Bynum's short story, "Accomplice" describes the natures of a teachers mind in a way. Ms Hempel is women who's father thought she was and could be the best and now believes that with her help her students can now be best. I believe this is one of the most important reasons the story is titled the way it is. Through Ms. Hempel's actions, words and ideas she assists the students in becoming the best that they can be. In one of the opening passages of the story it discusses the formulas for anecdotes and how much effort and time that she puts into them. Although she doesn't believe in any specific scientific formula she spends hours going over them to make sure they are perfect before she presents them to the children. In the story it states that she does this because there was always those skeptical students that may not believe that she could do all the things that she said she could or expected them to do. I think that really relates back to her childhood where her father was the one that believed in her all the time, but there were those other individuals that didn't have the confidence in trust in what she said she could achieve.
On more of a personal note, she reminds me of one of my teachers back in middle school. This teacher would be at school until 5:15 everyday no matter what even though she was able to leave at 3. She was also a family friend and whenever we went places she would have a notebook and take things down that may be helpful in her lesson plans and new ideas for class. She would spend hours doing lessons plans and rereading them over and over again, and she would always say that she hoped that the kids were learning from her and pondered over if she was doing a good job or not. Although I hate to see a person worry or spend so much of their life on things like that I think that's what makes a good teacher into a great teacher. Teachers like, Ms Hempel and the one I had in middle school are the most effective in my opinion. You can feel the passions that they have for teaching and the kids and it makes you want to work harder not only for yourself, but for them too. (Shawn Parkhurst, 4)
What might be some other examples from the story about how Ms. Hempel is a great teacher aside from the anecdotes that she writes about each student? Are there other aspects of the story we could point to to strengthen the argument for her being great?
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