My nomination for Educator of the Year goes to Mrs. Cicchini of Veterans Memorial Intermediate School in Vineland, New Jersey.
It is not very easy to find a loving, caring teacher, not to mention a teacher who really teachers the subject well. When I arrived in Mrs. Cicchini's class during my 8th grade year, I suspected that she would be a friendly person with an easy-to-pass class.
I was wrong in some aspects of my prediction.
Mrs. Cicchini is an amazing person and a fabulous teacher. She taught the students to see the world from a different angle by looking through the eyes of others. She did not merely give out assignments because she was supposed to. She taught us the lessons using real-life examples. She read to us (yes, she read to a class full of 13- and 14-year-olds) and asked us out opinions of the lesson. She let us watch movies and learn not through books, but through emotions.
Her class was not easy to pass. You had to try, you had to think, you had to learn the material, and you had to feel it. You could not just make up elaborate phrases and slap them on the paper for an A. She was tough, she was loving. She was an inspiration as a teacher.
I still see her some times. She is involved in multiple charities, does anything for her students, and still manages to raise a beautiful family. She has spread her enthusiasm and love over generations of students and has changed the course of many lives. She inspired me to become a writer by giving me my first copy of TeenInk magazine during class, and I am forever grateful for that.
Mrs. Cicchini is one of those rare people; the one you can count on. The one you remember. The one you still see. The one you still love. Because she never judges. And she never forgets a student, or a friend.