Mrs. Sharon Gardner
The
definition of a genius means something different to me. It is a person who has passion
for what they do. When I was young I had
always struggled to grasp the key concepts in almost all of the classes in
elementary school. I never excelled like all of my friends had done. It seemed
that every grading period I was fighting to stay just above mediocre. When my
parents had tried to do everything they
could to help me become a exceptional student, there was one person who wouldn’t
take no for an answer. Almost an answered prayer, her name was Mrs. Sharon
Gardner. She may have not invented something to change the world, instead she changed the life of a young kid, me.
When
kids are little, the saying is that 'their minds are like sponges, they always
absorb the bulk of what they learn when they are little', it almost all cases
is true. We learn the basics when we are in elementary school. Colors, shapes,
numbers, all are the beginning of the road to higher education. When it comes
down to the individual of a kid it makes all this difference of how the teacher
is able to present the information he or she is giving. No one kid is the same
as another. The way kids learn vary along with what subject it is over. The
teachers must find that balance in order to make it easy enough for all kids to
understand it. The teacher is responsible for all students success. When kids
fall behind, it is usually the students responsibility to catch back up, but at
such a young age kids are more susceptible to giving up. The definition of a
teacher is one who instructs at a school, but it is more than that. It is a
person who will do anything so that all of her students succeed.
When
I had entered 3rd grade it was going to be another year of me trying to stay
afloat when everyone one else was swimming. When my first grades came in from
the grading period they were bad. Mrs. Gardner was my teacher that year. She
scheduled a conference with my parents to figure out what steps she should do
in order for me to excel. When I had next seen my parents I remembered what
they had told me, "This teacher really loves you, cares about you, and
will not let you fail" and my parents were right. Mrs. Gardner had always
made it a priority for me to always complete homework and study for tests. She
never turned her back on me when I had done bad. No matter what it took, she
never let me fail. Fail was not in her dictionary and she made sure to get it
out of mine.
One
day after class we had been dismissed she had pulled me aside. She showed me a
test that I had received after her grading, with a F on it. I instantaneously
began to cry and so did she. I then asked her what did I do wrong, Mrs. Gardner
said "nothing, it's my fault."
She then went on to explain that
she would not give up on me until I succeeded. It was her techniques that had
finally gave me the edge that I needed to catch up in school. The countless
hours that she had to put into no other teacher would. We never had said that we wouldn’t be able to
do a problem, that no matter what we will always give our best with nothing
less.
