Imagine my surprise when he turned out to be one of the kindest teachers I had ever had. His lessons were clear and he had routines and expectations that helped me succeed even though the content was challenging for me. He was so patient, always willing to help me work through a question or problem solve during a lab. He helped me see myself as a scientist and someone who was capable of understanding physics!

I will never forget on the last day of class before high school graduation he congratulated us and thanked us for working hard, and he started crying, and then we all (myself included!) started crying.

Here was this teacher that I had heard was strict and mean teaching a subject that I thought was not meant for me, and he had proved everything I believed about him and physics wrong. When I became a teacher, I often thought about my experience in his class, and the power that one teacher can have to help transform students' self-esteem and identity as a learner!