Gabriella Leon
A significant moment that changed my view on education was when I had a teacher named Ms.Guillame in the seventh grade. I had her for two different courses, social studies and African American studies. She was the teacher everybody was scared to make the wrong move in front of and instead of resenting her for it I grew over the school year to appreciate her for it. she always held everyone accountable for their wrong doings, always taught us something new whether it had to do with the subject or not, and truly gave us a taste of the real world. She was what every teacher should strive to be.
Now Ms.Guillame was not liked by many students but
if we’re being realistic, the realest people don’t always tend to be. Before I got to know her I sighed when I saw her name across my schedule. I was used to getting teachers who never knew hot to put their foot down in their own classrooms. You know how unbelievable middle school kids can be right? My prior teachers never actually got their point across making it difficult to actually learn or even care to. I was just a girl in seventh grade and the last thing I wanted to think about was school. Ms.G (as we all called her since people couldn’t get the pronunciation right ) naturally made me lock in. She would pull me to the side and go in on me when I was slacking and she didn’t even make me feel bad about it. She just wanted to understand why I was slacking so much. She was trying to go above as a teacher and I felt safe. from then on I started to care about school. She didn’t just tell us hey you need to learn because the state says so like many teachers do, she explained why it should be important to us and why history matters. She made learning fun and I never wanted to miss her class. As much as I liked Ms.G ,she liked me just as much in return. Growing up I’ve always struggled getting along with authority figures but with Ms.G ? never. I grew to respect her and understand why she was hard on us because she wasn’t doing it to pick at us, she was doing it to build a foundation of education and why we should be more appreciative of the access we have to it compared to so many individuals around the world and I could never thank her enough.
I loved reading about Ms. G – it’s clear she made a lasting impression on you.
Before I got to know her I sighed when I saw her name across my schedule. >> This is a great detail – it puts the reader in your shoes and how you were feeling without explicitly telling us.
I’m curious to hear more about the moment that helped you realize why you should care about school. Was it the moment she pulled you aside? What did she tell you? What stuck with you? Was it something she did?