By Maida Ali

National Teacher’s Day was held on May 5th this year, the first Tuesday of May, as celebration of Teacher Appreciation Week, which is held throughout the first week of May. This special day honors the hard work and dedication of all teachers across the nation. Teachers with patience, kindness and understanding are the reason parents can put their trust in these professionals to guide their children for a bright future. And despite the abrupt end of the physical school year, teachers persist in teaching their students in order to ensure they reach their full potential in their academic year. In honor of this, I’ve collected a total of 10 responses of some of Elmont’s finest students’ where I asked them who their favorite teacher was and why:

Abena Opoku-Mensah

Abena’s favorite teacher goes back to her 8th grade Living Environment teacher, Ms. Taylor, who she feels grateful towards for making her realize the importance of making mistakes because they allow you to get them right in the future. She also mentions: “I remember all the times where I wouldn’t feel confident in what we were doing, but she would assure me that I will get better.” Abena carries on to explain how Ms. Taylor would always be the first to notice when she was in a slump, and would then offer support without hesitation. “She’s been doing that since 8th grade and hasn’t stopped,” Abena states and she recalls all the times she was allowed into Ms. Taylor’s room during free periods and after school to just relax or study. She also adds how Mrs. Taylor would treat her to snacks which she said showed that she cared for her students like a “true mother-figure.”

Bryanna Scott

Ms. Accardo lands Bryanna’s favorite teacher spot. Bryanna goes on to explain how she admires how Ms. Accardo puts so much love into her work by taking the time to help a student, no matter what the circumstance. She also mentions how Ms. Accardo is one of the most hardworking and caring people she knows, and how she never plays favorites amongst her students. Bryanna says: “I love her so much and I will keep reminding her to take care of herself before she helps others. It’s her second nature,” which proves just how much she admires her teacher. Ms. Accardo also likes to bring in snacks to her students, along with fruits throughout the day, so they in return remind her to eat food herself. Bryanna sweetly states: “I miss seeing her everyday.”

Andrew Estiverne

Andrew states his favorite teacher is Ms. Tague (aka Ms. Teplansky) because of her kind nature that allows her to remember her students that stem back even a few years back which he finds to be rare. He goes on to further explain how he has no doubt in his mind that if he were to say hi to her, she’d call him by his name which he says means a lot to him. “She taught me a lot whether it was actual school work or life lessons through even the slightest things,” Andrew states with appreciation regarding Ms. Tague.

Mahlet Zegeye

Ms. Accardo scores another win when Mahlet also mentions her to be her favorite teacher in the 2019-2020 school year. Mahlet shares, “..she is very diligent and she puts in a lot of work to make sure that all her students understand the material she is teaching,” Mahlet writes. She continues to explain her appreciation for her Chemistry teacher who goes out of her way by teaching a lesson in different ways and strongly advocating for her students to ask her any questions to ensure their recollection of information. Mahlet also says how Ms. Accardo puts in extra effort to make sure her students don’t get stressed out by her work, and engages with her students by telling jokes and comfortably having conversations with them. “This is why Ms. Accardo is the best teacher!” Mahlet declares.

Marium Zehra

Marium also has a favorite teacher that goes back to 8th grade, who just so happens to be Ms. Harley. Marium recalls of Ms. Harley: “She had this ability to instill a genuine interest in the topics she taught,” and explains by stating how Ms. Harley encouraged her to keep on writing, but to improve and learn more. “Not only does she possess great teaching skills, but she also has a sincere desire to share knowledge with others,” Marium continues. She also explains how her 8th grade English teacher made sure to engage every student in the class by using interesting material, thus making the year a memorable experience.

Neto Ifebi

Neto’s favorite teacher this year is Ms. Flannory, who she feels grateful towards for helping her understand new concepts in her Chemistry class, despite Neto not being the best in science and without an interest in Chemistry. Neto further states how Ms. Flannory not only helped her in class, but outside of it whenever she stressed over a test in another subject “Ms. Flannory would print these little cards with a quote that boosted my self esteem or just made me smile,” and Neto found it nice to know that a teacher cared for her wellbeing and understood her struggles with academics. “I think she’s one of the best people I’ve met, despite her corny jokes,” Neto explains. Neto ends with a heartfelt message to her teacher: “I really want to thank Ms. Flannory for everything you’ve done for me, because without your support, I would be in a completely fragile mental state about myself and my intellectual abilities.”

Daniel Salas

Unlike the other students, Daniel writes with confidence about how he doesn’t have a favorite teacher because he interacts with them like how does with everyone else, as an equal to one another. He states this because he finds that all teachers bring something unique to the table that makes his day unique, which helps him push forward to the next day. Another reason why he doesn’t have a particular favorite teacher is because he believes that it isn’t the best idea due to setting expectations where a student may correlate their bad day to their feelings towards a teacher. He finds this negative because that same student may then voice their biased opinions to a fellow student and then affect their perspective on that teacher, which may especially be damaging if that student never had that teacher before. Daniel continues on by explaining how he feels that students often forget that teachers are people as well and have their own lives outside of school, so we don’t see all the sacrifices they make to become a teacher, a job that he states deserves more praise for influencing the next generation that would later change the world for the better. “I try my best to see them as people,” Daniel writes while explaining how he admires teachers for doing their best in their job requirements.

Bernadine Baptiste

Ms. Diaz makes the list according to Bernadine Baptiste. Bernadine starts off by stating how she came to Ms. Diaz’s Algebra 2 class in the middle of the year and since then, she finds her to be extremely helpful and supportive. Thanks to Ms. Diaz, Bernadine has had more confidence in raising her hand to answer questions. “Ms. Diaz is probably the most thoughtful teacher I know,” Bernadine states. She explains this by stating how she says Ms. Diaz is very flexible with projects and lessons by extending due dates for any students who need to spend an extra day in order to fully grasp a lesson, as well as being good at reading her students. Bernadine finished off by stating: “Ms. Diaz is a good math teacher and I could not have asked for better.”

Citlali Gutierrez

Ms. Nolan wins Citlali’s top place for favorite teacher because of her flexibility. Citlali states this can be proven by asking any student who has ever had Ms. Nolan, who can testify to her greatness. “Taking her class was the best,” Citlali expresses through examples of Ms. Nolan being a friendly and approachable person that also ensures that her students stay on top of their art work.

Kene Agu

Ms. Nolan scores once again when Kene says she’s her favorite teacher as well. “Ms. Nolan was an art teacher I had last year in 9th grade,” Kene claims. She finds Ms. Nolan to be the most caring teacher that she’s ever had, which allowed her to express her thoughts to her every morning. Even if she was busy, Ms. Nolan made sure to engage in conversation which she continually encouraged in all of her students. Kene states: “Ms. Nolan is very dedicated to teaching art to students,” by mentioning how she would help students any time they were in need of her help, including moments they fell behind in work. Kene also says Ms. Nolan made sure to aid all students, even the ones who did the bare minimum.

While reading these students’ responses about why a certain teacher was their favorite, you should go ahead and think about your favorite teacher. Maybe you can even message them to ensure or remind them of just how significant their role impacts your life because it might just make their day. These times are rough for everyone, so there is no harm in spreading some kindness here and there, even if it is through a screen.

By Andrew Candio

In a tough time with quarantine, there is a realization that there is so much time within our day when school isn’t in it - considering it consumes about sixty percent of our day if not the whole day. With times like these, it’s important that we acquire new skills because the truth is we may never get a time like this in our lifetime. It’s important that we seize our craft and enhance it; whether it be coding or art, it's important we not only challenge ourselves, but find engaging activities or hobbies in this tough time. And yes, I know binge watching can be fun and playing video games too, and are extremely entertaining activities for some, but it’s important within a time like this that we step out of our comfort zone and try to do activities we may not feel comfortable with.

In times like these, four gentlemen took it upon themselves to make a podcast where they can discuss varying topics for many viewers to listen to in their spare time or throughout the day. It truly is something that is fun as we are isolated, but with use of technology we are able to communicate from long distances. But you may be asking: Who are the four gentlemen? Well it is Olisa Emeagwali, Ogden Toussaint, Darrien Nicholson and myself Andrew Candio. With discussions regarding topics like remote learning, hidden addictions, censorship and answering the question: Are APs a Scam, we want our listeners to formulate their own response to our topics and questions. Also recently we did an episode with our sister club Leading Ladies where we discussed cheating in relationships, discussed the word female, false sexual allegations, and the #metoo movement while also discussing double standards. We truly learned a lot getting different perspectives and being able to research our topic or question to corroborate our opinions.

But all thanks really goes to Olisa Emeagwali, as he is our editor too. He spends countless hours editing our podcast to ensure it is perfect for our listeners. I’m writing here to tell you to not only develop a new hobby or skill and perfect it, but to promote our podcast and ask you to give it a listen. We truly appreciate all the support we’ve received as we’ve attained over a hundred listeners for our podcast and are slowly but surely increasing our numbers. This proves that through hard work and dedication anything can be accomplished and to not let distance dismiss you from achieving your goals. You can listen to our podcast on Spotify and Anchor. Thank you and stay safe.

By Samia Zia

There it is, the question you get asked by your parents or people you know when they are curious about what is going on in your life. You are not alone if you are one to dread answering this question or if you dislike being reminded of any school stress that you may have. For there are many students like that, including me, who undergo periods of confusion and lack of clear structure in their school work and class life. Although I may not appear to be stressed with my work when these moments come, my unorganized planner with tons of notes about what to complete in one day makes everything feel horrifying, for I am confused and overloaded with all the tasks.

I believe I have benefited from remote learning in the sense that there are less factors to worry about, and thus it allows me to reflect on those moments of immense confusion or stress. Moreover, I believe it is imperative for me to state that yes, I am completely aware that the school year is coming to an end, but if I could help some of my peers have a clear sense of their academic life next year, that would be the best thing ever. I have been no stranger to the questions regarding how I manage to stay organized, so I thought, what better than to write on a platform as large as this one!

Now, let us talk business: school can be extremely difficult, and I get it. Regardless of what grade you are in, you are bound to encounter confusion in some sort of assignment, or class entirely, but it is alright, for you are not alone. Perhaps laying out the answers would make it more difficult for me to convey the process of organizing school in a coherent manner, so let's imagine the situation together.

You are sitting in your 8th period class, and suddenly realize that you are not where you want to be academically, and your teachers have made it clear that you need to make some reforms to your participation in school work. There are many assignments for you to make up, and you are overwhelmed imagining how you can finish all of them in a short amount of time. Also, you have an exam next week that you have not prepared for at all, so now what?

Well the first thing you should always do is assess the situation yourself. Write down or take note of exactly how many assignments you are missing: go through Google Classroom and your Student Portal to check all of this, and write due dates or days past due next to each assignment. From here it is simply organizing them by date; if work is one day past due and another assignment was due ten days ago, it is ideal to begin with the second assignment. With this, you might even realize you will have time to rest before you work on another assignment if there are assignments not due yet. If this works, then it is likely that you are going to make perfect use of a planner of some sort.

I must mention that a planner does not have to cost $20 and be cute for it to work, although there is not much wrong with choosing to spend that much. You can make a planner out of any journal, book, or even piece of paper! For as long as you can organize all the work you have effectively, that is all that matters. Now, as phrased previously, if this works, you may be capable of executing the full planner plan.

Although the name “full planner plan” is not ideal to my preferences, I call it such for the sake of conveying the difference it has in contrast to simply having a planner to use. In the full planner plan, you organize all your schedule periods, from lunch to mathematics. Writing your entire schedule out can help you work through the homework you are assigned for each class. If you are like my sister, you can easily do all this at the end of the day if you are not afraid of forgetting what assignments you have, but I also believe it is not ideal to try to remember them overnight (especially if you get a lot of homework). Filling in the work you have for each class, and adding due dates next to assignments due later in the week can easily help you realize that you do not have as much homework as you thought, and prevent the amount of dread you feel thinking about the assignments.

Therefore, in our minds we may perceive homework to be much more difficult until we break down all the work we actually have to do and when. In lieu of such a situation, I believe assessing your work situation, investing in an organization planner of some sort, and staying up-to-date with assignments for all your classes can help you boost your grades even if you still have trouble with exams. Hopefully, doing all the homework can help you understand more questions on your tests, and this cycle will continue, so that you all, my peers, can be less stressed when it comes to thinking about all your homework, and live your daily lives with more ease. I wish that this article helps at least one student in our school, for students stressed about school deserve a helping hand. If you have any more questions, do not be afraid to ask someone for help or send me a message through my email: ziasamia@sewanhakaschools.org, and have a fantastic summer!