“Hola. ¿Cómo estás?” I walked into English class and laughed almost immediately wondering why my English teacher was greeting us in Spanish. From this point forward I knew I was going to enjoy her class. This English class could have been the most boring class I have ever signed up for during my entire junior year. Lucky for me, I was put into a class with Mrs. Fellmeth, someone I have heard nothing but amazing things about. I remember the first day of English when I went into the room. Mrs. Fellmeth immediately gave us candy and started the year with an unbelievable optimistic mood. She told us she would do everything in her power to help us not only pass her class, but also to help us to become a better writer and reader. She said she’d also help us to the best of her ability to give us skills to help us for the rest of our lives.
Whether it is one of her goofy stories about her pets or one of her serious discussions on a book or poem we read in class, Mrs. Fellmeth goes around the standard curriculum to help create a better, easier environment to learn. And let me say, I have learned more in her class about reality and life then I have ever learned in school all together. She did not just teach me how to become a successful student when it comes to English, but she also helped me to learn to be successful in life. And it wasn’t generic life lessons, but it was something she let me decide how I want to interpret what she was teaching, and that lesson did more for me then anything else could’ve. When we read the short story, “Civil Disobedience” by Emerson, she challenged us about why we come to school, and why we don’t stand up for what we believe in.
Mrs. Fellmeth entirely changed the way I view school as a whole. She is the type of teacher that takes that extra step to help students understand. She stopped class all together just to review one line of a poem and help us TRULY understand the meaning of what it meant. The only person or image I can use to describe her is like Robin Williams in “Dead Poets Society.” She is unique, hilarious, and an incomparable teacher. She doesn’t just sit there and teach because it’s what she has to do; she does it because it’s what she wants to do. If anyone in this entire competition deserves to be dubbed as “Teacher of the Year” it’s Mrs. Fellmeth.