The legend of Mrs. Engdahl’s eighth grade English class had been told throughout the town of Sharon. Everyone knew she was the toughest teacher in the system, yet every student who had her swore she was the best teacher they ever had. When I found out I was going to her have for English I was torn. I was intimidated of teachers who challenged their students in eighth grade as though they were already in high school, but I knew I would learn more from her than possibly any English teacher I had ever had. I cannot say that I remember the details of the first day or specifics like that, but those details were not what made Mrs. Engdahl so special.
Her class was demanding, and she expected everyone to do exactly as she asked. When I first started listening to her discuss exactly how our notebooks should be set up, each section with each piece of paper in the same order, the intimidation set in. She would check our notebooks every week, and that would be one of the many grades added into her point system. Weeks went by, we diagramed sentences picking out the nouns, verbs, pronouns, and adjectives. We read Shakespeare and depicted each and every part of the play until we understand the Merchant of Venice inside out. The truth of the matter is that it was not the play we wrote or the sentences we diagramed over and over again that made Mrs. Engdahl a teacher who made an everlasting impression on her students. What set Mrs. Engdahl apart from other teachers was the faith she had in her students. She was not like other teachers who thrived with the fast track students and looked past those who just were not a the head of the class. She treated all her students as equals and she expected nothing but the best from each and every one of them. She demanded perfection, but the truth of the matter was if you did everything she asked there was no way you could not get an A.
Her class was demanding, homework at least four out of five nights out of the week, but there were also rewards that came with the hard work. One of our first group projects was to write a Halloween story for children. They stories were turned into illustrated books, and on Halloween we dressed up as the characters in our books and read them to elementary school students. Each group’s stories soared with creativity because we all wanted our books to stand out to the elementary students. They stories were also filled with great detailed sentences from our endless days of diagramming sentences. At the end of the year our field trip was a three-day trip to Montreal. Mrs. Engdahl was in charge of setting up the entire trip of sight seeing. We saw so much of the city in three days and it brought us closer to our teacher by being with her outside of the classroom.
When it comes down to it, the reason why Mrs. Engdahl left such an impression on her students was not because of the field trips she sent us on or the amazing lessons we will never forget. I still have the purple three ring binder with everything in the exact place it was suppose to be. I keep it with me to check to make sure my sentences are correct or if there are any other grammar questions I have. She never showed who her favorite students were, but she had a way of setting the standards high for all of her students.
I was no stand out in Mrs. Engdahl’s class, but I felt like one. She made me believe in myself and made me believe that I could succeed in school, just like the rest of my classmates. Although there was no tracking in my middle school sometimes we got caught up in the honors and A.P. tracks. Mrs. Engdahl made me feel like I belonged to the highest tracks when some teachers made you feel like you did not belong. I carry her lessons with me far out of the classroom.
-- Jaimie Lambert, American University