When I think about a teacher that influenced my life, only one comes to mind: Lisa V. Mrs. V. was my advisor for Student Council for all four years of high school, my teacher in a Mythology class my junior year, and my friend still to this day. When you are young, you tend to forget that anyone else has a life, and you are convinced that your problems are the center of the universe. As I look back at how busy Mrs. V. was during my highschool career ( she taught full time, was the advisor to my entire class of 170 students, and had three children within four years), I am amazed at the patience and time she spent making sure we all had a good experience as high school students.

     Beyond being an amazing advisor, she was also an excellent teacher. The class I took with her was challenging, and had the potential to be really boring. It was a mythology course that focused on creation myths in all cultures, the bible as a source of mythology and Greek Mythology. Although I had no interest in any of these things before I began the class, somehow she made these topics come alive. We did projects, wrote creative stories, watched movies, made our own movies and a variety of other activities in order to keep the class interesting. I am not a religious person, and I had no prior knowledge of the bible until this class. Since I have been in college I have been amazed at the amount of information from that class I have been able to recall and use in my classes. Mrs. V. kept my attention all semester and pushed me to do my best. There were no easy A's in this class, you really had to work. Because I respected her and her approval was important to me- I tried really hard and did my best to get an A.

     More than just being an excellent teacher, Mrs. V. was always a friend to me. Her classroom was always a safe place I could go when I needed to talk to someone. Whenever I needed anything ( and still to this day) she was always there for me, recomendations, help with homework, advice or anything else I needed was never too much to ask of her.

     I am still in touch with Mrs. V. today and I visit her when I am home from school. I feel like I can completly trust her, and I appreciate her advice. If I could model my teaching style after one teacher I encountered it would definatly be her.