Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of thank-you columns by NWN seniors in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week.
Ms. Patti-Anne Davis, now known as Mrs. Ford, is one of west’s most talented, enthusiastic, and genuine teachers I know.She’s my favorite teacher, I’ve had in my entire career in the school system and one of the few I can say I don’t feel awkward or annoyed around. I had Ms.Davis my sophomore year for English and prior to that class had never met her. I had a bit of a rough freshman year and I still wasn’t that acclimated to Niles West, a school and community I had transferred to from Evanston.
I didn’t like school all that much at the time but Ms.Davis helped change that. She was one of those teachers that didn’t just want you to learn. She did her best to make her students get involved and see the fun in reading and writing. She was really one of those teachers that told you the real history about a book or play not just what a teaching plan or syllabus told her to. On top of everything, she encouraged me in a way no one else did at a time I needed it. We’d have some sort of free writing assignment in class and she’d randomly comment to the entire class how great of a writer I was. It’s not really cool to be smart so I played off how good I felt when she said that but it really did mean something.
I really chose Ms.Ford for teacher appreciation week because even after that sophomore year, it feels like shes still a teacher of mine. She encouraged my best friend Chris, and our friend Wilfred, and me to enter the variety show. She wanted us to rap because the show didn’t get to see that kind of talent that often. So we came to the rehearsal, we wrote some quick raps after track practice, and tried out as a joke really but once again after we tried out and we’re half decent I received some more of that classic encouragement from Ms.Ford.
Chris, Wilfred,and I, along with some help from Wilfred Adade ended up creating a whole song dedicated to the children in Uganda that CROSO the organization the show was raising money for was all about. Performing like that for the first time was a great experience and I’ll never forget that and I have Ms.Ford to thank for it.
The one thing you’ll notice most about Ms. Ford, if you have the privilege to get to know her, is that she genuinely cares not only as a teacher but also a person. I’ll never forget that. So here’s to Ms.Ford. I appreciate you as I’m sure many others do, Happy Teacher Appreciation Week.
