Before the beginning of my junior year, I knew Coach Malling as well, Coach. Coach Malling was my football coach. Because of the vigorous football schedule and conditioning, I spend all 12 months of the year with him. In the classroom I expected him to act like when he is on the football field. But when the bell rung, it was like he was a different person. He let us choose our seats, and I choose the front; I knew that I was going to like this class.

As a coach, he demanded respect, and that did not change with the classroom environment. He still demanded respect as a teacher. Instead of just reading a book, writing an essay, or doing a project, we would talk about the specific chapter or pages every day during class. This helped for future reading and activities, because I now could understand what we read. He also had humor that he incorporated with his teachings. What also made his class interesting and very beneficial to our learning was doing act prep a couple times during the semester. He knew that act was a very important test and with the act prep we had to do, my english score went up each and every time we used it, and if it goes up when i take the test in april, he will be the one to thank.

Before this year, I never thought I could get an A in a English class, but that changed when I walked in his classroom. He helped me understand that I have the potential to be an A student. All I needed was a little push, and that is what exactly he did. On the football field, he taught me that not everything is going to get handed to me. I am always going to have to work for what I want, and that has translated to the classroom. Without his teaching on the football field, and in the classroom, I would never be in the situation I am in right now and that is the position of being a student that cares about his work. And that is why Mr. Malling is the teacher of the year.