There’s no question that math is one of the most difficult subjects to tackle for students, but North Penn’s Mrs. Michelle McLarnon makes sure her classes understand it while having fun. She makes learning how to graph functions fun and silly with her unique and refreshing personality. McLarnon manages to walk into school everyday with a bright happy smile on her face, spreading the love throughout NPHS, from the halls all the way to the students she influences everyday in her classes.

Her happy personality is what keeps her classes intrigued, as they learn more about math and themselves from their teacher. Her happiness is infectious, making her classroom equally as cheerful as her. Little things make McLarnon happy from iced tea to summer sun, but most importantly, her friends, her family, and her students. McLarnon explained that she tries to engage her students in the exciting world of math.

“I try to be dorky,” she laughed.

McLarnon always makes sure to have silly mnemonic devices to make complicated math problems stick in students’ minds. These strategies prove effective, because there is no erasing the contagious tune of the quadratic formula song from her students’ minds.

“My kids always say I’m a bit crazy, so I guess that just carries with me into the classroom. And I don’t mind sharing my own personality with my students. I’m okay with being weird with them, and I hope that makes them comfortable with being weird and being different,” she explained.

Teachers are some of the most observant humans on the planet. They really know their students, and some get to know them on a deeper, more personal level. When McLarnon notices one of her students is experiencing a tough day, she does her best to cheer them up.

“It’s difficult because each student is so different. Some of them like to be left alone, some are happy when you just ask them how you’re feeling, some like to talk about it, and some like to get teased. Each kid has their own comfort zone,” explained McLarnon.

It isn’t always easy trying to hide a bad day from students. In her entire career, McLarnon has only experienced a few bad days, and her students took the initiative to cheer her up.

“Sometimes I’ll come into school the next day, and there’ll be a note sitting on my desk from a student saying ‘Hey, I saw that you were having a bad day yesterday, and I just wanted you to know if you’re okay, and that I am happy you’re my teacher… and thank you for making class fun,’ and stuff like that. Little things like that shows that your class is nice enough to notice how you are feeling,” explained McLarnon, reminiscing in previous years.

It’s a teacher’s dream and purpose to serve as a role model for their students, and that’s exactly what McLarnon is. She claims that she has been blessed with sweet and respectful classes, but alternatively, the atmosphere of the classroom shifts when McLarnon begins her lesson plan. The students are affected by her energetic and perky personality, and they treat her as respectfully as they treat each other. It’s clear that students learn more than just how to graph polynomial functions from McLarnon; her students learn how to become better people, like her.

Spreading happiness is what North Penn is about, so McLarnon hopes that everyone does something nice for someone else without expecting some form of payment back.

“Do something that makes people smile everyday, because they’ll pass it on. After all, smiles are contagious,” stated McLarnon.

McLarnon expressed one last wish for the students at North Penn High School; while being kind to others, one should always be nice to math teachers.

“Math teachers shouldn’t always get a bad rap. It’s funny because when I was in high school, I had the worst math teacher senior year. I always left her class in tears, but I was always determined to move on,” explained McLarnon.

When she went back to visit the teacher years later, the teacher confessed that her goal was to push McLarnon further to become a better student and future teacher. All teachers have different methods of pushing their students, and sometimes even the hardest teachers prove to be the best. McLarnon prefers energetic encouragement, and that seems to be working for her classroom.