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I always wanted to be a teacher. When I was a child, I used to bribe my friends to play school, and of course, I was always the teacher. Both of my parents loved books, so I grew up loving them, too. I remember sitting in my dad's lap as he read poetry to me. Add these components together, and throw in a genunine thirst for knowledge and a desire to share this knowledge with others, and you have the basic elements for the making of an English teacher.

I always liked school as a youth, but I loved my English classes. I tolerated the other subjects. In English, I could analyze and think for myself. I could decide my own interpretations of a story or poem and not just regurgitate facts fed to me by a well-meaning teacher. Math and science are so black and white...write or wrong. There's no room for judgment or subjective feelings of any kind. And the English classes provided me with an opportunity to write, allowing me to express my creativity. It was hard to do that in Algebra or biology.

I realized my dream at the age of twenty-nine, and I began teaching British Literature at my old alma mater. After seventeen years, I still love my job. Sometimes I'm amazed that I actually get paid for doing this. The seniors I teach are, for the most part, wonderful. One reason I think I'm an effective teacher is because of my love of the subject. Teenagers pick up on that quickly. Another thing you can't fool them about is your feelings for them. They know exactly which teachers are there because they love teaching and teenagers and which ones are there just to collect a paycheck and be off for the summer.

In my classes, I encourage as much hands-on learning as possible. For example, every fall my students and I hold a medieval-renaissance fair. We do almost all the work. I have been amazed at some of my students' extra-curricular hobbies and interests. I've had students who make chain mail, students who make stained glass, students who have collections of ancient weapons, and students who can write in runes. We use their expertise along with students who are singers, magicians, artists, musicians, and students who can sew. I always have a few students who have horses and other farm animals and students who hunt, so we're able to have knights, roasted venison and wild boar, and animals that would be found at an agricultural fair of the period. We all work together and learn from each other, and we created our festival. We always invite all the faculty, parents, and the whole

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