Tracy Hansen – Dale Young Community High School

I want to nominate Tracy Hansen for Teacher Feature. She is an awesome teacher. I don’t think she gets recognized that much because she works at the Alternative High School. All my life I have heard people tell her “when are you going to get a real job?” or “How can you deal with those kids?”. In reality this is the best place for her. She has patience a mile long. She can laugh with the students, and by the end of the year some of those students are calling her mom (which kind of bugged me growing up because she was my mom).

She lives and worries for those students. She cares who is there and who is failing and passing. One year a student didn’t have a graduation dress, so for a reward she took that student and bought her a modest dress for graduation and took her to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. The student had never had the opportunity to eat there. If she hears of job opportunities for these students she is helping them try for the job. She helps and encourages them that college is important and if the need is there she makes sure they talk to the right people to get that opportunity.

She is funny and loving. She spends hours and days during the summer to make sure her room is fun and full of information for the students. She spends hours finding new ways for students to have fun while they are learning. She calls home and tells parents not how bad their student is doing, but how much she loves their students. She truly cares about the students.

There are many teachers out there who are good and do extra to support their students. But there are not many out there that care so much they worry on Friday night that a student is going to end up in jail or at the wrong place at the wrong time. If she had a fault it would be that she cares too much about the students. I am proud of my mom. I am excited to watch her teach. I am ecstatic that she is my mom. I wish I could have had a teacher like her.

–Courtney Hansen