Cary Conley

Mr. Cary Conley (I took myself)

Mr. Conley, my teacher, looks like any normal person. He is five feet ten inches tall; forty-one years young. He is in his khaki pants with his cell phone hanging on his belt. Polo shirt neatly pressed and brown loafer shoes. He has an average looking face with his five o’clock shadow, even in the morning. His brown hair is receding, and always neat. However, when his kind brown eyes look at me through his wire framed glasses, I feel that I am smarter than I was. Mr. Conley is my hero because he tricks his students into believing they are smart enough to get a GED or go to college.

Mr. Conley has a lot of experience teaching his students. He was a teacher in the public school system for fifteen years; ten at the middle school, and five at the high school. At present he is a math teacher at the adult learning center. Mr. Conley got his education in far Eastern Ky. at More Head University, where he received his bachelor’s in Earth Science. By the way, science is his passion. He got his master’s at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville, and he is currently working on his doctorate at Western Ky. University. He sees in the future a job in administration, where he can come up with new ideas to make teaching better.

Mr. Conley knows everyone learns in different ways, and that’s why he applies different techniques in the classroom. For example in our new classroom at the adult learning center, in front of the class he writes on his dry erase board with different color markers for the visual learners. When he asks a question the answer,” I cannot” or” I do not know” is not allowed. In his soft but firm voice he says, “ You know this. Now tell me the answer”. At first you do not notice him walking around the class looking over shoulders to see who has the right answer. He does this so when he calls you to the board, it is not embarrassing if you have the wrong answer. However, he does not care if you are wrong. He wants to know you are trying your best.

Mr. Conley tricks you out of your shyness by giving you confidence that you are as able to learn as the next person. If we are having trouble with our homework, all the students will say to ask Mr. Conley because he will explain so we can understand. When we started college we were stressed out, and overwhelmed, so he would tell us stories about his years in college. He said his math teachers would not believe he is a math teacher today. He struggled with math in school, failed algebra his freshman year. And with a tutor, he made D’s in geometry. He tells us about all the studying and hard work he did to become a teacher, and he makes us think we can do it too with hard work.

My hero, and favorite teacher Mr. Conley is a very encouraging and positive person. He is a man so positive that you can do the work that after a while you are tricked into believing in yourself. He has a saying hanging on the wall above the door that reads,” If there’s no wind, ROW”. Before you know it, you are ROWING.