Former Teachers - Got Stories?

[Bang!Zoom!]

Thinking on my past, my former teachers. The ones who were my favorites (and not so favorites) and the reasons why.

 

In this crazy mountain of books on my table, I read some passages out of who know what one now..and it led me to think about this. And a hypothetical sort of question came..

 

"Would I want *me* for a teacher?"

 

I haven't come up with a number one favorite yet, there were so many...

 

How about you?

[eternalknot]

Thinking on my past, my former teachers. The ones who were my favorites (and not so favorites) and the reasons why.

 

In this crazy mountain of books on my table, I read some passages out of who know what one now..and it led me to think about this. And a hypothetical sort of question came..

 

"Would I want *me* for a teacher?"

 

I haven't come up with a number one favorite yet, there were so many...

 

How about you?

 

I don't think I would have wanted me for a teacher.

 

I'm the kind of teacher that you don't really appreciate until you're older and wiser LOL.

 

And I'm also the kind of teacher who knows this, and isn't the most gracious or tactful in the meanwhile. I take it personally when the kids don't just trust that I have their best interests at heart, and am guiding them accordingly.

 

I admire healthy rebellion, but only (apparently :lol:) when it's directed at someone other than myself!

[Jean in Newcastle]

Are you asking if we had a favorite teacher?

 

Or are you asking if people would want us as a teacher?

 

I had a favorite teacher. She was the art teacher in high school. She was a wonderful bubbly person. I learned so much from her. She also was one of the only reasons I stayed sane in boarding school.

 

I love being a teacher - both of my kids and other kids.

[WTMCassandra]

I'm the kind of teacher that you don't really appreciate until you're older and wiser LOL.

 

 

:iagree:

 

Some of my favorite teachers were the tough ones. I even did kind of know it at the time. :lol: But it sure helped if they were also interested in me as a person as well as being tough. One prof I had in college was fabulous about making his comments on my papers almost like a dialogue with me as he read through them. I wanna be like him when I grow up. I still have those papers.

 

Then there was my 6th grade teacher who introduced me to and made me love diagramming, who was my inspiration to become a teacher.

[kalanamak]

My 6th grade teacher. He was the first adult to treat me as an adult-to-be. I was really happy he lived into his 90s. He was tough, and parents beat down the doors to either get their kids into or out of his class. Years later he told me he "handpicked" me because of my illustrious brothers.

 

My orgo professor at Columbia. He lectured to 300, without skipping a beat. So.Methodical.He.Was.Adored. Got (and deserved) a standing ovation at the end of the year. He would describe something one way, then another, then a third. If you "got" the first description, the other two seated it. If you didn't, you had two more chances to grab the rope he was swinging overboard while you floundered in the ocean. Really wonderful way to teach orgo, and he had every description completely memorized.

 

One day he used a word, can't remember which, and I suddenly knew he was from Kansas. I looked up his education: BS in chem from KU.

[3Blessings]

I am an educator by training (teacher and counselor). I think *I* would want me for a teacher, but I know there are some students that wouldn't connect with me.

 

My favorite teacher was Ms. Burch- a tough, but interested woman who I still look up from time to time. :)

[ErinE]

The meanest teacher I ever had always said, "Pretty please" and the sweetest southern "Thank you" and would cut you with a red pen as easily as you please. In my junior year of high school, she annilihated her English students' papers, so much so her pupils were famous in their senior year for being unforgiving in any peer-review "writer's workshop" exercise. At the time, I didn't appreciate her, and I didn't love her until the end of my senior year of high school when I finally saw the value of her tough critique.

 

My favorite teacher made me cry in a lecture on linked lists. He taught computer science, had a degree in math, sponsored Odyssey of the Mind, supported his students in international competition, and gave up his own time to teach 0-hour and 7th-hour classes before and after school. He nurtured me, ridiculed me, and I'll love him as a teacher forever. Oh, Captain, my Captain! That was Mr. Johnson.

 

Finally, my calculus teacher. I didn't like her; I still struggle to like her. She didn't put up with any excuses, and she didn't tolerate any whining. She was probably the most "real world" of any teacher I had in high school. If you couldn't do the work, you should come to her with questions. If your questions weren't answered, you weren't asking the right questions. If you were still lost, perhaps higher-level math wasn't the right path. With age and wisdom, I've grown to appreciate her style and realize that hers' was a more honest approach to math.

 

The best teachers I ever had had one thing in common: they expected the best out of me and wouldn't settle for anything less.

[chepyl]

I loved my first grade, and second/third grade teachers. They were both wonderful, sweet, and loving. I always felt safe in theory classes.

 

My four favorite teachers were all teachers I had for more than one year. My 8th/10th geade science teacher, 10th/11th grade English teacher, my drama/senior English teacher, and my all2/PreCalc teacher. They made class fun, and I know I learned a lot.

 

The science teacher took us hiking and camping every summer!! She was awesome. She followed our class from middle school to high school, and then ended up at college with me....she went back for her Phd while I was a freshman. It was fun running into her on campus. She even came to my wedding.