Every school year there’s always one class you like the most. You spend a good portion of time in any classes before it impatiently waiting for it to arrive, and once it has passed, you spend the rest of the day a bit bored and disappointed. Whether it be the teacher (which, in most cases, it is) or that you sit near your friends, you can never wait patiently for class to start. For me, there was one class I had for the entirety of middle school which claimed that spot. This class was my choir class, taught by Mr. Nicholas Ronaghan, who is otherwise known as Mr. R by his students (we’ll keep calling him that to make this simple).

You can tell Mr. R is a special character from the moment you lay eyes on him. Due to problems pertaining to his immune system, he is completely hairless; no head hair, no eyebrows, no anything. He also moves fairly quickly compared to other teachers I’ve seen, which makes him always seem like a lively and active person. Nine times out of ten, he comes to class with a smile on his face, ready to teach his kids what they need to know.

Mr. R is very, very good with kids. He doesn’t baby children like other teachers might; instead, he treats you as an equal. The things Mr. R teaches to his choir kids are on a professional-level when you compare them to other youth choirs. He taught me and the other choristers such things as opening our vowels, projecting, and even had us pass a “book drill” (I think that’s what it was called) where he taught us diaphragmatic breathing. He was always willing to listen to what his students had to say (except in the middle of rehearsal, obviously) and he always had some advice to give if you had a question.

There were some days where we didn’t have any songs to sing or small tests to answer. These days were sometimes movie days or plain old free days, but for the most part they were something everyone called “story time”. Mr. R would sit in front of class and just talk to us. He always had a story to tell, whether it be something plain like how we got the grand piano or something more dramatic like when he got shanked working at some kind of correctional camp. Even when not giving some dramatic spiel on his last summer job, he was always there having a conversation with us. He took everything in stride, even casting a positive light on things such as his baldness or how busy he was that particular week.

To wrap things up, I would like to say that choir was one of the most fun things I did in middle school, and the biggest reason for that was Mr. R. He was a conversationalist, always providing us with great stories and making even some of the least interesting things seem fascinating. He was a great teacher, making sure we knew exactly what we needed to know no matter how long or hard he would have to try. He was always active and had a genuinely interesting backstory. Most of all, though, he treated you as an equal. It didn’t matter if you were fat, skinny, short, tall, young, old, or anywhere in between. For these reasons and many more, Mr. R should be selected for Educator of the Year.