I didn’t meet my favourite teacher until my first year of university. The subject was Citizenship or a type of History, my least favourite teacher. I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it through the class because I’m terrible at history and remember all the various events. My professor’s name was Gerry, just Gerry. He was an older teacher with a quiet intelligence and strength but still had so much energy in his class.
Gerry taught his class with a passion that swept up each of his students into his lesson. When hr assigned the first essay, I wasn’t worried because I being such a good teacher I figured that I had a good grasp on the topic. Two weeks passed and when Gerry gave us back our essays I began to get very worried. This was the first C that I had ever received in my life; I didn’t know what to do. So I went to talk to Gerry and this is when our usual talks became. I was not his favourite student and he never helped me anymore then another in the class but Gerry managed to help me find a style of writing. I always had been praised for my writing skills but Gerry got me to take them to the next level. I slowly worked myself up from that C and my last essay was one of the best pieces that I have every written. I was so happy when I got my final essay back not only because I had received a good grade but mostly because I knew that I had worked to earn this grade
Gerry gave me a different view into the teacher’s world. In the past I had always known my teachers to have a forceful style of teaching and they either liked you and your work or they didn’t. Although they would put in extra time to help you if you needed they never really seemed like they believed that you could do it or they just didn’t want to be there with you. Gerry always went a step further then he needed to. He got to know all he could about you so that he could talk to you on a different level. Gerry was a friend that you could cry to or just spend hours talking to. Although I ended up leaving the university during the next semester when Gerry was on holiday, he still touched my education in a way that no other teacher had done before.
I later returned to Gerry’s class to visit and see how he was doing. I hadn’t spoken to him since I left and I had never gotten the chance to explain to him my reasons for leaving. I crept past his class in worry because I wasn’t sure what he had heard and whether he would want to see me. After I left I was sure that there had been many rumours running around the small program that I was in. He happened to catch a glimpse of me through the open door. Gerry immediately stopped his class and came out into the hall to give me a huge hug. Gerry changed my views on teaching in everyway possible and even though I do not want to replicate his teaching style, there are many things from him that I will take and always remember.
-- Sacha-Rae Teixeira, American University