Although English class may not be the most entertaining class for everyone, there are awesome teachers at Lewis High School who do their best to make the class more engaging. From telling stories related to the class to making us laugh out loud, these teachers who have the ability to make a class entertaining should be considered super humans.

A big example would be Ms. Jennifer Leslie. She’s an awesome English teacher to whom I have the honor to have as my junior year English teacher. I must say that I never liked English classes, but I even woke up earlier with more energy on gold days, not being able to wait to get to her class.

Ms. Leslie is an incredible teacher who holds the ability of making English class the most entertaining class you would ever get to be in. She is smart, funny and a woman with truly realistic opinions and way of being. 

There are Lewis students who don’t believe it possible for an English class to be entertaining, but those are students who didn’t have or haven’t had the chance to have Ms. Leslie as an English teacher. Often these are students who struggled with history class and viewed English as similar due to only reading or learning about the past. Everybody has his or her own biases. 

We, Ms. Leslie’s current and former students, can confirm that her way of teaching wakes up our motivation for learning, she has the ability of keeping everybody engage in what she is saying even if in the past we thought that English classes are the most boring ones, as soon as she speaks the whole room is engaged, listening to what she has to say.

I learned that English and History can be really similar, and experiences of those from the past and present can be a great way of learning. I learned from Leslie it’s that if we want to prove something we shouldn’t base it on feelings, opinions, ideas, or beliefs but instead use real proof, documents, or real-life events.

In English 11, we read a play named A Raisin in the Sun about the suffering of a Black American family, a book called The Stranger about a man who was a sociopath, and a play named The Doll’s House about how women in late 1800’s Norway suffered from not having as many rights as men. 

Senior Noah Griff had Ms. Leslie last year in Junior year and found a better connection to the works read in class with Ms. Leslie’s help. “Ms. Leslie related the books we read to funny moments and stories from her own experiences, which made enjoying the class materials and the class as a whole much easier,” Griff said. 

In Ms. Leslie’s class, I learned that life can be tough, and sometimes the worst thing happens, but there are always good things that make life not so bad. Ms. Leslie mentioned that when life wasn’t going as she wished, her dog and even her students made her be a little less sad. She said that no matter the circumstance, you can always find something that will make you a bit happier. 

Ms. Leslie makes a big and positive contribution to the Lewis High School Community by doing what she’s the best at–making students more engaged during class and more motivated to learn, as they become better students. 

Griff describes Leslie as the teacher who not only meets but exceeds expectations. “To me, Ms. Leslie is a prime example of a good teacher who makes learning fun,” Griff said. 

Even though English class may not be the most interesting class for many students, there is always an incredible teacher who will give his or her everything. With Ms. Leslie, you’ll be loving her English class more than you had expected.