My middle school days were not the easiest thing to go through. With ADHD and bullying all happening at the same time, I could hardly make it through. Thankfully my wonderful teacher, Mrs. Niemczyk, helped me through it all. On top of that, she made me interested in social studies for the first time.

Mrs. Niemczyk meant a lot to me. She always stood up for me when I was bullied and she got the guys to stop making fun of me. Seventh grade is when I was bullied into depression and that depression hit me hard. The depression and bullying caused me, a 12 year old, to cry for hours at a time and cry myself to sleep. Mrs. Niemczyk was the first to see my depression. One day she took me out of class and talked to me. She asked me what was making me upset and she gave me a little stuffed animal hedgehog to hold on to when I’m upset. It may not seem like much, but her caring was the one thing that got me through that year.

Mrs. Niemczyk always stood up for me. If she ever saw anyone bully me, she would take care of it right away. One day, guys were making fun of me for liking someone and I went back to Mrs. Niemczyk and asked to go to the office with tears in my eyes. When I came back, my friend said she had yelled at the whole class and really made them see what they did to me and the bullying slowed down after that.

Not only did she help me with my depression, but she also made me truly interested in social studies. There was never a boring day in her class. She always had really fun activities and movies. And through all this, she kept the class captivated. She always made us laugh too, whether it was a funny joke or one of her sneezing fits, she always made us smile.

For some people, heroes wear capes and fly around saving the world, but my hero doesn’t wear a cape. She sits behind a desk and comes to the rescue whenever a kid needs her. These are the reasons I want to nominate her for Educator of the year, for being the voice among the voiceless and for being the light in a very dark place.