Dear Ms. Sharpe,  

We have not spoken in years, I hope you are still teaching and changing kids’ life the way you changed mine. I am in college now studying engineering, it’s hard to believe that it’s been 7 years since I met you. When we first met, I dreaded every day of your class, you were strict, loud and you never let me sleep. Having you as my first period teacher for 90 minutes was hard, mostly when I’m not a morning person and you were always yelling to get everyone attention. However, I wouldn’t change anything about those 3 years, looking back at all the English teachers I’ve had none them have impacted me in the way you have, you have been the best one so far. For starters, before being in your class I despised English class, it was my worst subject ever, I never did good, it was always my lowest class. I never show the purpose of learning English when I already spoke it, but my main problem was my reading, I never tried hard enough for it. Whenever I’m not good at something I automatically give up and just leave it to be. But you didn’t let me give up, you were just as stubborn as I was but instead you won the game of who was stubborn enough. You were my first 80 in English. Every time I write an essay, or a paper I think about you, you drilled every possible writing element deep into my brain with all those charts you would make. First step to writing is to make a thesis, a claim, your point of view, your thoughts, your beliefs. It needs to be something you stand for but also a statement that someone can argue against. Next, I need to give a little summary, the keep points of my writing in the intro, I don’t want to give the whole story away.  You stressed the importance of transition words like however and many more, due to that now I stress my transition phrases, I google a list of transition words and see which one would fit best in my writing, without them my writing sounds like a robot, it doesn’t flow. You taught me the correct way to analysis and why I always should explain myself when writing. It makes my writing more meaningful, it makes the reader have a better understanding, it’s prevents me for full of plagiarism, but most all it makes my writing special because I’m putting my beliefs out there and my beliefs is what makes me, me. The best way to start explaining myself is to say “I say this because” it helps me get all my ideas without focusing on if it sounds nice. Its best to get all my ideas out on paper so I know what I want to say and then I can worry about fixing everything up, making sure it makes sense. I carry your brilliance and your great teaching skills everyday with me, if I ever write a book which I probably won’t but if I do, I know I’ll have your insight drilled into me.   

 

Sincerely, Luiza Godoy