My most influential teacher I have had and why by Renee

My most influential teacher I have had and why by Renee - March 2013 Scholarship Essay

My life was never the same after I was introduced to Charles Dickens, Jules Verne, and Mary Shelley by my third grade teacher Mrs. Blackwood. These are the authors of some of the best classical literature books ever written, and being exposed to these great writers opened up my world growing up in Jamaica.
I never enjoyed reading before, as a matter of fact, I had trouble learning to read properly until the third grade when I entered Mrs. Blackwood class. She was one of those teachers who didn’t follow the conventional path of teaching. She would nurture our imaginations and our confidence in ourselves that we could learn. She brought classical literature into my life by taking us into the school library once a week and showing us a new book and author.
As a child who didn’t get to play outside much, this became a great escape for me and showed me how wonderful reading can be. It started with “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley, “The Time Machine” by Jules Verne, then “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens, who became one of my favorite authors. These authors allowed me to enter to another time and place that let my imagination run wild. I used to sit in my step grandfather’s old chair which he put on the roof of the house under the shade of the mango tree which bent over the roof just enough to cover the chair from sun. Almost every day I took the stairs in the backyard up to the roof and I would lose myself in the plots and characters for hours until the sunset and I was no longer able to the see the words on the pages. From that time on my love for reading increased exponentially. I can now express myself through other creative outlets such as poetry because of the many books I have read since then.
I consider my time in Mrs. Blackwood’s class as a major turning point in my life. Without her passion for teaching and her love for books, I wouldn’t be the person I am today. That is why she was the most influential teacher I have had.