I love Geography, but I used to hate it. I moved out to Utah (Park City) not knowing what to expect. I had heard it was IB, that everything was strict and boring and hard but I judged way too fast. I was wrong. I thought I was going to be hated for not knowing as much material by the teachers, but they were so supportive of me. Especially one teacher I have, Mrs. Potts.

Mrs. Potts is without a doubt my favorite teacher, even when she's being hard on us through certain circumstances. She suffered a stroke about a year ago, and now she's limited on the things she can do. Sometimes when she's doing too many things, she gets huge head aches, she trembles and stutters and can get hard to walk, but she still goes on with a smile. She doesn't like book work. She teaches us everything that's in the book through other hands-on things. We do activities, games, crafts...that teach us what we need to know and we remember the information and understand it...because we did it. Everything that can be difficult in our curriculum, she breaks down. She compares everything to our lives, she puts everything on our level. She makes learning easy and fun. Instead of dreading going to class, it's the one class you're looking forward to!
Mrs.Potts is so nice. She's so understanding. If you don't have your work on the due date for a good, legitimate reason, she'd be like, "okay, get it to me when you can" and no one abuses that because we realize how lucky we are for her understanding and insight. She doesn't like to give homework, reason being is because she understands we have lots of homework for other classes and she lets us have time in class to our assignments. Whenever you're down or going through some things, she's also the person to talk to. She has the "open door policy" where you can just walk in and vent and she's there to listen. She won't yell at you or tell you you were stupid for making a certain choice, she won't judge you or make up her mind you're a horrible person for the things you say. She listens, she sympathizes, and she helps. She is always there when you need her. She always steps up to the plate when you need her the most and goes out of her way to make sure she is close with her students enough for them to reach out when needed and helpful.
All in all, Mrs. Potts is the greatest teacher, greatest person I know in general. She deserves the title of "Educator of the Year" because of her strength, her ability to connect with her students, and her determination for every student to learn, and walk out of her room wanting to learn more.