It was the summer of 2002 and I was on my way home from Camp Nassau. I heard from my friends at camp that today was the day that the letters were sent home that said who you’re third grade teacher was going to be. I wanted one teacher, I think her name was Mrs. Pickett; I wanted her as my teacher so bad. Everyone said she was really nice and didn’t give homework, so yeah, I wanted her. When I got home I shot out of the car and darted to the mailbox. I took out the mail and flipped thru it, bills, bills, bills, catalogs, bills, Pine Bush Elementary. That was it, the letter that told me who I had. I opened it up and thought, “Please be Mrs. Pickett”, I took out the sheet and read it.
“Ms. Germano? What? Who the heck is that?” I said out loud. I was so angry I almost broke into tears. I was thinking that this “Ms. Germano” was a mean old grumpy teacher who hated children or something. “Why didn’t I get Mrs. Pickett?” I was so disappointed. Little did I know it was a great thing I didn’t get Mrs. Pickett because Ms. Germano, well, she was the greatest teacher I ever had.

I eventually got over not getting Mrs. Pickett or whatever her name was and before I knew it, it was time for the first day of school. I went in knowing that a good amount of my friends were in my class, so that was good. I met Ms. Germano and thought, “Yeah whatever, she’s nice I guess.” but as the school year went on I noticed she was always nice, all the time, and she always was smiling and humorous. I never had a teacher who was always nice all the time like her All of my friends and I really started to like her as our teacher. I sort of learned a lesson having Ms. Germano as my teacher, a lesson along the lines of “never judge a book, or in this case a teacher, by it’s cover”.

Ms. Germano always made class interesting no matter what subject we were doing, even math. I always hated math, but Ms. Germano made it fun and not boring. She always had read alouds at the end of every school day and she always found the best books to read. She even had a class pet, Rupert the turtle. Although he didn’t do much, we got to take him out and let him walk around during class. Over breaks, we even got to take home Rupert and take care of him, but the time I took him home he was in hibernation so he didn’t do anything. Despite that, Rupert was the coolest class pet ever. I’m not sure if Rupert is still alive, but I know that Ms. Germano still teaches third grade at Pine Bush Elementary, my old school were I had her as a teacher.

A good teacher shows you the importance in doing well in school and trying your best, and that’s what Ms. Germano did. Now that I think about it, it was a good thing I didn’t get Mrs. Pickett because I probably wouldn’t be doing as well in school as I have been. Ms. Germano was the best teacher I ever had.