Behind every good student, there is always an extraordinary teacher who pushes them and encourages them to be better than they were before. And for me, this teacher is Mrs. Grubbs, my English 10 Honors teacher. 

My initial thought in enrolling for the class was that it was going to be a breeze. However, it was the complete opposite: although the difficulty didn’t increase too much–with the exception of the tests, I hadn’t had one of those in four years–it was the workload that increased a substantial amount.

My workload has challenged me to think more critically than before. And that is all thanks to my wonderful English teacher, Mrs. Grubbs. When I initially met Mrs. Grubbs, my first impression of her was the complete opposite of what it is now. In the beginning, I thought she was going to be really strict, and I was really scared of the workload due to this being my first “accelerated” English class.  However, after meeting Mrs. Grubbs she quickly eased those worries. Her expectations of her students aren’t unreasonable, and she understands when things come up that are out of our control. In general, Mrs. Grubbs is a teacher who is genuinely caring and is very fond of all of her students. 

For example, we were watching a film in class called The Dead Poets Society and when something sad happened near the end of the film, my tablemates and I began to cry. Mrs. Grubbs did something that surprised me: she went up and hugged one of the students. Among all of my teachers I’ve had in my life, I have never had a teacher go up to a student and hug them because they were crying. This showed me that she is genuinely concerned about her students and isn’t one of those teachers who are scared to comfort their students in times of despair. This one action solidified my respect and made me appreciate Mrs. Grubbs even more. 

Overall, she is everything that I could’ve asked for in an English teacher, and I couldn’t think of a better person to teach me this year.