A favorite teacher. Everyone has someone they think of instantly. For me, that’s Mr. Hessler.

It’s not typically easy for teachers to be given the honoring label of the “favorite teacher” in the eyes of the students. We are generally unreasonably hard on teachers, thus making it more difficult for them to make an impact on us. But when a teacher loves what they do, including dealing with temperamental students and often their difficult parents, it shows through the way they teach. Mr. Hessler is an excellent example of this. He has an incredible passion and takes pride in his job.

I’ve never been particularly gifted in math, so I always resisted going to math class. I walked into Mr. Hessler’s Geometry on the first day of my sophomore year, convinced that I would experience the same feeling of embarrassment I got near every other math class hour. But Mr. Hessler taught each of us at our own pace, in a way that kept us from getting embarrassed. He made those of us who felt inadequate, myself included, feel comfortable with asking questions.

It’s great when teachers teach well. But when they have fun doing it, it helps students make it to class without dragging their feet. And that takes incredible talent. A great teacher makes it interactive with the students, giving them something that they can finish and feel good and encouraged when they finally do finish the assignment. Not every assignment was exactly fun and exciting, but Mr. Hessler did an awesome job of keeping us interested in what we were learning.