Rough Draft

Teachers play an important role in a students life, they are with them throughout the most important time in a students life. They teach us not only what we need to know to pass high school and college and to succeed in life, but to teach us how to behave and respect other people, how to think out situations and how to act. A lot of teachers have a huge impact on students because of the teachers personality and the student can relate and bond with the student. An old saying says it takes a village to raise a child and part of that village is a teacher. The most important role a teacher can play is that of being a friend to the student. Mrs. Campbell is a great example of this role, as Mr. Powell is not the best example of being a friend to the students.

Mrs. Campbell was a great teacher; she was very understanding. She knew if something was wrong and was there if you needed to talk to someone. She would just sit there and listen to you without making a sound. She would nod her head and encourage you to continue talking until you felt better. She was a wise women and some times she knew exactly how you felt. It was easy to talk to her when she could relate to your situation. If you came to class one day and talked to her privately about a traumatic incident that happened yesterday and you couldn't finish your homework because of it, she would understand and give you more time to do it. She would not get angry because the homework didn't get finished; she knows that things like this can happen to anyone and cannot always be prevented. Instead she would ask how you are, if she can do anything to help, and give you more time to finish any of the homework that you didn't finish.

Mr. Powell was not the most understanding teacher. He had high expectations that every individual must meet. If a student was to fall behind in homework because they didn't have enough time, something big happened which prevented them from doing the work, or they just didn't do they work. Mr. Powell would simply take away your homework points which lowers your grade. He would not ask what was wrong, why you didn't do your work, or if an arrangement could be worked out to get the points back. Most teachers would try to work some thing out so that you can gain some points back. Mr. Powell was not that teacher.

Mrs. Campbell was a very sweet teacher. She was very friendly and fun to be around. When a teacher is friendly and fun to be around, it makes the classroom setting relaxing and less intimidating. She took the time to get to know us on a personal level. That was the start of her becoming our friend. She took a whole class period to let each student talk about themselves and share experience with the class. This was the bonding time that took the class to a whole new level. She would give everyone a nickname and crack jokes with the class. We all had fun while learning and laughed with each other. She was really nice to her students and the faculty. At the end of the year the class had to write a thank you letter to one of their teachers. Almost all of the students had picked Mrs. Campbell.

Mr. Powell on the other hand was completely opposite. He was a nice person if you met him outside of school, but inside school he was rude. He liked to interrupt students instead of waiting for them to finish answering the question. One day some students were talking before class and he happened to hear what they were talking about. They were talking about a project that they were doing for ASL at the elementary school. Mr. Powell came over and told them that ASL was a joke and that it wasn't even a language. He said the teacher shouldn't work so hard because the students just take it for an easy a. It was very rude of him to say that. If you don't have anything nice to say, you shouldn't say anything at all.