I am not the easiest person to keep interest, nor am I the loudest. For me, it’s difficult to keep up with my classes, especially the classes I am not interested in. If I am not interested in a class, I will not try my hardest--instead, I will procrastinate to do homework and show minimum effort. But having a teacher who can keep me interested and entertained while learning is the best of both worlds.

Hesitant of signing up for psychology junior year, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. Would I like it? Would I hate it? Could I add psychology to the list of classes I lost interest in over the years? I remember my first day of psychology like the first day of freshmen year--lost but willing to give it a chance.

Mrs. Brown is a spunky, sweet, and smart teacher who is passionate about psychology, and shows it. She currently teaches psychology for grades 11 and 12 and she is also the psych club coordinator.

I am not the happiest or most awake person in the morning, but having psychology first hour is like having a shot of espresso. Walking into Mrs. Brown’s classroom, the smell of cinnamon fills the air and I instantly feel welcomed. Once she gives her daily lecture after the bell rings, I am hit with energy, excitement, and enthusiasm.

One of my favorite things about Mrs. Brown’s class is each day I learn something new. She likes to use a variety of teaching methods--videos, real life examples, demonstrations, pictures (I could go on and on)--and all are helpful in making sure the students thoroughly understand the concepts and materials.

My favorite is when she uses classmates to participate in a demonstration. When we learned about neurotransmitters and how we use them to send messages to our brain, she had five people line up at the back of the classroom. She asked the person at the beginning of the line to grab a Laffy Taffy and eat it (this represented a message being received), then had the second person grab two plus signs, drop it, and pass the other plus sign to the next person (this represented the message getting passed on). This step would repeat until it reached the last person, throwing another Laffy Taffy at them (showing that the message was received and being sent out). After this demonstration, I truly felt I understood how neurotransmitters work. Mrs. Brown is like Pablo Picasso, putting different pieces together to create a uniquely different demonstration every student could understand.

Not only has Mrs. Brown been successful at getting me to love her class, but she is also the reason why I want to pursue psychology. I remember talking to her at the end of class one day. She was writing something down when I told her “I am interested in psychology and I am looking for colleges. Could we talk about it during a study hall?” All of a sudden, she stopped what she was doing and looked up at me with the biggest smile on her face. She was full of excitement!

I came in 10th hour and I told her I wanted to be a psychotherapist. She told me, “I can definitely see you doing something in psychology” and “I think you will be able to handle it.”

She then told me if there was one thing she could change, she would want to become a licensed psychologist. She was willing to help me find colleges that meet my interests. I have never had a teacher as willing as Mrs. Brown to help with something so important to me--and this shows me she cares about my passion and I can depend on her helping me get to where I want to be.

For all these reasons, I am nominating Mrs. Brown, my psychology teacher. I am hoping this award will be seen as a thank you for everything that she does and beyond. She helped me find a class that I was interested and learned to love.