A student knocks on an office door. The teacher looks up, eager to assist, and provides the student with explanations, resources, and extra clarifications.

At St. Paul Academy and Summit School, a place which welcomes students to collaborate and speak with an open mind to teachers, this is a common situation.

Teachers are passionate about helping their students gain a deeper understanding of the ideas covered in class. The teachers at SPA help develop the minds of students while motivating them to discover more about a subject.

The schedule change contributes to these quality student/teacher relationships. Similarly, the addition of the tutorial period enables and encourages students to check in with their teachers on a daily basis.

If a student takes five minutes to speak to their teacher one on one, it saves them unnecessary stress while showing the teacher they care. The extra time that a teacher is willing to spend with a student to help him or her learn is extremely beneficial.

However, students have to be willing to take advantage of teachers’ help and actively seek teachers out. Google is easily accessible to every student but it is important to remember that, while it may provide answers, teachers can give the same, if not more nuanced, ones.

The process of learning truly becomes beneficial to students when they learn how to ask their teacher their questions rather than simply type them into a search engine.

Teachers are very useful resources, they challenge and inspire students to fully grasp concepts. Meeting with teachers about extra questions, or ways to learn more about a topic, shows interest while helping to develop good relationships.

The teachers at SPA build positive relationships with students each time they ask questions and drop by their offices to visit. They allow students to relate to them and speak their minds with confidence. This trusting relationship between the student and teacher is invaluable because it allows the student to feel comfortable making mistakes

Besides being interesting people who have had many unique experiences, teachers also eagerly provide students with a variety of resources such as access to labs, internships, people to shadow, recommendation letters, and professors outside of school.

In addition to helping students and providing them with support and connections, teachers do a lot of work behind the scenes. Planning lessons, balancing the work of different periods, and correcting tests and essays are enormous tasks.

Taking into account everything that teachers do for the student body at SPA, stop by a teacher’s office and thank them for their generous drive to help students succeed in all their endeavors.