Alison Barry is a 33-year-old English and ESOL teacher at Riverview High School, and her 8 years of being a teacher have consisted of 5 years in middle school and the rest in high school. She was inspired to teach by her aunt and her mother who are teachers, but she says that her English teachers in middle school and high school inspired her to become an English teacher.

She likes being a teacher since she likes working with her students and teaching them and being able to discover her skills. She also likes to be an English teacher since it is her best subject, because she likes literature and loves reading and writing, but she said the most difficult thing about being a teacher is classroom management and that it is the most frustrating thing.

"Sometimes, I feel that I put more work into our work than my students do. Or, it can be difficult to motivate students and help them understand the value of what we are doing in class, and how what we do matters in the long term," she said.

Barry validates her students with quizzes, tests and essays and also said that she loves being an ESOL teacher because she loves to help people who do not speak English and likes to teach them and work with those students to speak English.

Writer’s note: She helped me a lot.

Alison is one of my favorite teachers, not just a teacher, but she is an excellent person when I need to talk to someone. She was always there for me and for all her students.