Teen Ink Educator of the Year Contest: Tony Johnson

I chose Mr. Tony Johnson for educator of the year,because he is a great teacher and leader. His teaching methods make him a great teacher. His style of teaching, what he does for the school, and what he does for the students is what I will tell you about Mr. Johnson. I hope I can explain him in a great way because is really an awesome teacher.

Mr. Johnson's teaching styles are very good for the class he teaches. He is the Ag teacher of our school, and is also head of the FFA. The first day I met him, he told us that nobody called him Mr. Johnson, that Mr. J is what he preferred. His teaching habits are very skilled in my opinion. He teaches us lessons out of our books, then we watch a PowerPoint on how to do shop work the right way, finally we get to do hands on learning down in the shop. We have made many projects in his class, and the stuff he teaches you can help you get a job without college, but with college can help you be even more successful.

The second thing that makes Mr. J a great teacher is his attitude for his job, which is very good. He is asked on a daily basis to go do jobs around the school, such as fixing doorknobs, fixing the fences that have been broken, moving these big stones at our school to where they are needed, fixing a lot of broken desks, and probably a lot more stuff that I don't even know about. He never says that he can't do anything either, he always say yes. Some people compare him to Jesus. He also works some of the football and basketball games working the concessions or working the gates. He does a lot for our school and is hardly ever recognized for it. I remember one day I was in his class and we had to go plant a bunch of flowers around the campus. He lets his students do some of the things and it is kind of like a hands on experience for us.

The stuff Mr. J does for his students is very generous. He makes projects for us, like one time we had to build a grill out of an old barrel drum. We torched it in half, then we welded the sides and handles on, we built legs for it, and then we sold them and got to keep some of the money we made for it. We all ended up donating the money we made to the Ag department for more wood and welding rods though. One of my friends were driving one day and their brakes went out on their car, well the were coming up to a stop sign and hit Mr. J in the back of his car which messed his car up a lot. Instead of him being mad he ran out of his car and went and checked on my friend and his family, and didn't press charges at all. I think that was an amazing thing for him to do, because most Americans would have been mad and suing my friend for something he really couldn't control. Mr. J is a great role model to our school staff and students, I will hate to see the day he goes to retirement.

I hope I could show you how great of a teacher Mr. J really is. The things he does are just remarkable in my eyes and that's why I saw him set fit for this essay. His teaching style, the things he does for the students, and for this school, are just unbelievable. He does them all without and complaining. I hope you can see how awesome he really is.