A Letter To My Teacher

This is a letter to my US History AP teacher in eleventh grade. This teacher's kindness and determination to have me succeed in his classroom showed me the passion teachers have for what they do. After succeeding in this class I saw the joy he got from this and I decided that I wanted to have those experiences as well. After beginning my teaching classes at UNLV I wrote him this letter to thank him for showing me how amazing being a teacher can be.

Dear Mr. Gallagher,

I have just started my freshmen year of college at UNLV. My major is elementary education and I am in my first class having to do with my major. We had an assignment asking us what teacher helped us to realize that we wanted to become a teacher. I looked back and I came to the realization that you were that teacher. You always made me feel great about my work in your class; you also made me feel great as a person. I am not sure if you realized this since you changed schools, but after you had placed me in Dr. Kooyman’s American Literature Honors class, I was able to get into Literature and Composition AP the next year. You developed in me a strong work ethic and a determination that I do not believe I would have discovered on my own. You made me feel important and intelligent, two things I had not ever received from a teacher.

I want to become a teacher like you. Although I will be teaching students at a much earlier stage in their lives, I want a student to look back a few years down the road and say Mrs. Tidd is the reason that I like school. You put so much time and energy into helping us be the best that we could and I do not believe any of us ever thanked you enough. So I would like to thank you now and let you know how much your teaching has impacted my life, in a way you helped me decide my major before I really knew what I wanted to do.

There is one other reason as to why I need to thank you, it is non educational, you helped me to become the Red Sox fan that I am today. That was the one other thing that I believe I could depend on during your class and that was your passion for your team. I can also remember watching the games and praying that they won or at least put up a good fight when you were grading our term papers.

Mr. Gallagher I am still not sure if I have told you what an amazing teacher you were for me, and still are for so many students. You helped me to become the student that I am today and you helped me to achieve the some what high prestige of graduating with honors and an advanced diploma. After only having my education class four times, I have come to realize that the rewards that many teachers receive are certainly not the salary but knowing that he helped someone achieve her goals, and I just want to tell you that you most certainly helped me to reach my goals and actually set even higher ones for myself.

Again thank you for all of the time, money, long nights, and hard work that you put in to make my junior year History AP class an amazing one. I would also like to thank you for giving me such good memories of teachers. Until I had you, I had had one too many experiences with bad teachers and they gave me a bad outlook of teachers as a whole. You broke that mold and set a completely new one, which I am happy to say many teachers followed you, but certainly did not succeed you. There is no one like you Mr. Gallagher and that is because you are an amazing person and teacher. Thank you for all of the time that you invested in me, I now hope that I may invest the same time into the next generation.

Your Student,

Meredith Tidd

Cimarron-Memorial Graduating Class of 2006