There are good teachers and there are great teachers, but have you ever met an amazing teacher? The teacher that I'm nominating is Miss Chappel, who is currently a Math teacher at Las Americas ASPIRA Academy. She has been teaching there for roughly five years, and out of those five years, she taught me for two. I feel she should be nominated for Educator of the Year.

I want to express that she made learning math easy. Math was a hard topic for me to grasp, so when I walked in her class, I was so nervous because I didn’t know what to expect of her as a teacher. I was so bad at math, but her teaching skills really helped me develop new learning skills and new ways to understand how to solve complicated problems. Since other students were quicker learners than I was, whenever I had difficulties, she always took her time to really explain stuff to me and made sure I understood it before moving on. Her patience was always appreciated. She never made me feel unimportant or less smart than the other students. Her taking the extra time with me made me love math, and it gave me so much confidence and allowed me to believe in my ability to succeed.

Her classroom was filled with joy and laughter. She always had a smile when you walked into her room, and you can tell students loved to be there. She brought the best out in all of us. Her willingness to always make sure that we, her students, were successful was very important to her. She knew how to teach each and every one of us. She knew our weaknesses and strengths, and she used that to gear us towards our success. Also, she would always take the time either before, during, or after school to give extra help as needed.

Miss Chappel is one lovable person. She is just one delightful teacher and person inside and out.  Because in 7th grade we couldn’t have recess, she would find a way to keep us awake and not bored with math. We would be in math class for a whole two hours, with just math, math, math and more math. We would always have little meetings in 7th grade and play little games to keep us awake. She had such a great personality, and we would have “joke time”, which had its own theme song.  Little moments like these really made learning math and being in math class for two hours, not so bad, and it also allowed the classroom to bond and grow together.

I am so thankful and grateful I had Miss Chappel as a teacher. She taught me so many useful tools I’m already applying in my 1st year of high school. I can honestly say that Miss Chappel is probably one of the best teachers I had at the Las Americas ASPIRA Academy because of the connections she had with each individual student. It was just that special. She really understood me and every student, and it was easy to have a conversation with her. I'm so glad I met Miss Chappel and that she really enjoys teaching because she is and probably will always be the best math teacher I have ever had.  This is why I am nominating Miss Chappel as Educator of the Year.