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Megan ShewProfessor BlairUWRT 1102-0212 February 2015The Best Teacher I Have Ever HadAlthough she was short, only around five feet, two inches in stature, and in her late twenties, Mrs. Williams was well known throughout the school. From being one of the sponsors of Junior Beta Club and teaching mathematics for eight years, she encouraged success and dedication through not only academics, but in extra-curricular and community service activities as well. Her top priority was her students and it was evident by others surrounding her that she loved her job. She cared for her students, from math in the classroom to casual conversations in the hall such as, Hey, how is your day going? It was obvious her students were important to her. Her positive attitude not only lit up the classroom, but affected the students and faculty around her. With such enthusiasm like hers, students were excited to learn in such an uplifting atmosphere.Walking into her large classroom with cream walls and bright lights from the sun reflecting in the windows, her small presence made a big impact in the classroom. With Algebra being the last class of the day, her warmth and friendless always seemed to rub off, and she cared more for her students than any teacher I had ever seen. The day usually began with an explanation of the daily objective which was written and organized on the board and a description of the lesson we were learning that day, followed by us copying down notes she wrote. Sometimes she would throw in a joke that related to Algebra to add laughter in the classroom. What does the little mermaid wear? and a couple of students spouted off answers, and then she replied, An algae-bra. Her humor always made a good start to the last class of the day. Her main goal for her students was success, and she would do everything possible to make sure that happened. She always took into consideration that every student learned at different paces even though we were an advanced class. One topic I will never forget learning is solving quadratic equations. She first taught us how to solve these equations by factoring the quadratic, setting each factor to zero, and then solving. We watched her perform many examples on the overhead that projected onto the smart board at the front of the classroom. To make sure we understood, she would randomly call on us to come solve the problem on the board. One day she explained that the quadratic may be too messy or may not be factorable at all, but that the Quadratic Formula could always find the solution. In the middle of class, she stood up and began to cheerfully sing, The opposite of b, the opposite of b, plus or minus square root, plus or minus square root, b squared minus four ac, b squared minus four ac, over 2a, over 2a. The class burst out with laughter, which I am sure could have been heard in the hallway. She then explained what this formula meant, and it all made sense. She talked about how the variables a, b, and c used in the formula were the numbers in the equation and you just plug them in. The one step she showed us that was the most important and to make sure we did correctly, was arranging the equation in the correct order, which was ax^2+bx+c=0. After she taught this and gave an explanation of why, she made us stand up and join her to sing this mnemonic. This was supposed to help us learn, but it became a fun experience that continued on for the following weeks. Still to this day, when I hear the words Quadratic Formula I automatically flash back to her class and us singing to memorize the formula.Mrs. Williams was highly dedicated and organized with her classroom materials. She taught everything that would be needed for the progression courses. From the quadratic equations, inequalities, to functions, she knew her material and knew it well. One topic most students struggled with was learning functions. We spent about a week and half learning functions and how to identify them. To make this task easier, we made function books that consisted of four front and back pages of notes. Everything from vertical line test, domain and range, and transformations of functions to various drawings of graphs were to be included. She made us practice these by doing example after example because she told us we would not learn or get better at the subject if we did not practice. She never let us take shortcuts, so she spent extra days on the lessons teaching us how to solve problems by hand before teaching us the quicker way, on the graphing calculator. If we still struggled to grasp the concept, she offered tutoring in her classroom, both before and after school.Even though she could be very sarcastic at times, it added humor. It was near the end of the semester and we were reviewing all the previous lessons in preparation for the final exam. One girl blurted out, Which axis is the x and which is the y? Mrs. Williams looked at her with sass and responded, What planet have you been on all semester? The girl laughed it off and exclaimed that she knew them, but just got them confused. Mrs. Williams never let her live that one down. If everyone had a teacher like her, school and learning would be looked at with more of a positive point of view. With such great knowledge of the subject and high expectations because she knew the capability of her students, she pushed us all harder and made sure there was no time for laziness. One day a student who got in trouble quite frequently fell asleep in her class. She simply paused in the middle of the lesson, grabbed a textbook off her desk at the front of the room and walked quietly to his desk. We all knew what she was about to do. She dropped the textbook and Bam! we heard as the book slammed against the floor. The student jolted up, and that was the first and last time he ever fell asleep in her classroom. She respected the students and expected to receive the same respect in return. I hope that everyone has at least one great teacher like Mrs. Williams that will teach you much more beyond lessons you learn in a classroom, but lessons that will remember forever.