ROUGH Draft

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.