A teacher has the power to affect how a student feels about a subject. A great teacher makes learning fun!  The teacher I nominate for the Teen Ink contest is Mr. Brian Clifton. He was my 8th grade science teacher at Alfred G. Waters Middle School in the Appoquinimink School District. He was amazing at explaining the information ,and he made learning science a lot of fun for the class. He didn’t believe in tests or quizzes so that was great too.

 I liked Mr. Clifton so much because he didn’t give a single test or quiz the whole entire year! He strongly believed tests and quizzes didn’t show a student’s comprehension of the material as well as a project. Mr. Clifton would often do a graded summative project in place of a test or quiz. They were serious grade boosters! I enjoyed the graded projects because they helped me better understand the material and have a higher grade since I don’t test well. Another benefit of project-based learning is team building. I learned many teamwork skills to help me in high school and beyond. I also built many great relationships in that class. The projects really boosted my grade.  It also relieved my test anxiety since we never had a test

  Mr. Clifton had a degree in public speaking and in education; therefore, he was amazing at explaining topics to students so they could better comprehend them. If you ever had any questions about science, he was the man to ask!  If you didn’t fully understand something, you just let him know, and he would explain it in a more simple manner or until you understood it. That shows how much he cares about his students; he wasn’t just getting through the material, and it shows. Every one of his students would do well in his class because if you were falling behind, he would notice and help you out until everything was better. His speaking abilities really facilitated my understanding and helped me apply what I learned in his class to the projects.

 Lastly, Mr.Clifton deserves this nomination because of his personality. He was genuinely funny, kind, and caring towards his students. His lesson plans were very creative.  He would make funny jokes and poke fun with the students to lighten the mood. This really helped in making my learning experience so much more fun. He would play funny educational videos for the class, play educational games with us, and do fun hands on activities with the class. Mr. Clifton strongly believed that students learned better through experience. We did many labs and performed lots of science experiments in the classroom. These activities were a ton of fun and made learning fun for the class.

 In conclusion, Mr.Clifton deserves to be awarded Educator of the Year by Teen Ink because he is an astounding teacher. He’s funny personality and his public speaking skills give him the ability to organize interesting lesson plans and creative experiments in various ways to reach all of his students. As a result, his class was my favorite. It was obvious that put his heart and soul into teaching.  He truly cared for the students and he deserves to be awarded for it.