Blog #1: The effect of a Positive teacher!

My Great Teacher - My Friend Mrs. Sara was the best teacher any student could wish for! She was homeroom teacher during grade 8 and had taught me mathematics. Unlike others, she did not only help us obtain and gain new knowledge and skills in class, but she also spent additional personal time to understand our thoughts, worries and our problems. I remember that Math was my least favorite subject, but because of her, it became one of the subjects that I enjoyed back then. I recall that she would always say you don’t have to master everything in a subject ,you can be outstanding in problem solving and struggle in algebra, so don’t judge a whole subject because of a certain topic that didn’t click with you. . I remember during that year she would ask me and other students questions about general problems that usually teenagers face, or what would I do if I were in a position of a judge in certain issues and she used to love my answers and the solutions I offered (back then, I use to ask myself, “why does she ask these questions? She’s a math teacher for God’s sake). Then at the mid of the school year, we started with Problem solving in Math, and all I could hear her say to me whenever I complain that its difficult, “You can do it Muna, Problem solving is your thing!”. I use to look at her and say to myself, “What’s the matter with her?!). And guess what, it turned out after all these years that problem solving is my thing and it is something that I really enjoy since that time! However, seven years back, I enrolled in family counseling and felt that with my Problem-solving skills I was able to help many of my friends with their problems. One of my favorite quotes for K. Patricia Cross, The task of the excellent teacher is to stimulate 'apparently ordinary' people to unusual effort. The tough problem is not in identifying winners: it is in making winners out of ordinary people. So, Thank you Mrs. Sara