In a contest that I recently launched for Cella Magazine, we’ve asked bloggers to share a moment when a teacher they’ve had went above and beyond, and then to share how that teacher’s actions have impacted them later in life.

For the second part of the contest, we’ve asked those same bloggers to actually reach out to that teacher and say ‘thank you.’ The winning blog post will be featured in the February issue of Cella Magazine. You can find the full contest details here: http://cellablog.cellamagazine.com/contest/thanksteach/

Obviously, I’m not eligible to win, but I wanted to share my experience all the same.

I recently went to visit my old middle school teacher. A lot of things have changed since I was there. Firstly, I learned that you can’t actually just walk into a school and interrupt a class to say hi. You used to be able to do that. Now you can only visit during lunch or after school, and you have to sign in. I miss the good old days. Secondly, the sinks are a lot shorter than I remember…

So, I booked an “appointment.”

I was in Mme. Betyna’s (Heidi Betyna’s) class in 2002. She was my grade 8 teacher. I hadn’t done the math originally, but turns out that was 13 years ago. Geesh. The students thought I was her sister. No, I used to be her student, I tell them. They give me a look like I’m an alien. I was in her class in 2002. The alien look becomes amplified. Turns out that 2002 is when they were born. Yeah…

ANYWAY!

Middle school was rough. Really rough. Hormones, combined with bullying, combined with feeling awkward as hell, combined with learning a different language (I was in French Immersion) and the flute at the same did not make for the most pleasurable of experiences. Thank God for teachers like Mme. Betyna.

Mme. Betyna is one of those teachers that can’t help but go above and beyond.

Not only is she passionate about teaching, but she also runs the Sackville Heights Junior High Drama Club. This club practically saved my life as a student.

I was shy. I felt trapped inside of myself, and yearned for a way to get free. In elementary school I had been entranced by the Christmas play and I wanted more than anything to be on stage – a relatively strange desire for a kid who identified as being “painfully shy.” I thought acting might be a way to release the hold this shyness had on me. I was right. Mme. Betyna gave me a shot. Still working through a lot of my own limiting beliefs I never made it past secondary character to the secondary character, but still, I got to be apart of the magic that was the theatre. I was immediately hooked. Her enthusiasm for drama rubbed right off on me. I went to every rehearsal. I watched, I listened, and I participated as best as I could. Drama saved my life by giving me glimpses – however brief – of the person that I could one day become.

She also was/is not afraid to push her students past their own expectations. She did that for me. My two least favourite subjects in school were Science and Math. Not only did I hate these subjects, but these subjects also made me feel remarkably mediocre. They made me feel like a failure.

I remember a Math test in grade 8 (taught by an equally fantastic teacher, M. Doiron) that looked like a foreign language. I remember the anxiety. Instead of trying, I wrote a letter on the back of the test explaining to M.Doiron that I couldn’t complete the assessment because I was stupid and that he was more than welcome to call my mom if he had an issue with that. That’s paraphrasing.

I tried to pull a similar stunt in Science. I hardcore failed a test in Mme. Betyna’s class. I was relatively unfazed (and by that I mean super upset but trying to pretend like I wasn’t). Mme. Betyna sat down with me. She told me that if I didn’t improve my grades I was going to get a C in her class. That really scared me, and so I actually went home and studied. That’s right. I had been SO afraid of the subject that I thought that studying was pointless. I thought I’d fail anyway. But her gentle caution was enough to get me to try. And I really tried. I got somewhere around a 90 on the next test. I still remember the smile on her face when she handed that test back to me. She was proud of me. Suddenly, I was proud of me.

Both of these teachers helped me start the work of overcoming my victim mentality. They showed me that I could improve, and under their guidance I came to realize that my effort didn’t go unnoticed. They gave me the courage to try. After grade 8 my grades started to steadily improve. I graduated from school in Grade 12 with an A average and a wink from the principal as she handed me my diploma.

There are a lot of  teachers from my time in grade school that deserve a sincere ‘THANK YOU!’

• M. Doiron (who I mentioned above) was exceptionally patient with me. I’ll never forget his ‘Create your own Country’ project. I decided to create my own world. It is the project that stands out the most to me in all of the 13 years of grade school.

• Mrs. T (my grade 1 teacher) helped improve my confidence after an abusive kindergarten teacher. She did it with the simple gesture of putting stars next to mistakes instead of x’s.

• My grade 2 teacher, and I can’t remember her name for the life of me, was the first to acknowledge me as a writer. I was very fortunate to have consistently received this sort of encouragement throughout all of my schooling. I don’t know if I would have had the courage to keep writing without it.

• My grade 5 teacher, Mrs. Sloan, was the first to really see me. I don’t know what I mean by that, but I know that she really took me under her wing. I really appreciate that now.

• My Improv coach in Highschool, Mr. Porter (now deceased) was my first mentor. He believed in me in a way that no one had ever believed in me before. I realize now what a gift that was. He wrote a reference letter for me after high school. I still have a copy, and I will treasure it and his memory forever. He was an exceptional human being.

But for the purposes of this post, I would like to specifically thank Mme. Betyna.

I’d also like to congratulate her on her incredible achievements as a teacher.

This year she was honored by the Halifax County with an Inspire Award. She’s pictured below with some of the other teachers from the school who received that same award.

Naturally I didn’t know how lucky I was to have her as a teacher back then. I do now. So, thank you!!

Do you have a teacher that you’d like to thank? Check out the contest rules by following this link: http://cellablog.cellamagazine.com/contest/thanksteach/

I’d love to hear your story!