Growing up I was never the best at math, but i also was not the worst. I always seemed to grab the concepts, but never the teachers that taught them. Walking into math, that first day of my sophomore year, I was intimidated. There were kids sitting in their desks, not saying a word. I thought to myself, this was going to be hard. I took my seat and opened my notebook. That’s when I saw Mrs. Viegut.

At first glance, she seemed like that stereotypical math teacher. Yet when class started, I got to meet the real Mrs.Viegut. She was open, kind and everything you could ever want from a teacher. If your grades started dropping, she wouldn’t send emails to your parents. Instead she would actually come up to you and have a conversation. She was always concerned and willing to help.

She was a human radar. If you were having troubles outside of the classroom, she would not say, tough luck. Instead she would sit down next to you and ask if there was something bothering you. I remember one day, walking into math, with a frown on my face, unsure of myself. I was just having a terrible day. Yet I could always count on Mrs. Viegut to turn my frown upside down. Her compassion for her students had no boundaries.

Mrs. Viegut knew she had a hard task at hand, when trying to teach advanced algebra to her upwards of 150 students. But she tried to make the best of it for all of us. At the beginning of her classes, we would first go over our homework, and then we would give feedback on which of the problems we did not understand. Even if every student had a question, she would go through every single one. She is determined to have all of her students reach their full potential in her math class.

I am nominating Deb Viegut for educator of the year because I have never known a teacher to drop what she is doing just so she can reach out to a student in need of help. No matter what, Mrs. V will always be there, as a friend, as a role model, as an educator. No one works cares or works harder than Mrs. Deb Viegut.