Jeopardy question: “This teacher made learning fun, helped me choose a high school, organized our eighth grade class trip to Boston, taught class by being active, and spent free time with students.” Can you imagine being in class singing a song to learn about countries in order to map the world by heart? How about playing jeopardy to review for tests or getting candy for participating in class discussion? These are some of the ways this teacher made us eager to learn.

Another role this teacher played was acting as a guidance counselor for every eighth grade student. He made sure we knew about open houses, testing dates, and shadow days. He helped match each student with a high school he thought was a good fit. He went above and beyond what was expected by making personal phone calls to the schools about his students. Because of this, all the eighth graders he worked with found a compatible fit for high school.

This man really did it all; he even organized a four day eighth grade trip to Boston where we experienced: the ghost tour at Plymouth Rock, toured Fenway Park, took a duck boat tour on which each of us got to steer the boat, were entertained by the Blue Man group, and we participated in a comedy show. On the way home, he even arranged for us to play laser tag and go duck pin bowling. What a trip that was; it created memories to last a lifetime!

His students were successful in learning about history and geography because he was active in class; he would walk around the room to keep our attention. He would quiz us almost daily, so we had to learn the material and this made studying for the test much easier because we already knew the subject matter. Envision day dreaming while staring out the window and hearing a “smack” on your desk. That would be the yardstick he used to bring your focus back to the topic at hand.

This teacher’s unparalleled efforts made him supreme- many people envied him for his success. Finally, his students felt very connected because he would even eat lunch with us to get to know us better. Jeopardy answer: “Who is Mr. Chris Novak?” Mr. Novak is the teacher I would like to nominate for educator of the year.