I had a lot of great teachers growing up who shaped and molded me into the person I am today. One of those teachers was my mom since I was home schooled for most of my life. I can remember my amazing vocal teacher, Mr. Lash, my wonderful third grade teacher, Mrs. Whitter, and my sweet middle school history teacher, Mrs. Mathias. However, there is one teacher in particular who sticks out the most as being the best and that was my high school Spanish teacher, Señora Bacca. 

Señora Bacca was truly my best teacher because she made all her students want to come to class. Even though learning a new language can be difficult and frustrating at times, it never felt like work in her class. She made every single student feel welcomed and valued in her classroom and she somehow found a way to make all the students bond with one another. She made it so that everyone felt comfortable and everyone felt like part of a community. 

When it came to class content, every day was different and she always had something fun, new, and exciting to share with the students. For example, she had us play games like Kahoot vocabulary competitions. At one point she had us create our own stories in Spanish that we could share with the class in groups with our own drawings. She would teach us all about Spanish culture through exploring different Spanish speaking regions in the world. She would teach us Spanish through silly songs or even current Spanish music videos. We practiced conversational Spanish in the classroom and were encouraged to speak as much Spanish as we could throughout the lesson but were never made to feel bad when we couldn’t or needed a break, or genuinely had a question. 

This is just another way that Señora Bacca made her students feel loved and appreciated in her class. She would also always find ways to include our interests in what we were learning so that we were more eager and engaged. For instance, for homework we were often allowed to pick something that interested us and study it or engage with it in Spanish. My interest was singing and playing guitar in high school so she allowed me to learn songs in Spanish as my homework, sing and play those songs, and record them for her as proof of my completion of the assignment. This always made learning more fun and made me spend way more time learning Spanish in my free time than I normally would have simply from my own desire to continue learning. 

As a teacher now myself, I hope to adopt some of the traits that made my Spanish teacher Señora Bacca so great. She has definitely influenced me to make it a goal of mine to make my classroom a fun and inviting environment. Over time I hope to make learning in my classroom just as enjoyable and engaging as she did, whether that’s through prioritizing fun educational games or keeping students’ interests in mind when we do projects. I would also hope to adopt her kind and accepting nature and thereby make every one of my students feel just as loved and valued as she did. Thus, helping them to be open and eager to participate freely without judgement. 

Ultimately, I am very grateful for Señora Bacca and for all the great teachers in my life who helped form me into the person I am today and into the teacher I am today. By their example, I am reminded of what it takes to be a good teacher and what it takes to be a memorable teacher in the mind of a young child or teenager.  Señora Bacca was ultimately the best because of how kindly she treated us, how fun and engaging she made the class material, and how involved she was in engaging us with our interests and combining that in our learning.