Educator of the Year Essay

        Out of all the teachers I have had over my educational career, only one has truly stuck out. I have had many teachers that all just seemed the same. They all seemed bland and had that “all work with no spice to it” feel about them. I've only ever had one favorite teacher. This teacher has stayed my favorite because of his teaching style, things he has done to help me, and his overall positive attitude during teaching my favorite topic. This teacher was my 8th grade social studies teacher, Mr. John Thomas.

To start off, Mr. Thomas was also my 8th grade homeroom teacher. This meant I saw him the most out of all my teachers in 8th grade. This allowed me to have conversations with him outside of social studies class, and I got to know him better. We talked about old war movies and daily news that both of us saw night before. Talking to him was easy because of how laid back and relaxed he was all the time. He had one of the funniest ways of teaching without going overboard with it. He would talk about brutal wars in history while cracking jokes about silly things our founding fathers did back then. This made listening and paying attention more interesting than it would have been.

        Mr. Thomas was one of those teachers that didn’t just give you work and a big book and send you on your way. I have had many teachers who were like this and that’s why I never really liked them. Mr. Thomas would always give us interactive work. This was work he would go along with us and kind of do it with us. This did make the work easier, and it made the knowledge stick more. He would also show us lots of movies and tv shows that were involved in the topic we were learning. We watched movies that were based off of the years of Jamestown and the Native Americans. We also watched movies based off of the Civil War and George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River. This would give us a visual representation of what some of the activities that happened back in time looked like. He would always help his students that were struggling too. An example of this was when I was struggling on a topic and then bombed the test before I could ask for help. when I  finally asked for help, he pulled me aside for a whole lunch period and ran me through a slide show to show me what I got mixed up on. This helped tremendously and helped me ace the next test we had. It was the extra mile he would go too to help students, that made all the difference.

        Mr. Thomas was always laid back during class. He never yelled at the class constantly though he did have to sometimes. This was usually to just calm down the class from laughing or to get us back on track, and we did get off track a lot. Though this was usually because of a story he would tell about an experience he had from a trip to a foreign country. Frequently, these stories did hide a lesson in them like what it looks like in a different country and what they do different from us. One example was how funny it can be having a conversation with someone who speaks a completely different language.  When he was teaching, he made sure to take as many questions as he could. He always had a saying “that there is no such thing as an idiotic question, just misleading ones”.

Another really big thing that my grade did with Mr. Thomas was go on a trip to the town of Williamsburg, VA. This was a 4 day trip that the whole 8th grade went on. We went to study and observe the town and learn about how people lived in there during the 1700s. We went to all the different shops and buildings in the town. We even went to the tavern that George Washington always ate in ,and we had a massive dinner party there! Over all the trip was a total blast ,and I was with Mr. Thomas the entire time, just talking to him about all the different buildings and shops.

        Overall, Mr. Thomas was a really good teacher to me at least. We all have our favorite teachers because of different reasons, and I liked him for my reasons. He was always just so interesting and funny to listen to, and that’s what made his class good to be in. I learned more history from him than any other social studies class yet. To me, that’s the mark of a good teacher ,and that’s why I recommend him for Educator of the Year.