April 25, 2008 03:17 pm
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By Joe Hadsall
jhadsall@joplinglobe.com
Words weren’t enough for Joplin student Drew Johnson. He had to make a T-shirt.
Twenty high-achieving students were honored Thursday night during the 22nd annual Joplin Globe All-Area Academic Team Honor Banquet. In addition to receiving recognition for outstanding academic performance, the students got to thank teachers who were most influential to them.
Johnson chose Joplin chemistry teacher Charles Parker.
“I learned so much from him, whether it was about Thoreau, mountain men or chemistry,” Johnson said.
He presented Parker with a T-shirt decorated with Johnson’s face and the message, “I survived Drew Johnson.”
Making the team requires a high GPA and a high score on the ACT. The average composite score among the students was 32.8.
Students honored a number of different teachers, including music teachers and drama instructors.
College Heights senior Brittney Lewis chose a teacher who was close — her father, Daniel Lewis. Her father was her world-history teacher, principal and coach.
“Obviously, he had an impact on me,” Lewis said of her father. “No one else pushed me to work as hard as I do. He told me I could do whatever I wanted as long as I worked hard, and I believed him.”
Teachers also took the chance to honor their students by recalling memories.
“He encouraged me to read ‘1984,’” said Terry Rose of Webb City student Kyle Ogle. “He was frustrated because I didn’t read it at first, but I eventually did. There was enthusiasm shared over the book.”
Each member of the team was asked to write a brief essay about the teacher who inspired them the most.
The essays included:
Mrs. Leann Stausing has challenged me, more than anyone else at the school, to excel as a student. It is no coincidence that her class has been one of the toughest classes I have ever taken.
That class taunted me, mocked me, frustrated me, and on several occasions, I have dramatically thought it would kill me. (That never happened.) But at the end of the year, I turned out to be a better student, reader, and person because of it. She pushes her students to their highest potential and she will not take anything less.
Her unique interpretations of “The Crucible” and “The Great Gatsby” makes them current and relevant. Her focus on literary history as well as literature itself is nonpareil. Her title as the “Grammar Goddess” has been rightly earned.
Everyday I went to class, I expected a high-energy, quote-shouting, arm-waving, potatoes-are-done-people-are-finished-yelling, literature-interpretating performance from Mrs. Stausing. That is why I am honored to have sweat through Mrs. Stausing’s Communication Arts III College Prep class.
Alan Liu,
Joplin High School
Mrs. Sally Fenska has been without a doubt the teacher who has challenged me to excel in my academic career.
She has taught me in Pre-AP Chemistry, AP Biology, AP Environmental Science, AP Chemistry and Science Research. I began my high-school career with a void in the science area. When asked about science my freshman year, I would aggressively reply that “I HATE SCIENCE.” I thought I hated science because I did not understand it. Mrs. Fenska has helped me to understand and appreciate science in ways I never thought possible. Science has given me so many opportunities. I can confidently claim today that I love science and it is something I am truly passionate about! In fact, I want to work in the science field as a medical researcher. Mrs. Fenska helped me realize what I wanted to do in life by teaching me science at such a deep and practical level.
She also encouraged and supported me in completing independent science research projects. She sacrificed social life, family life, and sleep to help me excel with the science fair. Mrs. Fenska has never stopped encouraging me in all my endeavors since I walked in Miami High School.
Alex McNeely,
Miami High School
In the first grade, Mr. John Atteberry was the teacher I saw twice a week who taught my class funny songs about bugs or spaceships. In the fifth grade, he helped my class learn how to play recorders. I can still remember the fingering to “In the Jungle.”
Throughout middle school, he patiently instructed the group of talkative preteens in choir. Today he is more than my band and musical director, AP Music Theory teacher and vocal ensemble director. He motivates me to keep singing and playing the flute when I feel like life is too much to handle.
Challenges in music and theater are no different that the academic challenges I face every day. Mr. Atteberry has taught me that a little focus and determination with the right attitude can make all the difference between an OK performance and a performance that bring tears to my mom’s eyes or between an all right report card and straight A’s.
He is someone I admire and seek out for advice. His dry sense of humor and long stories make him very easy to talk to. However, it is his example of patience and dedication that has taught me the most. After graduation, I will no doubt e-mail him regularly about more than just music, but about life in general.
Elaina Reinsvold,
Thomas Jefferson Independent Day School
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Photos
Globe/B.W. Shepherd -- Members of the 2008 All-Area Academic Excellence Team were honored at a banquet Thursday. Selection to the team is based on grade point average and ACT score.