I do not think that English teacher Elise Hintzman is the most influential person at SHS, I know she is. For example, she makes her room very comfortable when you walk in. It’s not like other classes that have the lights on at the brightest setting. Her lights are dimmed low, and she has lamps all over the room that allow for a very comfortable environment.

She also has music playing, and it’s not shoddy classical music that your history teacher would put on to “help you study.” No, it’s genuine music like rock, hip hop, or something just fun and vibey.

She is the kind of teacher who tells her students that her classroom is safe and that you can talk to her if you need. When I heard that, I started to pay attention more and more and eventually she came up to me one day and asked if I was okay. At the time I told her I was good, and I then started to think about the rough patch of soccer I was going through. I told her about it, and she gave me some advice on how to calm down and focus on other things.

One of the ways that she tries to make her class comfortable is by the way that she speaks to people. She will point out if an answer is wrong, but she also shows you how to build off of that idea to get to the right answer.

She doesn’t just dim the lights in her classroom to make it more comfortable, she also decorates her classroom with things like the Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston poster. She also has posters of the music artists she likes and had a March Madness bracket during the tournament. All of these things have helped her to connect to her students.