[Aniket Kini, 12th grade]

“My name is Aniket Kini, and I’m in 12th grade. In 6th grade, at Warm Springs, I had a teacher whose name was Mr. Zelt. He was a really good teacher, and he used to be a comedian, so he was really funny. On top of that, while he was teaching, he always had these cool methods that he would use for solving equations.

“He would tell stories from math equations about how ‘x’ went on this journey, and then you have to find the value of ‘x’ after the journey, which was a pretty impactful way to think about it. His whole method of open communication and having a comfortable classroom environment really helped with learning, and he was just a great teacher overall. 

“Before 6th grade and Mr. Zelt’s class, I was pretty afraid of speaking to teachers or anybody higher up, but after having him, I was a lot more comfortable and found it a lot easier to talk with adults, including teachers.

“That year was very influential for me. I still follow Mr. Zelt on Instagram. We still speak sometimes, and he’s a really chill guy. If I ever meet him again, I would like to thank him for teaching the way that he taught, as I’m sure he still teaches the same way, and to thank him for having such a chill class yet teaching well at the same time.”