Villa Victoria Academy has been a delightful institution where I have taught English for the past twenty-nine years. Small class sizes coupled with students who truly want to learn make this school an idyllic institution where I strive to develop in my students an appreciation for the written and spoken word. We delve into all things English - diagramming sentences, reading literature, learning editing as a crucial part of the writing process, building a mature vocabulary and becoming a critical thinker. Most impressive for me is watching the Villa girl grow into a confident young woman who possesses a command of the English language and comes back from her university to report that she was, without a doubt, well prepared for the challenges posed by college-level English. In English I students hone or, in some cases, really just begin to learn the basics of grammar. Students deconstruct sentences through diagramming, a somewhat old-fashioned albeit reliable method of learning about how words function in a sentence. Students also practice writing essays with a clear introduction, body and conclusion, learning to integrate thesis-related evidence into their text. As her writing confidence grows, the student's own voice begins to emerge. As a freshman English student, the Villa girl will read Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and become comfortable with reading and comprehending Elizabethan English. She will also read "The Odyssey" after studying Greek and Roman mythology at length. The end of the year brings a bit of a respite as she delves into southern writer Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie along with some modern poetry and short stories. In addition to literature, the Villa student also reads informational text involving current events via Upfront magazine, analyzing articles and graphs and sometimes engaging in meaningful debates led by the English and history teachers.