Bill Sturm
It was time to take more responsibility in my education; sixth grade was the year I got to be a middle school student. That year was life changing because I got to go to different classrooms for different subjects including Spanish. The biggest thing that stood out to me was my core subject; writing, social studies, math and science teacher, Mr. Sturm.
I never looked forward to coming to school before, but when I had Mr. Sturm, I entered class as quickly as I could to learn subjects that I never liked. I always found math, reading and writing to be the most boring part of the day. Mr. Sturm made them the most fun part of our day.
I learned about Greece and the first Olympics. Our class had our own Olympics to see which person was the best at different events. I got second place in the standing long jump. When we learned about Egypt, we got to pick the topic that interested us; and our group of two dressed in Egyptian apparel and to demonstrate to our peers what we learned about such as the pyramids, papyrus, or mummies.
Throughout the math class Mr. Sturm was animated. It looked like he was conducting an orchestra with his hand when he was teaching. He also showed how he cared about his students when he told us how we will need to know certain information in the future and how it will get us through high school. An example of how Mr. Sturm had the energy of a 6th grader with the wisdom of Yoda was when one student in my class used his calculator and didn’t show his work. One day when this student used his calculator and told Mr. Sturm it was quicker than working by hand. Mr. Sturm jokingly said, “This calculator of yours is making me go crazy!” We didn’t believe him. Then, he got on top of the boy’s desk and jumped off and screamed. This was entertaining and memorable to see a man in his 50’s screaming and jumping off a desk.
During English, he wrote a poem once about the adventures of his three hunting dogs: Gus, Buck and Hank. These poems made the class enjoyable because everyone laughed until our stomachs hurt. Hank was just a little black lab puppy at the time, so he always told us all the chaos Hank caused.
He also gave us chicken foot stew. This looked like the most disgusting thing I have ever seen in my life. It made you gag and cough when you smelled it. It was a soup that had real chicken legs sticking out of it. He didn’t force us to eat it, but he highly encouraged it. He told us that you always learn better with a full stomach. Out of  respect for Mr. Sturm, most  kids closed their eyes and pinched their nose as they drank this chicken leg stew.
A few weeks before Teacher Appreciation Day in spring, Mr. Sturm bought a Cub Cadet. He claimed that it was the best investment that he ever made. He always told us about how it made cutting the lawn so easy and enjoyable. On Teacher Appreciation Day I brought him something that I think he will never forget. It was a toy model of a Cub Cadet that looked identical to his real one.
I will never forget the look of joy and appeachion I left on his face when I gave him the little toy model lawn mower. It looked like he’d won the lottery. He quickly unwrapped it and set it on his desk and would play with it every once and awhile. I came back to his class a couple years later to say hi; and on his desk, I saw the Cub Cadet model toy tractor sitting right there next to his teacher supplies, which really showed me that he cared about it.
Unique things like the Chicken foot stew and the Cub Cadet tractor really impressed me as to what a teacher will do to try and get me motivated to learn. He took topics that I disliked (english, social studies, science and math) and made them the most fun part of my day. If a teacher can take your least favorite topic and make it your most favorite topic, then they should win this award.