How My Geometry Teacher Impacted My Educational Journey by Mackinzi

How My Geometry Teacher Impacted My Educational Journey by Mackinzi - January 2025 Scholarship Essay

High school can be tough, emotionally, and physically, being considered smart by classmates and wanting to prove to them but myself more than I was and am. I would rush through things to be the first one done to keep the smart look even though I was struggling. For me, one of the toughest things was test anxiety and being afraid to ask for help. I would always try on my tests but, when it came down to it I would freeze up. And asking questions made me think that I would eventually be “unsmart”. But as My favorite teacher started to notice these things she was right there to help whenever I needed.
As a sophomore taking two math classes, one at seven in the morning and the second at eight, I was sometimes over my head in math. Geometry was “easy” compared to advanced algebra so I would always breeze through things. Yet I would still get the simple things wrong like adding numbers together. The simple things made me frustrated and I would give up thinking it was because I didn’t know the material, sometimes leading to giving up on homework. Being me, I never asked for help on anything, but my teacher pulled me aside and had me work on a couple of problems to see what the real issue was. I was nervous and embarrassed to be pulled aside in the middle of class but as I did the problem fine and still didn't get the right answer I felt dumb.
She told me it's just that I get ahead of myself and told me to slow down and it took a while but I did. Slowing down helped me through tests and taught me that being first doesn't mean anything. Another thing that she did was instead of putting the word test on top of the paper she would cross it out and write “quiz”. It always made me laugh and made me relax and think like it wasn’t a test. I always did so much better after that. And I am so happy that she helped me overcome that test anxiety.
With slowing down cam asking questions, she was always paying attention to my classmates like walking around and making sure people didn’t need help. Even If I said that I didn’t she would still sometimes sit next to me helping other students just in case. Soon I was comfortable and started asking questions. Sometimes even just saying the question out loud would help me figure it out. It gave me a new understanding of the questions and how to break down homework and test problems on my own. I learned not to just ask for help but to see if she could teach me a new way of doing the problem and to see if made more sense.
As I overcome my anxiety and overcome my insecurities and learn how to ask for help when I need it. However, my geometry teacher had a huge impact on my educational journey. She noticed my struggles and took the time to work and help me overcome them. I realized that asking questions wasn’t a sign of weakness, but a way to understand things better and grow. My teacher has not only helped me improve my academic skills but also taught me to trust myself and understand that learning is a process. Her approach was loving and sweet and changing the "test" to say "quiz" was just one way to show that she was an amazing teacher.