Since 2017, Charter School Capital has held an annual essay contest celebrating exceptional teachers. We call it the Dewey Awards, in celebration of Mr. Richard Dewey – a teacher who provided exceptional mentorship to our founder and CEO Stuart Ellis. Every year, we get a brilliant selection of stories written by students from charter schools all over the nation. This year’s winners are featured here. But each of these stories is worth sharing.
This week, we bring you a story written by Tara Zamani about Mrs. Krystal Dunn of Lahaina Intermediate School.
I never liked math and deep down believed I could never be good at this subject. I was always reluctant to take math classes. When I transferred to a new school in eighth grade, I was placed into the honors algebra class. I was very behind academically in algebra because I hadn’t taken pre-algebra the previous year. I was nervous but my biggest problem was that I had low self-esteem about my math skills. I requested the textbook my peers had completed the previous year from my teacher, Mrs. Dunn. I disciplined myself and with the help of my mom, I was able to complete the whole textbook within two weeks.
Mrs. Dunn was impressed with my work and started helping me grow. I quickly became fond of Mrs. Dunn’s kind soul and started spending most of my free time in her classroom. Mrs. Dunn would push me to try harder to succeed. I could feel that she believed in me.
Toward the end of the second quarter of school, Mrs. Dunn started a math club. For the first time, I was excited about doing math and taking it as an extracurricular activity. She had turned a class I dreaded, into a place I wanted to spend all my time in. Math club was difficult but as the president, I pushed myself to work hard. Through her math programs, I was able to surpass many of my classmates who I was struggling to keep up with at the beginning of the semester. I was even acknowledged as algebra student of the year at eighth-grade graduation.
Mrs. Dunn’s class showed me that I have the ability to work hard and dedicate myself to my academics. I am very fortunate to have had such a lovely teacher who believed in my abilities. I hope I can meet more people like her on my journey of life.
Want to share?
