Celebrating Our Teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week

As Teacher Appreciation Week comes to a close, we hope that all of our educators are feeling the love and appreciation they deserve. Check out some of the stories of influential teachers from the BrainPOPpers below. Teachers, we appreciate you!

In first grade, Ms. Wynn guided us to turn our classroom into a tropical rainforest, complete with paper mache birds and an enormous tree in the center. That room was magical, and her ability to get us all working together to build it was genius. Ahh, the progressive classrooms of 1982. . .how times have changed.

-Andrew Gardner, Senior Manager, BrainPOP Educators

Ms. Wolfskill was my seventh and eighth-grade speech and drama teacher at Burbank Middle School. She was able to take a bunch of inner-city kids and turn us into a drama geeks and wannabe Toastmasters. She taught us things like how to speak like newscasters, how to paint a mime face and how to get over our stage fright to perform for a very tough middle school audience. Most importantly she taught us to like ourselves as we were. Her influence is no doubt one of the reasons that I got into education.

-Arturo Guajardo, District Relations Manager

In kindergarten Mrs. Benton taught intensives. She had a full quarter of school dedicated to the study of animals. During that time we planned a field-trip to the Audubon society. As a precursor to the trip she brought a large selection of household tools into class. She had us take turns deciding which tool we would use to get a berry out of the bottom of a tall glass, which one we’d use to crack open a nut etc. She pulled the activity back to the function and evolution of the bird’s beaks and claws we would see on our trip, eventually leading to an open discussion on the inspiration nature provides to many of our daily experiences. That started my fascination with function, motion and ultimately animation. Her example forever inspires my passion for K-3 education.

-Amber Alvarez, Senior Animator

Reflecting back on my education, I’m not able to pinpoint just a single teacher who inspired me, because there were so many. Mrs. Jones, my first grade teacher, supplied my makeshift classroom at home with all of the necessities, while Mrs. Ripp encouraged creativity not only in the arts, but in all academic areas. There are many others, and the list is full of some pretty amazing teachers. I feel fortunate that I’ve had the opportunity to be surrounded by influential teachers while I was in school, and it’s these individuals who inspired me to choose a career in education myself.

-Carrie Mignano, Manager, BrainPOP Educators

When I was in 4th grade, I was in a multi-age class which combined 4th and 5th grades in one classroom. Our teachers Mrs. Meltzer and Mrs. Grey had us do many fun and interactive projects which really promoted our independence using hands on learning. Two of my favorite projects were when we were studying Renaissance artists. For the first one, we were asked to bring in a bar of soap and we each carved our own soap sculpture. For the second project, they had us taping paper underneath our desks. We then had to lie under our desks on our backs and draw pictures to see how Michelangelo felt when he painted the Sistine Chapel. Needless to say, it was a blast!

-Vanessa Levy, Subscriber Relations Associate