Editor’s note: This week, May 2-6, is teacher appreciation week. Over the course of three days, staff members want to recognize their most memorable high school teachers.

Christopher Adams
by Santiago Barrientos

His jokes, his stories, and of course, his puns. These are all features that keep students engaged in Mr. Adams’ class. He’s a man in love with history and world geography who spends his class time using different styles of teaching in order to make sure his students not only learn, but appreciate social studies the way he does. A retired airman, Adams approaches class every day with a smile on his face and a story or event that connects to his lesson. His reach out to his students is extensive and unconditional, always making sure his students are accommodated to.  

Let’s be honest, history isn’t the most appealing subject to people, and it makes it even worse when you don’t have a teacher who absolutely loves it. When I first started my AP world history class my sophomore year, I was deeply worried that it was going to be the worst class I would ever take. Slowly but surely, my attitude about the class changed as every morning we started with CNN Student News and a great continuation of Carl Azuz’s puns done by our teacher himself. A mixture of confused laughter and facepalms always filled the room. After waking up the class, he proceeded to explain to us that he (still) doesn’t have a cell phone, and doesn’t want one.

Luckily I was a part of his all-year blended course along with my English teacher, Noel Andia. I had the privilege to learn how to be punny, where and when civilization started, and that any subject can be fun as long as the right person is teaching it. I hope that students before and after me have the same benefit of having a teacher as great as Mr. Adams.

Martha Cisney
by Alexis Robertson

Mrs. Cisney is the best math teacher I’ve ever had. I’m sure a lot of people can say that math isn’t their favorite subject because it’s hard. But for me math was detrimental; it was on a whole other level of hardness. I can honestly say that I have always had problems in math throughout my whole school career, but when I got to sophomore year it honestly felt like such a relief because Mrs. Cisney taught to where I could understand with no confusion at all. She would even stay after school and during her lunch to help me.            

That shows dedication and determination. She was determined to change her teaching style just to help me better understand math. I remember on testing days every Friday she would always wear a crossing guard vest and it had the word “testing” really big on the back of it. After the test she would always give us chocolate cookies. It really made me look forward to testing days.

Overall Mrs. Cisney’s classroom was such a fun spirited atmosphere to be involved in. I’m pretty sure everybody in her class can say that there were some really fun times in her classroom. I will definitely miss Mrs. Cisney after I graduate. I will never forget her and her awesome math tricks as they will forever be embedded into the my brain. Thank you for all you’ve done for me and what you have taught me. Your greatness is truly appreciated.

Marty Courtney
by Andrea Duncan

As a freshman, everyone is told that Doctor Courtney is big and scary and unapproachable. But really, he is just the opposite.

Since my freshman year I have gotten to know Doctor Courtney and he is quite funny. Yes, he tells a lot of stories about his marathons and makes analogies to running a lot, but that is OK. The marathon and running analogies work.

My favorite memory from the last four years with Doctor Courtney is during junior year when he had an American Citizenship book and he asked us two or three questions every day that could appear on a citizenship test. American pride is very important to Doctor Courtney and I believe that everyone should love their country as much as he does.

Aside from his quirky personality, Doctor Courtney will do anything and everything to help any band student when they need help. He loves the band program that we have and every student who walks through the band hall doors. Whether or not a student chooses to do music outside of high school, the lessons learned outside of the band setting are more important than the music lessons throughout the years.

One of the many lessons I am leaving high school band with is “To be early is to be on time, and to be on time is to be late.” Since my first day in the program, Doctor Courtney has drilled the idea that being late isn’t acceptable and it transfers to the real world outside of school as well. When you get a job, you don’t show up late. If anything, you show up early.

I couldn’t have asked for a better role model throughout my high school career. Thank you Doctor Courtney for everything you do and everything you have done.

Charles Andrews
by Dustin Bogan

Mr. Andrews was my U.S. history teacher who I had last year, and I also had him last semester in U.S. military history. In addition to this he is a veteran and is still currently working with the U.S. military. He cares about his students and makes sure they know all of their deadlines and that they each have a chance to succeed in his class. He is always willing to help students who need it and is ready to get involved and keep a positive attitude, even if those around him don’t share the same positivity.

He always tries to keep his students active and learning. He does this with a variety of classroom activities like a quote of the day where he has the class copy a quote from the board and discuss it. He encourages students to submit quotes of their own. He also tells the class stories from his life, which relate to the topic being discussed in class. Another activity that he does is show the class something from another country which has a story attached to it, and he tells how he came to acquire the item and he also talks about the culture that surrounds the item.

Mr. Andrews is a dedicated and enthusiastic teacher who never gives up on his students. Even when his students don’t choose to participate he still tries to motivate them to succeed and get involved with the activities at hand. Mr. Andrews is a great teacher who deserves more thanks than I can give.

Elizabeth Lund
by Desiree Stuckey

A good teacher challenges students in ways they’ve never been challenged before. A great teacher not only challenges the students, but also gets them excited to learn, even when they’re out of their comfort zones. My freshman year was full of good teachers who started teaching on day one of class, even though my classmates and I were ready to play get to know me games at our assigned tables.

I was already exhausted by the time I reached third period, ready to just go home and sleep. But, when I walked into my pre-ap geometry class, I was suddenly awakened by my new teacher’s excited voice and handshake.

“Hi! Sit anywhere you’d like,” she exclaimed loudly. At that moment, I could tell that geometry would be my favorite class. Not only had my teacher let me sit with my friends, but she also seemed excited to be at school teaching. In class that day, she told us about herself and listened to us talk about our days so far. It was a great start to an even better semester.

For the next week or two, when I walked into class, I was greeted with a handshake and a hello from my teacher who was attempting to learn all of her students’ names. We were patient with her when she didn’t remember our names because we knew she had a lot of students. And in return, she was patient with us when we didn’t understand what she was teaching because we had never learned it before. Because her personality was so loud and full of excitement, she was able to help us remember little tricks to understanding geometry theorems and postulates.

In between warm ups, grading homework and learning new topics, she was able to distract her students’ minds and give us a break from all the math. She would tell us stories about her life, ask us questions about ours, and sometimes she would even tell a joke. During one of these transitions, it got brought up that I have practically every social media out there, and I suddenly became “the social media addict.” This, and other students’ nicknames became inside jokes between the whole class, which are still occasionally brought up today.

Thank you, Mrs. Lund, for being so patient when I didn’t understand. Thank you for creating a safe, fun environment for my friends and I to learn in. Thank you for helping me understand and enjoy math again. And most importantly, thank you for being a great teacher, for challenging me, and getting me excited to learn.

Barbara Somers
by Alexis McKinley

Because my fashion design teacher is on maternity leave, we have a long-term substitute teacher named Mrs. Somers. I’ve really been enjoying Mrs. Somers as my substitute teacher in my fashion marketing class. She is such an amazing and loving person. I love how she knows how to sew just like Mrs. Gipe. It seems as if she has a lot of experience with sewing as well which is great because we have another sewing project that we are starting this month. I’m excited to do the next project with a different teacher because she might teach us a different useful way to use the sewing machines. She teaches me a lot of things that I need to know for life as well. In her class we do a lot of great projects that are very enjoyable and interesting. She teaches us things about fashion nobody else knows. I also love how she makes me feel like her teacher helper.

I met her last semester when she would sub for her husband, Mr. Somers, when he would go on trips for golf and other reasons. I honestly didn’t really agree with the way she would try to run the class, so when I found out she would be my substitute for fashion design I was quite upset. I suddenly got over that when she became my long-term sub. She shows me kindness and is very caring. I love how nice she is to the class and to me. I will really enjoy the rest of the year with her.

Keri Page
by Faith Patton

Bubbly and sarcastic are the two things that come to mind when thinking of Mrs. Page. Not only was she probably the best chemistry teacher at Harmon, but she was the most funny and friendly one as well. She had a bright smile to match her bright blonde hair. She would always make sure that her students understood the material before moving on with her lesson plans. She always welcomed you with a big tight hug.

I did not have her as my teacher at first. I was at Killough for a few months and then once I transferred to Harmon she was my third period teacher. I wish she was my teacher the whole day as she made me feel welcomed right as I walked in. Mrs. Page was always in a good mood, and when she wasn’t you would have a bad day along with her. Seeing her upset would always make me or another student upset; we would always try to make her smile no matter what. Mrs. Page would always have a different story to tell the class each day. She would tell us about her life outside of school. She had these huge dramatic stories about her husband or obtuse stories about her private life which made the beginning of class all that more better.

Making her mad was pretty easy, but she would be lenient with how she would punish you. Her first thing wouldn’t be to go to the office. I’ve always loved how she would talk to us as if we were on the same level as each other, and she would always take things slow for those who needed it. She’s one of the only teachers who I felt wasn’t just my teacher, but a role model for me, and I can’t thank her enough.

Megan Srubar
by Taylor Carver

I remember my first day in biology my freshman year. I had already gone through the first four classes of the year and I was definitely not ready for the next four. I remember walking in and seeing a nice, young, blonde lady. Ms. Srubar was her name. At first I was confused. I hadn’t seen or heard of her before. I thought I would get an older, more strict teacher, but I got a 20 something year old teacher who was in her first year of teaching. I didn’t think she would become one of the best teachers I’ve ever had throughout all of the 11 years I’ve been in school.

Ms. Srubar is more than just a teacher. To me, I don’t think of her as a teacher, I consider her a friend. Her bright, bubbly personality can change a bad day to a good day. She teaches you, but also takes the time to get to know you. Whenever you may have a problem or situation, she’s there for you to help you. Every day of my freshman year during block lunch I stayed in her room and ate lunch with her. She didn’t mind at all. We would talk about what’s going on in the world, and what celebrity did that or who said what. To me, her room felt like a second home. I felt comfortable there. So, Ms. Srubar, thank you for being an awesome teacher, but even more than that, thanks for being a great friend.

Morgan Brittain
by Jae Wiley

Every year you receive at least one super cool and relatable teacher, and in my case this year this teacher for me was Ms. Brittain. Maybe it was because she’s young or simply the fact that she understood the struggles of being a high school student. I always anticipated her class because she has an amazing personality and is always spreading good vibes.

Ms. Brittain always made work a breeze which I was so grateful for especially since her class was my last class of the day. Her goofy ways reminded me of my mom’s which is way I classified her as my “school mom.” The class she taught was world history and it requires extensive note taking which is not my forte. I’ve never liked to take notes, but her vivid descriptions and quirky antics she would showcase in order to describe different lessons made me enjoy taking notes.

I remember when she came into class one day and for some odd reason she kept trying to bring attention to her hand. We thought it was another one of her crazy shenanigans, but then we realized there was an engagement ring upon her hand. My favorite teacher was getting married and to see her so full of joy and happiness was amazing.

She always wished nothing but the best for us in whatever it is that we aspired to do. It was a great joy being one of Ms. Brittain’s students and I’m honestly sad that it’s over. I will most definitely miss her and her wonderful class.

Robert Borenstein
by JaJuan Nash

Mr. Borenstein is a man who truly changed my view of life and I value and appreciate everything he has done for me. During the first semester of the school year I realized that I signed up for AP U.S. history and the first day I sat in the class I wanted to quit because of all the stories I’ve heard from my friends. They constantly said “Bro you need to drop out” or “There is no way you can play basketball and do AP history,” and lastly my favorite “You’re not smart enough to hang with those AP kids.”

After hearing all those things from friends it made me think that I couldn’t be in the class because of basketball, and that was my biggest excuse throughout the whole semester. Once being in class started to get harder and harder every day, I wanted to drop out because of all the quizzes, tests and chapter notes that I would fail or get dislike stamps on.

Each and every day the people at my table kept telling me that I wouldn’t survive your class at all and that made me worry each and every day. I thought the class may screw up my GPA and I wouldn’t have a chance to get into any D1 college because of my incapability of understanding anything that was going on in the classroom. There were even times when I wouldn’t know what was going on for weeks because I didn’t understand the material we were learning in class.

I used to be so jealous every day of the other AP students because it seemed like I was in a foreign country with people who spoke a totally different language than me, but it was just them talking about the new material you were teaching.

I remember coming into your class during block lunch and saying “I don’t know if I can do this anymore because I don’t know anything and I am truly failing.” From that moment you changed my life with your words of wisdom and I remember you telling me “Give it another couple weeks and I promise you will get better.” From this day forward I want to say thank you for teaching me that anything is possible if you set your mind to it and never give up.