The Most Influential English Teacher

The Most Influential English Teacher Thinking back over the years there is one English teacher that has always stood out above the rest. The funny thing is that she was not actually my teacher. My senior year of high school I was a teacher’s aide in Mrs. Miller’s English 10 class. Mrs. Miller pushed her students to be their best and I was not an exception. Unexpectedly, I learned a lot from this class. By the end of the year, I felt as if I became the best student I could be. I elected to take this class because I felt it would be an easy ride for my senior year. To my surprise, Mrs. Miller had other plans for me. In the beginning of the year the class was assigned to read Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. This brought back memories of my sophomore year. I felt bad for all the students in the class, because I knew how much work they had ahead of them. After my sigh of relief, Mrs. Miller informed me I would be participating in the assignment. I was mortified and angry at the same time. What I thought would be a free ride, turned into a class in which I had to put forth effort. She further explained that I would be helping the other students in small group discussion, acting out the play, as well as several other things I thought were going to be an utter waste of my time. Over the next few weeks I realized I was starting to enjoy myself. Without the pressure of additional work, other than having to re-read the play to refresh my memory, Julius Caesar was intriguing. As I lead the small group discussions I found myself actually involved in the conversation and became very interested in how the other students presented their opinions. This activity affected me in a way that I would never imagine. To this day I have found it helpful to discuss ideas and brain storm with others in order to develop a thought more fully. The small group discussions really showed me the importance of looking at a challenge from multiple angles. Just a simple