Academic literacy has a great impact on how a person expresses and presents themselves in a scholastic environment. The tools to effectively read, write and critically think are skills that not only help a person in the scholastic environment but also in personal discovery. Through positive experiences with academic literacy, people do not only learn to improve their writing and other critical skills, but they also apply this toward learning about themselves and becoming a more confident person in everything they do. Setting a positive environment for students to engage in and become comfortable with their surroundings is an effective way to aid students. Teachers have a great impact on how students learn to apply their academic literacy. When the support is there, students know and feel freer to apply themselves. The teacher helped the author gain confidence and set a tone that is still with her today.
             Without my first grade teacher, Mrs. Dorothy Williams, I do not believe I would have the passion to read that I have today. She set a great learning environment, always making reading fun for her students. Whether we got to sit on the magic carpet, hammock, or in the bathtub, she always encouraged us to read. That motivation to keep us interested in reading has kept holding me in the grasp of reading, to this day. The environment set influenced not just me, but many other students to continue our academic success and use the gift of literacy that she gave us to our advantage. Along with a positive, comfortable learning environment, teachers also set forth challenges and new experiences to aid students. Without challenges, students would be content with the average, never learning their new possibilities. These, in turn, push the student to define themselves in a new way, learn in a new way, and apply their knowledge in a new way. A fellow student simply stated it as "His class was more than an academic experience-it was a spiritua...