English, Creative Writing, and Literature are my business and passion. I'm here to help you make sense of assignments and conundrums.

The Great Amanda
When my son was in seventh grade, he had a less-than-stellar English class experience learning-wise and personality-wise. I despaired that that would change with the next person. Then Amanda came along in grade 8. She was unusual. She was laid back, young, and a little disorganized. I thought, “Oh, crap.”
But, man was I wrong.
She did something right because, in the third month of school, she had my son and his classmates who were the members of ‘that class’ ( you know the one all the teachers roll their eyes about when they are mentioned or the ones that make teachers break out the Chablis after work on a weeknight?) saying things like, and I swear I am not making this up……
“I can’t watch tv, I have to write.”
“I’m not going to the movies, I have to write.”
“No thanks, I don’t want to do ___, I’m going to write.”
She challenged them to write 10,000 pages and they were cranking! We parents were standing downstairs in our respective living rooms with our mouths hanging open wondering what this woman’s secret was.
And the magic continued. In February, we were on a family vacation and stopped in a bookstore. Everybody was getting something new. Our son, Mrs. Z’s student, bought her the poem written and read for the inauguration of President Obama because he knew she liked it. I was blown away. He didn’t have a crush on her-he respected and admired her.
W–O–W.
These kids were having heavy-duty sophisticated conversations with each other that once again left me speechless. I was used to the average age of these knuckleheads to be about 6 when I was driving them to this or that and here they were using literary terms and getting all book clubbish.
Mrs. Z broke all our hearts when she announced she was leaving to go be a mommy full-time. We wept. We begged. We groveled. We had absolutely no dignity and we did not care. She left anyway.
But, I found her on Facebook and hired her to tutor that same kid who is now a junior, and his little sister who is in grade school. She’s available in the evening and they could use a little extra boost. So I feel as though they get a little of the magic Mrs. Z dust and a little goes a long way.

Amanda was one of the most influential teachers I ever had as a child. Incredibly empathetic, talented, and knowledgeable-- she does a great job of meeting any and all of her students at just the right level that they need. She encourages individuality and adjusts her teaching methods to best curate an educational experience based on each student's style of learning. I can't recommend her enough!

I had Amanda as an 8th grade teacher and I had recently just moved to the area at the time so everything was new to me!! She was hands down the best teacher I have ever had!! She is always going above and beyond to accommodate anyone’s needs, I will forever remember her as my favorite teacher and will forever appreciate all that she did to get me to where I am 12 years later!!

Ms. Amanda Parker was an amazing teacher throughout my high school years did a wonderful job teaching and helping others. The way of Her teachings was to interpret the story, and helping those to understand the protagonist, and to understand how write, read, and learn.