I have had a large amount of help throughout my school days by numerous teachers. There are so many that I could nominate for many different reasons. There is, however, one teacher that really stands out to me in a special way. His name is Senior Chief McClain. Senior Chief McClain is my Naval Science teacher at Delaware Military Academy. I chose to nominate him for many reasons. First, he always tries to make learning about the military fun even for those that do not show any interest. He is also very active in the community and is always telling his students how they can help. Finally, he is always smiling and tries to make you smile along.

Senior Chief tries to make learning about the military fun and seem interesting even to those that have no interest in the military. Delaware Military Academy is a military high school, but not everyone shows interest in learning about it. Instead of just reading from a textbook or staring at a computer screen on normal school days, we are practicing drill. Senior Chief even found a way to make drill something you look forward to in the week. We have knockout competitions every time we finish learning about drill on drill days. It’s a game that challenges us to see if we can remember what we learned and to see if we are doing it correctly. It is also a competition between the class to see who is the best at drill. On inspection days, he gives us time to check the measurements of our devices and ribbons before we head to inspection, and he helps us with anything we are confused about. On some PT days, instead of making us run and do push ups, we do fun activities like playing volleyball and other games or rolling down hills with a partner. He found ways to make not only PT days fun, but also other days fun too.

Community Service is very important at DMA. We have to complete a certain amount of hours a year. Senior Chief is always talking about why community service is important and the many ways to help. He gives us ideas on what to do and helps us sign up for those events. Senior Chief always talks about funny stories and events that happened while he was doing community service, trying to convince some of us that you can have fun while helping others. He

talks about many of the community service opportunities in his life and how he was able to help. He is an amazing teacher that doesn’t just help his students, he helps his community and gets others to help it too.

Senior Chief has a contagious smile. He is smiling all day, everyday. I am in his last block class of the day, so I am always super tired and stressed about the classes I had before. He notices that everyone else is like that too, so he tries his best to make the class fun and to make everyone smile and laugh. We have little competitions in the class like trying to see who can do a one handed pushup or who can dance the best. We are always making jokes in that class. When we finish the work we need to do on PT and drill days, Senior Chief allows our class to play games like volleyball and basketball, and he sometimes joins in. He realizes school is stressful and tries to make it a little easier and more enjoyable. He makes the class interesting and fun, something that you would look forward to.

Senior Chief McClain is an amazing teacher. He tries to make learning about the military interesting for everyone, he participates in community service and helps us sign up as well, and he puts a smile on everyone's face. I nominate Senior Chief McClain because he does not just teach us, he makes the class fun and something everyone looks forward to. He realizes that school isn’t just about taking notes, studying, and taking tests, it is also about having fun, making memories, and making friendships that last a lifetime. For all these reasons and more, I’m nominating Senior Chief McClain for the educator of the year.