Mrs. Jurewicz is like a beautiful cluster of daisies, standing tall and strong in an open field during a rainstorm. She is a biology teacher at Arrowhead High School (south campus) and she also has a class titled Science Tech and Space at north campus. I am currently in both of her classes and absolutely love her as a teacher, she never fails to have a smile on her face and her mood brings everyone up around her.

On the first day of both classes she shared a TED Talk about ADHD. As someone with ADHD, I enjoyed listening in and really admire her acknowledging a disorder that most people brush off as “oh they just can’t focus” when there’s so much more to it. I remember talking about how ADHD is a spectrum and how she believes she is somewhere on the spectrum. That really stuck out to me because you don’t think of teachers having learning disabilities, but they’re people too, just like us students.

Many times I’ve seen her check in with students who are struggling to pay attention or participate in class. She’ll ask them if they’re doing alright and if they need someone to talk to. When you’re in school sometimes you think that your teachers don’t like you or don’t care about how you’re doing, but Mrs. Jurewicz has shown me that teachers really do care about their students and they do want you to succeed.

In both classes she teaches by showing us visuals, talking through the subject, explaining something multiple ways so we understand the topic thoroughly, and having us do experiments or hands-on activities. She frequently checks to see if anyone has questions and answers them when they do. I really like how she goes through her material because it helps me get a better understanding of it.

Since I’m a junior I’m at north campus for all of my classes, except biology. I have to walk over to south campus, and sometimes I’ll get there a few minutes early. When I do she will usually have a kid or two in her room that she’s helping out. Personally, I haven’t had any issues with understanding the material but I know that if I did I can always go to her to ask questions and get help.

Both classes I have with her are block classes, which means that instead of being one normal class period long it’s two. When the bell rings for the first half of class instead of ignoring it like some teachers do, she lets us take a break while the rest of the school has regular passing time. During this time I will often walk around her room and look at the different things she has. The other day when I was doing this in her biology class, I noticed a stuffed lizard sitting on the top shelf in a cabinet. It surprised me so I went to go talk to her about it. She doesn’t remember what kind of lizard it is, but she thinks it’s as cool as I do.