My 2022 Educator of the Year Contest Nominee | Teen Ink

My 2022 Educator of the Year Contest Nominee

February 24, 2022
By HPopham BRONZE, Cartersville, Georgia
HPopham BRONZE, Cartersville, Georgia
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

  Have you ever had that one teacher who just made what they taught easier? Or they made that subject fun and inspired you? For me that teacher is my 8th grade math teacher: Mr. Lloyd Taylor. Mr. Taylor, also known as Coach Taylor, is an inspiring man who has taught for about 10 years. Though he hasn’t served at Cartersville Middle School for very long he has made a truly incredible impact on me and my peers. Coach Taylor takes the time to explain everything step by step, he makes math fun, and he pushes everyone to their limits and beyond. 
  In my school, we have a typical six period day. Coach Taylor is my fifth period honors math teacher. Since we’re an honors class he naturally gives us work a bit more challenging than regular classes, but many students in my class work very poorly and dislike Coach Taylor. Thankfully, he takes the time to explain every step needed for certain math problems and shortcuts so that we don’t have to write down every single step. I believe that he has helped many students with his methods and has worked hard to prepare us for high school. I owe him a lot for his patience with me and my fellow students on our journey to better understand math. 
  Another reason why Coach Taylor is such an amazing teacher is that he finds ways to make math fun. Though many would disagree with me, he finds small ways to make math lively and exhilarating. For example, one of the methods he has used in his teaching has been with the little Billy and little Susie method. Earlier in the school year, when we were learning scientific notation, he used this method to help us better understand that when the mantissa goes up the power of ten goes down and vise versa. This is just one of the methods he has used to make math more interesting. By using the methods that he uses Coach Taylor has made my understanding of the math we’re learning very exceptional. 
  Finally, one of the best things that I have found about Coach Taylor is that he pushes everyone to their limits and encourages them to break those limits. The majority of kids in my class period are baffled as to how they even got into honors math and barley put the effort that should be put into their work. Coach Taylor pushes them nonetheless and challenges them to do better. For example, whenever we take a test Coach Taylor often gives us extra questions or an assignment to do afterward. A lot of times I don’t appreciate this because I simply don’t want to do any extra work, but later on I realize that he does this to challenge us and to help us do better. Because of this particular quality, I believe that he has pushed me to do my absolute best at math. 
  In conclusion, Coach Taylor is an amazing teacher and has done so much to help me and my peers better understand the world of math. Though Coach Taylor has been incredible I have to give the credit of laying the foundation of my newfound love of math to Mrs. Kalley Palmer who helped me through a lot during my seventh-grade year of math. Both of these awe-inspiring teachers have done so much for students like me and I will remember them both for helping inspire me to do my best at everything and anything I do. 



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