your best teacher/professor EVER!

[sera]

OK... so we know how some of us have driven our poor teachers nutty. Now I would like to know who was the best teacher (or professor) you ever had and why.



In Jr. High I had THEE BEST teacher! She made math FUN! Her husband was a doctor; she didn''t need a paycheck, so a lot of her money came back to the classroom (as often does with many teachers regardless of circumstance).

We had these HUGE math packets... I don''t even remember how many pages they were. If we got all the answers correct, we earned a trip to Farrell''s Ice Cream Parlor. (They aren''t around anymore, but they were awesome! Old fashioned and fun.) So, she would bring us there and we could order the very aptly named The Pig Trough. Then we could pick a souvenier... the most popular was a jawbreaker that must''ve been the size of a baseball!

We also had a math game... I think it was every Friday. Anyway, she had this board and we chose a number. On the other side of the numbered card was a math problem. If we solved it correctly, we got something. Sometimes they were really big things, sometimes small things, and sometimes jokes.

One time, I "won" a pink slip to the office for talking! I didn''t think she was serious, so after she sent me with slip in hand I stood outside the door thinking she was going to open it as I walked away and say, "Just kidding." But... she didn''t! I was thinking, "Oh great! The principal isn''t going to believe I wasn''t talking!

So, I sit down in his office... he gives me the stern principal evil eye and says, "I''m surprised by you. You''ve left me no choice..." and his hand goes into to his desk to pull out... what?! what?! a detention slip?! a note home?! Saturday detention?! (dun dun dunnn) a HUGE KitKat!

That teacher was so awesome. We did a lot of work in that class but had so much fun, too. We learned a lot. Gotta give her props for making math fun to a bunch of jr. highers!

Mrs. K...

 

[sera]

forgot to upload the pic of The Pig Trough

 

[Tacori E-ring]

My 5th grade teacher. She really believed in me. We are still in touch. She even came to my wedding, baby shower, etc...

 

[iheartscience]

My high school journalism teacher was the only teacher I liked in high school, and she was awesome. Her class was also the only class I actually wanted to be in! She understood how much I hated high school and all the reasons why. She was one of the few teachers who always went to bat for her students.

For example, every year towards the end of the school year, we had a commencement ceremony for seniors where scholarships and awards are handed out. They had really ridiculous dress code rules and my twin sister and I both weren''t wearing the correct shoes so the teachers in charge of the commencement ceremony wouldn''t let us go. Me and my twin sister were like "Alright, eff it!" and we were just going to leave. My awesome teacher would not hear of it and she seriously begged us to stay. She lent my sister the shoes she was wearing and then she ran around to different teachers'' classrooms to get them to trade me a pair of shoes so I could go. The reason she was so adamant was that we both were getting a couple of scholarships, and one of my scholarships was the journalism scholarship that she got to award. I''m still so glad I went so I could get the scholarship from her.

She was just a great teacher and we became friends once I graduated high school. We kept in touch for a bit once I went to college, and I got a summer job at the same newspaper she worked at the summer after my freshman year of college. I''m bad about staying in touch and so is she, so I haven''t seen her in a few years, but I''m hoping to see her at my 10 year reunion.

 

[brazen_irish_hussy]

I have two.
Mrs Anderson was at the end of a long career when I knew her and she was a tiny, formitable woman who taught history. We learned so much from her and no one controled a class like she could. We had small classes with confrance room tables and she sat next to the kids who were difficult. One guy kept kicking the leg of the table and shaking it and so while someone was reading a passage, without a word, she got under the table and tied his shoe laces to the table leg. Every time he reached down to undo it, she put her hand on his chest and forced him to sit up.

Christina was my college advisor and I love her dearly. Archaeology is not a large field and whenever we would talk about these major people in the field, she always knew them. Not only that, but she knew all the gossip behind the controversies and funny stories about all of them. Because of her I actually feel more prepared to enter the field because I know how the politics work and the pet peeves of the major players I might be working with. She was never dull and I know a number of people became anthropology majors after taking her classes.

 

[LitigatorChick]

Miss Farmer, my Grade 2 teacher. So sweet, so awesome. I just loved her.

And then my 1st year university Economics prof. He was hot. Really hot. I don''t know about his teaching skills, but it was enough for me to major in micro-economics!!

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

Two teachers, actually. Mr. C my grade 5 teacher--the sweetest person who had the jolliest laugh. He was French Canadian, so he had a slight accent, and he never got angry. Everyone loved him since he was so kind.

Second, was my Thesis supervisor Dr. A. Attentive, knowledgable and nurturing. Always positive and appreciative. He helped make my Grad school experience worthwhile!

cheers--Sharon

 

[strmrdr]

3 or 4 come too mind but the one that made the most difference was Mrs. Grey and program director Ms Gentry.
When I transferred into her class about 1/4 of the way into the 4th grade she took someone who was getting into trouble a lot and coasting thru school and challenged me.
I went from 5th grade level reading in 3rd grade too 12th grade reading level, reading comprehension from 4th grade to 2nd year college(topped out the test).
Math went from 3rd to 9th grade.(i even got most of the algebra questions right never having taken it. again topping out the test)
Went from around 70 percentile to top 1% on the standardised tests.
Also went too all city for the first time in the science fair while in her class.
Sadly I was kinda hopeless at spelling but she tried hard.
All in 3 quarters.

For extra credit she let me do 200+/5 digit long division math problems and even too the time too grade them.
Stuff like: 4137895256827525892572978529572572572525925255521 646416096089689608474086870289557570560252675675728575026502562055 740756760747649060475647095604604604506825792967536464341343 55476443116461641611616161634641631164165333165311631 3164546461634641636131 divided by 85788

 

[Kaleigh]

Mrs Belcher was my third grade teacher. I was having a tough time at home, she gave me love and encouragement. She made me believe in myself when other''s didn''t.

And Madame Knauer, my French teacher in high school, who expected more from me than what I thought I could give. I rose to her expectations and her kudos to me meant the world. I adored her even though she was harsh. I guess I needed that. She''s the teacher I sought out after graduation to say thanks and get a big hug.

For all of you that teach, this thread should be a testiment to how you guys really make a mark on somone''s life. You may not know it, but you do. So kudo''s to all the PS teachers!!!!

 

[sera]

Date: 3/4/2008 9:42:09 PM
Author: Tacori E-ring
My 5th grade teacher. She really believed in me. We are still in touch. She even came to my wedding, baby shower, etc...

Wow... that''s awesome you''re still in touch!

It''s so touching when you grow up and realize how much a teacher believed in you.

 

[sera]

thing2of2... understanding sure goes a long way, huh?! Awesome to see teachers standing up for their students!

Brazen... gotta love those tough and tiny teachers, lol. (Funny about the shoelaces) That''s great your advisor gave you some invaluable advice!

LC... lol... those hot teachers/profs! We had Coach C. in hs. It was Dr. M. in college, but unfortunately his ethics influenced me to move out of my chosen major for which I was taking his class. Good to hear of inspiring hotties!

strmrdr... wow... what an amazing difference... how great that she saw your potential and challenged you to rise to it. Too bad about the spelling (

). Okay... that division problem is bordreing on insane! Yikes... how long did it take you to do and how long did it take her to grade it?!

Kaleigh... aww... *tear*... Mrs. Belcher rocks! And kudos to your French teacher for setting expectations that you could rise to... that''s great.


It sometimes makes me sad to think of all the teachers/professors who don''t know the influence they made on me; it''s amazing how even the small things can make a lifelong impact. I wish I could have told them all.

 

[Ellen]

Date: 3/4/2008 9:42:09 PM
Author: Tacori E-ring
My 5th grade teacher. She really believed in me. We are still in touch. She even came to my wedding, baby shower, etc...

Oh Tacori, you have no idea how lucky you are. I truly envy you, in a good way. I SO wish I could speak to mine, but she passed away many, many years ago.



Mine was also my 5th grade teacher, Betty Burt. She also believed in me, and realized absolutely no one was paying any attention to me at home. My parents were divorced, which was much more unusual back then, and my older siblings were out of the house for the most part.

Once I brought something in for the science fair, it was a great idea, but was lacking in appearance. She looked at it and said she thought we could spruce it up a bit, which she proceeded to do. "We" won second place. She even took me on trips to visit her mother who lived out of town.

I have never, nor will ever forget her, and I'd give anything to be able to tell her how much she has meant to me.

 

[Haven]

I love reading these stories, and I''m so happy that each of you had a special teacher in your life.

I wrote six thank you letters to teachers when I graduated from high school, and they were each very special to me. I keep trying to write about one of them but I can''t do so without writing a short novel. To be brief, they each treated me like the individual that I was, and they each taught me far more than the course content.

 

[Skippy123]

I am one of those people that does well w/encouragement and also when their teachers were passionate about teaching. I had some one special 5th grade male teacher who really pushed me and encouraged me to push myself. In high school it was my accounting teacher; I need to now tell her I am an accountant. I also had an awesome history teacher in hs. I hated history but somehow she made it interesting and kept me wanting more. I also do very well when my professors would break things down so that it is easy to absorb so I was lucky in college to have an amazing Nutrition Professor who had me consider becoming a RD for a few semesters. Lastly, I had some super awesome accounting Professor for the 30 hrs of accounting course work.

My mom was a teacher so it is fun to hear how she touched other peoples lives. Go teachers!!!!

Great thread Sera!!!

 

[Ellen]

Date: 3/5/2008 9:11:38 AM
Author: Haven
I love reading these stories, and I''m so happy that each of you had a special teacher in your life.

I wrote six thank you letters to teachers when I graduated from high school, and they were each very special to me. I keep trying to write about one of them but I can''t do so without writing a short novel. To be brief, they each treated me like the individual that I was, and they each taught me far more than the course content.

Yes, mine did too.

My son also had a really great teacher last year. He made it a point of teaching the kids what he called "life lessons" on a regular basis. They had nothing to do with the class, but everything to do with real life situations.

 

[strmrdr]

Date: 3/5/2008 9:48:27 AM
Author: Ellen

Date: 3/5/2008 9:11:38 AM
Author: Haven
I love reading these stories, and I''m so happy that each of you had a special teacher in your life.

I wrote six thank you letters to teachers when I graduated from high school, and they were each very special to me. I keep trying to write about one of them but I can''t do so without writing a short novel. To be brief, they each treated me like the individual that I was, and they each taught me far more than the course content.

Yes, mine did too.

My son also had a really great teacher last year. He made it a point of teaching the kids what he called ''life lessons'' on a regular basis. They had nothing to do with the class, but everything to do with real life situations.

I had a teacher like that Mr. K 8th grade English.
The entire class we pretty much ignored the book which was mostly creative writing that year.
We had to write a letter too the editor, letter to a state and a federal representative and too a company about a product we liked or didn''t like. The kewl thing was it could be on any issue or product. He made writing fun.
He also took us flying, meeting at the airport on a Saturday.

Mr. Armstrong for zoology was another great teacher.
He was absolutely brilliant yet could make it easy too understand. He had 2 phd''s yet chose too teach middle school.
Mrs Ransick who made math fun and gave me a better grade than I deserved! (not doing homework but aced the tests)
I had a lot of great teachers in middle school.
In high school I had 2 awesome electronics teachers who set me on a course for getting a degree in electronics. Mr. Worrel and Mr. Mac

In 10th grade my world history teacher Mr Mcglothin brought in an uzi for show and tell, Iv always wanted one since then.
SGT McCarty and SGT Farghter my JROTC instructors who taught me leadership.

 

[pennquaker09]

Probably Frank Tipler. I LOVE chemistry and I LOVE math, but I just never had the same love for physics, but he''s such an amaing professor that I really loved the course. And from my painfully short semester in Cambridge, Henry Louis Gates. It was a truly eye opening seminar and it''s probably one of the reasons why I decided that I definitely wanted to be a teacher.

 

[strmrdr]

Date: 3/4/2008 11:56:59 PM
Author: sera

strmrdr... wow... what an amazing difference... how great that she saw your potential and challenged you to rise to it. Too bad about the spelling (

). Okay... that division problem is bordreing on insane! Yikes... how long did it take you to do and how long did it take her to grade it?!

I don''t know how long it took her too grade them, it usually took me about 20-45min to do one.
Even then I wasn''t the best at doing homework and instead of turning in the worksheet of short problems would turn one of those in instead.
She wouldn''t say anything just return it with a 0 or a 100 on it.
If it was a 0 that meant there was a mistake and Id do another one.
The longest one as I recall was over 450 digits, she returned it with a note saying Ill take your word for it and a score of 100 LOL
I did that one on a day when I was home sick and was bored it took most of the day.

They really aren''t hard if done right.
You make a chart of the divisor x 1 thru 9 as you go along then it becomes all subtraction.
So its really 9 multiplication problems and 50 subtraction problems if you use a remainder or 55 subtraction problems if you take it out too 5 decimals like I did for 250 digits/5 digits
You can make the chart first but I considered that cheating.

 

[allycat0303]

Oh god, my teacher needs so many accolades I have to write.

Ok, so in high school, a physics teacher told me I would never do science because I didn''t have a mind for science.

Anyways I went to cegep (equivalent of last 2 years of high school in the states) and FAILED everything (math, bio etc). Failed a biology class, and passed the second time with 64% (with the SAME teacher) anways the biology teacher met me in his office, and said ''''Ally don''t worry so much, you''ll get it together, have you ever thought of being a doctor?" which is a pretty ludicrous thing to say to a failing student who is actually studying her butt off, and STILL failing. I was about 90% sure I was going to drop-out, tired, discouraged.

In any case, did a biology undergrad, and master''s in biology, and finally medical school. All that time I kept saying in my head, one day I have to come back and tell him thank you for changing my life. So a few weeks after I was accepted into medical school, I came back to see him (it had been 5 years) and bought him a giant fossil of a fish (he''s a biologist he loved it).

So a teacher can change your life by believing in you.

 

[niceice]

Without a doubt, it would be my high school Journalism teacher Nick Ferentinos. Nick''s passion for teaching turned Journalism from a class to a lifestyle, not only was he an excellent educator, but a mentor, friend and pseudo-parent to many of us. No other teacher has had more of an effect on my life.

There were a few teachers worthy of honorable mention: "Mama Lyon''s" who was President of the California Historical Society and taught us "the real history" of California - often to the horror of our parents. My family had a large ranch overlooking San Jose, California which had a lot of Native American Indian artifacts on it which she wanted to view, so one day a classmate and I took her for a ride in a jeep along a steep, very steep and windy road which was more like a trail... She didn''t let on for a moment that we were getting to her when we banked the jeep around a hairpin corner, jimmied it back and forth a few times at the edge of the trail and cranked it around the corner - and we were looking to freak her out! She didn''t say a word, we were bummed. The next day in class she held up her keys and said that she didn''t have time to park her car after lunch and it needed to be moved from the circle in front of the school, everybody volunteered, she looked around and said "Oh I know, I think Todd can drive it, he seems to be able to drive just about anywhere." She told me later that she just about wizzed herself when I flipped that jeep around the corner (her side was the drop) but that there was no way she was going to give us the satisfaction of a reaction.

Ron White - what a great water polo coach! He killed us. He didn''t say a word at early morning practice after he woke up to discover that we''d TP''d his house. Nope, he just pointed at the park benches sitting next to the pool and said "3 per bench, egg beater!" and back and forth across the pool we went carrying the park benches above our heads and egg beatering like mad! And the next morning every player walked out of his house to discover that we''d been TP''d. He worked us HARD that afternoon and then cut practice a few minutes early and said "Now get home and clean up that mess!" smiled briefly and said "And gentlemen, next time you try to TP my house, you might want to remember that my bedroom is located in the front of the house." Damn, we thought we were so smart.

Oh, my Dad & Uncle would want me to mention my preschool teacher Ms. Chi from Hawaii because (apparently) she was HOT! I know this because my Mom likes to tell the story about how she was called away from work one day to come down to the preschool and physically pry my arms and legs from Ms. Chi''s legs... Apparently my Dad & Uncle had bribed me with a promised one pound bag of M&M''s with the instructions to wrap my arms and legs around Ms. Chi''s legs, hold on tight, don''t let go, look up and smile and say "Teacher I love you, I''m a leg man!" Well, at least I know where that preference came from

the M&M''s, of course I''m talking about the M&M''s.

 

[Elmorton]

My 5th grade teacher was awesome - I was having a really rough year, and she saw that I was having a really rough time fitting in and took me under her wing and gave me the extra attention and confidence that I needed - which I think is really special, since I think a lot of my teachers around that time saw me as disruptive, annoying, dramatic, or frustrating. Our big "secret" was that she took me to a concert (The Moody Blues) when she had an extra ticket. She called my parents the night before (who happened to be going to the same concert) and took me (and her daughter-in-law) to dinner beforehand - it was super, super cool from a 5th grader''s perspective and even now I can remember that evening and how fun it was. My parents kept in touch with her over the years and I was SO happy when she came to our blessing (wedding part II) this past summer - my DH was floored that I was introducing him to my 5th grade teacher!

The other teacher that I loved in highschool was one of those teachers that EVERYONE loved - my AP English teacher. The class is particularly memorable because there were 12 of us in it, and 8 of the people were my closest highschool friends. Part of her coolness was that she was young, spoke openly about getting her tattoo on her foot (where of course, I now have a tattoo) - which was crazy to us, since we went to a pretty conservative school, had us read her teaching philosophy, and expected us to act like college students and discuss things like college students. She even met us at the U of I stacks one night so we could explore and find REAL texts for our papers. Her class was the only one in high school where I felt like I was treated like an adult - without that, I probably would have gone insane.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Sera & Ellen, I am lucky. She was only a second year teacher when I had her so she is a long way from retirement. After having some horrible teachers it really made me realize how inspiring and important it is to have a good one. A teacher who *enjoys* her job is a good teacher. So I contacted her (I think I stopped by the school) when I first started college. She has since gotten married, had two children of her own, and still teaches at the same school. She told me long ago to call her by her first name (seeing how even her married name came unnatural) and it was SOOOO hard! I am hoping I get to see her and introduce her to my daughter when I go home in a few weeks. She is a special lady and I love to remind her of that. I figure she gets more crap from her students than praises and everyone deserves to feel valued.

 

[OUpearlgirl]

In 2nd grade I had Mrs. Jackson. She was so encouraging, but was also stern. She was warm and friendly but disciplined us.

She would always ask us before we started a project "how do you eat an elephant?" and we would reply "one bite at a time."

I will never forget the poem she had us memorize- "It Couldn''t Be Done" by Edgar A. Guest. As a second grader, it was a pretty long poem. But, one by one we each got up there are recited it word for word. I still think about her and what she may be doing. She took such great care of her students and not only taught us everything from math to history, she taught us about life.