we wanted to talk and she let us, reasonably, and she cut the complaining before it began.

My Senior year I requested to have her as my teacher again. I knew how she worked, and I also knew that I wouldn’t prosper as much If I had another certain teacher. See having her as a teacher made me want to go and learn. I was excited to see what we would be doing that day, it was almost like I was in second grade again. My first period was English which meant starting the day off with a teacher I really liked, a teacher I enjoyed being around, a teacher’s humor I got and whose class I was excited to go to.

My teacher had us at the beginning of the year write up mock-college admittance essays. Which gave me the inspiration for my college essay, and it worked since I’m college bound. Anyway, we read different genres my senior year, I became enthralled with different literature. It inspired me to research further into some of the topics. If my teacher hadn't introduced those topics to our class, I wouldn't have read them on my own.

There's so much she instilled in me by being my teacher, and I can’t exactly pin point inspiring moments but as a whole event it changed my life. Even though I previously had her, I still tried to push myself to do better. It was my senior year and I wanted to do well. Since those vocabulary tests the year before inspired my study system, I kept up with it. It was something I quite enjoyed doing. I felt more prepared. I found myself able to write in a more focused and sharpened way and I give credit to her.

She would take apart our writing when it needed to, and she would praise our writing when it was earned. She gave us a sheet at the beginning of the year of writing rules not to break dubbed “The Unforgivables” along with her tips. I saved that sheet, it makes a great reference and reminds me that she was one of the best teachers I had. Even though I tend to break those rules sometimes. This was a teacher that knew her students and cared, she encouraged me to follow a creative pathway. She was actually the last teacher I saw right before I walked at graduation.

Over the last twelve years of school, I’ve had the good, the bad, and the weird when it comes to teachers. As a result, they shaped me into the student I am. I look forward to my list growing as I go through college but these three teachers will always inspire me and always will have had played a part in making me who I am. They unquestionably influenced me and no words can do justice to how thankful I am for them.You know my list-- I’m curious, whose on yours?