Ever since I was little, I have always loved literature, but up until my eighth grade year, I had never been in a class with a teacher that was able to show its many uses through different art forms, from poetry to film. Each teacher before lacked enthusiasm during the learning process. But, on the first day of eighth grade, I met a teacher with great enthusiasm and respect for all art forms, Mr. Crowe.
     I walked into my Communicative Arts class and immediately saw familiar faces; I had friends in my class, so I knew it was going to be a good year. After we sat down and the bell rang, I noticed the rest of the classroom. Instead of inspirational quotes and messages about how important education is, there was a plethora of posters. There was a Martin Luther King, Jr. quote across from Tupac lyrics, Kanye West’s Graduation album cover next to Pink Floyd’s The Wall. On the wall above several copies of the previous month’s Teen Ink, hung a movie poster of Jaws. Almost every art form was expressed and appreciated in this classroom, and also by Mr. Crowe.
     He began the first day of class by talking about the curriculum and about the class. He also went through and described each item on his walls. After doing this, he immediately connected with each individual student by asking about their music preferences and what their thoughts were on what we were going to cover that year. Mr. Crowe told us exactly when he was available outside of class to work with him individually, in case some students didn’t feel comfortable asking questions in class. He wanted each student to succeed, and did his best to follow through with everyone if they needed help.
     One of the ways that Mr. Crowe included the class and encouraged open discussion about the literature was through Socratic Seminars. Unlike the ones I have had in high school, these were not dreaded, boring tasks that resulted in forced conversation. The Socratic Seminars in Mr. Crowe’s class were much more interesting; the class sat in a circle on the floor, and dissected the piece of literature we were working on. He did not need to regulate the discussion since the students were polite and open to other’s ideas. This kind of environment couldn’t be recreated in most of the classes that I have had since then, because most of my teachers after Mr. Crowe did not connect with their students in the same way, and inspire them to explore literature using new and interesting concepts.
     Although I enjoyed Socratic Seminars, I was not always the most vocal person in that class. I did not feel comfortable sharing, and usually wouldn’t unless we got closer to the end of a given class and Mr. Crowe attempted to prompt me. He reached out to the quieter students separately, outside of class and offered to help in order to figure out what the issue was and why I was not sharing. He was genuinely trying to help all of his students succeed.
     Mr. Crowe also provided me and several other students with a new appreciation for Shakespeare. As a class, we went over one or two of Shakespeare’s sonnets, in order to understand Iambic Pentameter and rhyme scheme, which I found interesting. Outside of class, he started the Shakespeare Club, which dove deeper into the origins of his plays and poetry. We ended up reading Macbeth, and watched three different movie adaptations in order to understand how the text could be interpreted and could inspire different cinematographic ideas. I have had few teachers since then who are as passionate about their students’ educational experience as Mr. Crowe is.
     Whether it’s motivational movies or Shakespeare’s soliloquies, Mr. Crowe creates a classroom environment like no other--one that enables students to share their ideas openly and where all forms of art and literature are accepted and acknowledged.
     Mr. Crowe relates to all of his students through films and music, and through his inspiring ideas. All of this makes him a fantastic teacher, and one of the best teachers that I’ve ever had.