Mrs. Neiffer, my most influencial teacher

The most influential person I have had in my life within the last 5 years is my high school junior and senior English teacher (I had her for both grades). In 11th grade, Mrs. Neiffer taught English Literature. For my first two years of high school, I had hear rumors of a teacher who had the nickname "witch with a b," who was so strict that she could intimidate even the most strong headed student. She was 65 years old and totally an old-school teacher. She was always dressed professionally to the T with 5 inch high heels everyday (she couldn't wear her 6 inch heels because the dress code said none over 5 inches). She never expected anything less than our best effort and when a student would say something stupid or not to her standards she loved to say "stupid just fell out of your mouth." I had never had a teacher before like Mrs. Neiffer. She forced us to act like adults and take grasp of our own education. She awarded good grades for students who actually tried their hardest. For once, I had a teacher who did award students with a passing grade if they demonstrated laziness in her class.

I had always known I wanted to be a teacher since I was in the fifth grade, but I was never sure of what subject. In English Literature, Mrs. Neiffer was the first teacher to show me I was a very good student when it came to English. She always complimented me on my insightfulness to Beowulf and Macbeth, and because of her praise and comments towards me, she made me feel that for once I was really good at something. I had never been good at sports, I never got involved in clubs or other after school activities besides cheerleading and and dance team, but Mrs. Neiffer helped me to realize that I was good at school and that I actually enjoyed it and the subject of English.

After my junior year of highschool, I couldn't wait to have Mrs. Neiffer again. As a senior you are only required to take her Advanced Writing/Research class, but I also signed up for her Advanced Communications class, so that I would have English with her twice a day for every day of my senior year. Talk about rigorous! For her advanced writing class, we did not recieve college credit, but she made it her goal to give a rigorous like college course so that we would all be prepared for college the following year. I will always remember Mrs. Neiffer for pushing me harder than anyone else had and believing in me.