It was that time of the year again, waking up early to go somewhere most of us dread, school. On my way to school for the first day of eighth grade, I was thinking this school, year is going to be another boring one, but as I walked up to the main doors of school, I saw I had Mrs. Cleary for homeroom. I had some experience with her the year before for math which I enjoyed. Walking to homeroom I saw Mrs. Cleary with her kind and caring personality greeting all her new students. After seeing Mrs. Cleary, I realized this year is not going to be so dreadful after all. She introduced herself and then told us some facts about her own life. Then she had us all go around the room saying who we were, something about ourselves, and something exciting we did over the summer. This not only helped her to get to know us, but it helped us learn something about classmates that we may not have already known.

This year all the eighth graders would have Mrs. Cleary for math and science. Honestly, Mrs. Cleary is the perfect teacher for both of these subjects. She always knew the best ways to teach both math and science. She always made the tedious math topics interesting by showing us some neat, easy problems, and some lessons and math games on the SMART Board. Mrs. Cleary made science even more fun and entertaining. Every Tuesday, she prepared a fun lab for us and not only that, but she also assigned us some cool, enjoyable projects. One was a Rocks and Minerals project where I learned many interesting facts about Crystals. I even got to grow my own crystals with Epsom salt and water, which grew up to three inches long!

I always enjoyed Mrs. Cleary's classes. She always kept the class going and never let the class get boring. Sometimes we even got off task, and we shared some fun stories with each other. She also told us a lot of stories somewhat related to what we were talking about in class. One example would be that we were learning about volcanoes, and she was telling us about when she went to Hawaii. She told us about the volcanoes there and how some of the beaches had black sand because of the erupting volcanoes.

Mrs. Cleary was not only a fun, interesting, and smart teacher, but she was also a kind and caring teacher. She never got too mad at anyone. She always knew how to handle a problem the right way. I also remember when I was sick with Mono, she did not rush me to get all my work done right away. She understood and knew I needed to rest. Also, when I returned to school, she kept asking if I felt alright. Mrs. Cleary cared for each and every one of her students and helped them in any way possible no matter what the problem was.

In conclusion, Mrs. Cleary is an overall remarkable teacher. She truly understands all of her students and knows the perfect way to help them. Her heart is bigger than an average human. She does her maximum each and every day to be the best, and I truly think she is the best of the best. Just the dedication Mrs. Cleary shows to her students is hard to find in teachers today. Shortly said, Mrs. Cleary shows an ample amount of compassion and dedication to her students, along with being a fun and entertaining teacher. This is why I thought Mrs. Cleary would be the best nominee for the Teen Ink’s 2013 Educator of the Year contest.