School is a very interesting place, full of both enjoyable and unenjoyable experiences. It is a colorful place, and one which I have trouble understanding. One can learn anything from detached concepts of these strange intellectual webs that are riddled with symbolism and flutter high above any sense of reality in the context in which they are presented, to knowledge truly expansive to the mind and profoundly impactful to the self. It’s quite a wildcard in that respect. However, when it comes to creating motivation to move through it all, regardless of it’s frequent redundancy to me, and buckling down to earn that strange thing called credit, Sharon Foss of Riverway Learning Community has helped me more than any other.
Sharon pushes me towards what I need to do regardless if I want to or not. She knows what’s necessary to pass and pushes me towards that goal. She’s one of the only people on the planet who has done that for me, and I am becoming increasingly grateful for it as I grow older. I realize that graduating often isn’t done by doing just what you’d like, but as many and all things, there has to be a balance. Many times, there are things you probably would despise doing, but you do it for the betterment of yourself and the people around you. I hear her say something much like this often, and the reality of the words really stuck with me.
She, like many of the other teachers at Riverway, also holds scary amounts of compassion and desire for her students to love learning and succeed in their goals. I’ve seen her show more concern for other students than any other teacher here. Sharon says what one needs to hear, often whether it’s what they want to hear or not and she does it with a sense of insight and understanding.
She helps people by connecting with them when they are in need, using her own experience in life to help them. She isn’t like many teachers I’ve been exposed to where they appear to wear this strange, egoistic mask over themselves and speak and connect with their students disingenuously. Many times in my years before coming to this school, I felt that having a conversation with many of these teachers felt very odd and shifty. I don’t get that feeling with her or anyone else at Riverway. I feel that I am talking to a human being who has opinions and subjective thoughts like all humans do. I think that it’s a really great thing that should be present more in standard education systems.
All of these details really explain why Sharon has had a massive impact on my life in school and why I’d nominate her as the “Educator of the Year.” She pushes me to be motivated, and helps me out when I need it, both academically and personally. She goes beyond what other teachers would do for her students, and she treats her occupation as more than just a job.