My civics teacher, Jerry Harty, is my favorite teacher here at JSA, better known as Jewett School of the Arts. His class is pretty tough, and I actually feel a bit sorry for the seventh grade students who do not have him this year, because they will struggle next year, unlike the students who got into his advanced class.
Although his class is tough, he’s an over-all amazing teacher. He supports us, telling us to study and make plenty of notecards from the previous notes we had taken that day, and if we were absent, to catch up on any work we missed.
Mr. Harty always uses metaphors to encourage us to get us to study and do better in his class, and be a batter student in each class. If we don’t get good grades in his class as a whole, he lectures us, using the encouraging metaphors here and there. One that he uses quite a lot is, “Don’t stand behind the donkey.” What he means by this is that if we don’t study, we get hit in the head by the donkey, which would stand for our grades. He’s saying that we put ourselves in this situation, so we have to face consequences.
One thing I admire about his teaching skills is that he - unlike some teachers – knows he can’t make us do work. If somebody isn’t paying attention, he knows. He calls them out, but he never tells us we have to do our work. He knows he can’t make us do our work. This would be a perfect time to use his favorite metaphor to us, “Standing behind the donkey.”
I’ve never had a teacher like Mr. Harty, but I’m happy that I get to now. Not only am I having him my seventh grade year (this year), I’m also having him my eighth grade year (next year). He’s taught me to work for what I want, even if I don’t want to. That’s why Jerry Harty should be named, “Educator of the Year,” because of all his magnificent work he’s done for me, and for every student who’s had him.