Tell us about your good teachers

[proud2BlibKansan]

In every thread about education or teaching, there are several DUers who unload that story about the worst teacher they ever had and why that teacher was horrible.

How about telling DU about your GOOD teachers? I had so many but one who really stands out in my memory.

My favorite teacher was my 2nd grade teacher. I don't remember anything specific we did that year or even why I still remember her as so great. But the school had tried to make me repeat 1st grade because I had trouble with fine motor skills and couldn't print very well. My parents insisted there was no reason to make me repeat 1st grade. I was a good reader and also did very well in Math. They also took me somewhere and had my IQ and achievement tested and those results didn't support the school's wish to retain me. At that time, parents had to approve retention so the school couldn't hold me back.

So when I showed up for 2nd grade on the first day of school I was pretty stunned to learn I had been assigned to a 1st grade class. I thought I had really flunked and I couldn't understand why my parents hadn't told me. So I sat there for a little while and finally started crying. The teacher asked me what was wrong and I told her. She called the principal who took me into her office and dried my tears. She assured me a mistake had been made and she even called my dad and let me talk to him on the phone. Then she said since the school had made a mistake, I could pick which 2nd grade classroom I wanted to be in. I thought this one teacher was really pretty and she had such a kind voice so I picked her.

And she treated me like her favorite kid all year long. Starting on that first day of school, she whispered to me that whoever thought I had needed to repeat 1st grade was wrong and I was actually a very smart little girl. She told me that a lot during that year. She would call on me in Math and would tell the class she wanted to hear my answer because I was the best Math student in the class. She called a lot of kids the best Math student or the best reader or the best speller but when she said that to me I just beamed. And I really loved her. She was just so kind and made me feel so important from that very first day when I arrived at her door with tears streaming down my face.

20 years or so later when I was applying for my first teaching job, I saw her again. She was teaching in a different school and I was thrilled to be offered a job there. So she got to be my teacher again. And I learned more about teaching from her than from every college professor with a doctorate I had in school.

I was really surprised to hear from her that our school was so overcrowded that there were 65 kids in that 2nd grade class. And it was only her second year teaching. Yes, sixty five. When we had a grade school reunion, I saw the class list. It still just blows my mind to this day that in a class of 65 that woman was able to make me feel so important and so valued. And it was in her class where I felt so comfortable that I decided to be a teacher when I grew up.

I still keep in touch with my 2nd grade teacher. She is still teaching and she is in her 80s. And I still love her.

So tell us about your good teachers.

[etherealtruth]

1. The absolute best teacher I ever had

Mr. Dante Chinni, high school political science/ social studies teacher. This man inspired most that he taught. He opened the world to white working/middle class kids. He instilled an interest in the rest of the world .... he made us understand different wasn't necessarily better or worse .... different was simply different.

Mr. Chinni came to teaching in his late thirties, he had a wealth of "real world" experience, common sense and and a ton of charisma densely packed into his stubby little body. He energized his "fellow" teachers as well as students. He reminded his co-workers that the status quo wasn't always good enough. He was his profession's biggest cheerleader and its harshest critic.

This man changed many lives for the better.

I had him ~30 years ago.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. I had a Current Events teacher in high school

who was married to a man who had been a foreign ambassador. Can't remember which country - somewhere in Europe. He had been with the State Dept for many years. When he retired, she came to teach at my school. And she was so wonderful. She was able to relate almost everything happening in the news to something she had seen in a foreign country. She helped spark my interest in politics. I learned so much in that class.

[barbtries]

2. ok, i'm for that

i can't remember her name. but when i was a senior in high school, i'd had it with school. i quit, and ended up in a continuation class where i worked at my own speed individually. no lectures that put me to sleep. this teacher was impressed with my work. she took me aside, informed me that i had a high IQ and that the sky was the limit for me future-wise. she was the only one until years later when one my poetry teacher in college took an interest and encouraged me as well.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. When I was a senior in high school

My sophomore Geometry teacher asked me to come into her class and help tutor kids in Geometry. I will never forget how special that made me feel. It also probably kept me out of trouble. LOL She was a pretty smart woman.

[asjr]

3. My favorite teacher was Mrs. Anderson,

junior year in high school. She laughed a lot and never criticized ANYONE. She was a "feel good" teacher. One teacher I remember (not the name) from 2nd grade. I vaguely recall her looks but she introduced our class to classical music. She would bring her "victrola" and play Mozart, Brahms, Handel and my favorite Rachmaninoff. I have loved classical music ever since.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. My 3rd grade teacher brought in the TV and we watched all the space launches

I saw John Glenn for the first time sitting in that classroom watching that big old black and white TV. And to this day, I am interested in NASA and the space program.

She also let us watch the World Series. At that time all games were during the day. And we got to watch all those games at school.

I so loved that woman. All because of that TV. LOL

[Ian David]

4. There are too many to mention.

There's Mr. Curtis, in 6th grade Math, who made math fun, and put up with way too much shit from me.

There's Dr. Zipko in 7th grade Science, who taught me that procedure is important, and that not everyone was going to take way too much shit from me.

Mr. Jones, who taught me during a summer enrichment program, who made being an asshole entertaining, and somehow managed to explain to me things I didn't think I could ever understand.

In High School, there was Mr. Ostlund, for whom I have named "The Ostlund Principle."

The Ostlund Principle is the idea that one must sometimes volunteer do what one hates, solely for the purpose of making sure nobody else fucks-up something important, when you know you're the only one who can get it right.

And there are still too many more to mention.

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. I suspect

you were a memorable student:)

[Ian David]

12. Sometimes for all the wrong reasons.

It's amazing how much more personable I became thanks to the marvels of modern pharmaceuticals.

If I'd had Provigil in High School and College, I wouldn't have kept falling asleep in class-- or been so grumpy for classes I had in the mornings.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. Kids like you are my favorites

They have nowhere to go but up. It's awesome to watch them grow and think that maybe I might have made a difference for them, taught them more than they had ever learned from any other teacher.

[ladym55]

5. Wow! I had so many ...

A few highlights...

The third grade teacher who turned me on to lots of great books, got me interested in history, and gave me a very sound background in English and writing skills. And somehow she made it all seem fun.

The junior high German teacher who taught me how to teach myself ... He was trying to teach a bunch of bored kids lame dialogue and grammar rules. He was very demanding, but did it with an understated sense of humor.

My Senior high school English teacher ... he introduced me to incredible poetry, started my life-long love of film, and made me love Shakespeare.

When you get an excellent teacher, it makes such a difference in how you learn. Teaching is hard, hard work, but the payoffs can be great.

[Bigmack]

9. Psych teacher (junior prof)...

Perhaps saved my ass. Came back from Vietnam, started back to college, fell apart. He sought me out and talked with me... a lot. Hell, he shrunk me. Pretty good for a young Adolescent Psych prof at a cow college.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. Probably the best teacher I ever had was in college

I hated Science. Detested it. But I had to take several Science courses for my teaching degree. I failed the first one and had to retake it. The last Science class I took was Science for the Elementary teacher and this guy was a master. Years later I read in my alumni magazine that he had received some kind of award for excellence in teaching. I wasn't the least bit surprised.

One day early in the semester, he met each of us at the door and handed us a battery, a piece of wire and a little bulb. He said "Make the light come on". I was pissed. Of course I didn't know how to do it and I thought it was the dumbest idea a teacher had ever had. But I didn't want to flunk another Science class so I dug in and tried to figure it out. I was one of the last in the class to get it but to this day, over 30 years later, I can still make that light come on. :)

And I probably learned more in that Science class than I had learned in every other Science class I had ever taken. That man was a genius. He knew Science and he knew how to teach too. And I try hard to teach it like he did.

[BlooInBloo]

14. Sophomore year of college, an intro philosophy class...

He was both supremely well-read, educated, informed, and knowledgeable (a recent Princeton phd at the time), as well as being an excellent presenter, teacher, and assignment creator.

Until I had the good fortune of running across his path, I was just bouncing through school with C's. Upon taking my first class from him, it all became A's, in the first instance to show-up the small-but-established philosophy clique at the school. That was easy. Afterwards the task became to wow the teacher himself - haahahah! That was somewhat more difficult, as he kept giving me A's, but would rip my essays to shreds with comments, have me do absurd assignments (implement matrix multiplication on a turing machine - UGH!), and the like. Ironically, it wasn't until after grad school applications had been sent, that I heard from other profs how impressed by me he was, and the nature of his recommendation letter for me (it was exceptional).

But the fucker kept pushing me to do more and better - right into a phd program similar to the one he came from, and I never looked back. I have him to thank for my mind almost as much as my parents - and certainly more than anyone else.

The combination of knowledge and teaching ability is unbeatable.

[Blue_In_AK]

15. This will probably seem strange,

but I had a high school U.S. history teacher who taught the civil war from the point of view of the South (seeing as how I lived in Texas at the time). Having lived up to that point in the north, this was a whole new thing for me. I don't know if it was his intent or not, but he kind of showed me that there are two sides to every story.

[LWolf]

16. I had so many, it's hard to choose.

I can really only think of ONE teacher I had a bad experience with in all those years. And this thread is not about him.

There was the kindergarten teacher who, knowing how devastated I was at finding myself in kindergarten again, let me sit on a stool and read to the rest of the class during nap time. I'd been moved out of kindergarten and in to first grade in the school I started in, because I was already reading. When we moved mid-year and I changes schools, they put me back in kindergarten because I was only 5. I was mortified. Getting to sit up and read made me feel less babyish, and more like the big kid, and reader, I was sure I was. (The next year, they booted me out of first grade and into 2nd because I was driving my teacher crazy during reading lessons, blurting everything out so proudly that no one else got a chance, lol.)

There was the 3rd grade teacher who let us hatch eggs, raise chickens and silkworms, and grow a garden; she gave me a connection to nature that I craved, living at that time as I did in the city. She also had us keep track of our reading by making "book worms:" circles of paper with title and author linked together to stretch around the walls. Mine was the longest bookworm in the room, all year. ;)

The 4th grade teacher who read "My Side of the Mountain" to me. I got a copy when book orders came around, and read it again and again over the years, wanting so badly to be Sam. Then she read "Gone Away Lake," and I wanted to be Portia, with a longing just as deep. She also read "The Ghost of Dibble Hollow." Not an incredible book; just an engaging, fun read. I read it again and again, and felt so sorry for the boy who was the ghost. I often imagined myself moving to a strange town, into an old house with a ghost my own age. As a matter of fact, many years later, I came across my tattered old copy and realized that I'd named my first son after the protagonist. I had really never thought about it, since, in the book, he used a nickname rather than his given name.

My 8th grade history teacher; I don't remember the history. We spent most of the year discussing the national current event: Watergate.

My 9th grade English teacher, who recognized self-esteem issues and took time to counsel me.

My 11th and 12th grade literature teacher; I had her for 3 classes. She challenged me in ways I've yet to be challenged since, and introduced me to Keats and to Shakespeare.

My anthropology professor in college, who held us to a high standard and made field work fascinating. My cultural geography professor, who assigned us a family history project that opened so many doors that had been closed before I was even born. My philosophy professor, whose insistence on powerful thinking kept me fully engaged the whole term.

I've had so many wonderful teachers. At the same time, none of them were perfect. I could share imperfections as well, but why? They gave me something I value. They didn't need to be saints, just teachers who cared about me enough to make a connection, and they did.

[ulysses]

17. two - first grade

and ninth grade English (and later HS Odyssey of the Mind coach). At the time, I didn't realize how exceptional my first grade teacher was - 1976, had us in centers, making a hook-rug American flag, we put on a Happy Birthday America play, etc. Awesome lady. I've gotten back in touch with her recently by email, and she remembers our class better than I might have hoped.

Ms B was, and is, a complete hoot. Utterly unconventional, she completely shook us out of our ninth-grade-in-small-town-Oklahoma doldrums. OM was a revelation later, but the way she taught that English class still stays with me. It's my aspiration as a teacher to teach like she did. She has her own facebook group dedicated to her.

[ulysses]

18. gratuitous picture

Me, dressed up for the play in first grade...

[proud2BlibKansan]

20. Were you tall for your age?

Cute costume. You should dress like this for school one day :)

Hey I dressed up like Viola Swamp. And I went to school as the purple teletubby.

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. I don't remember much about first grade

I taught it for several years and loved it. You can do so much with kids that age.

[kcass1954]

21. Mrs. Patton - 3rd grade (1962-63), Highland Park South Elementary, Topeka, Kansas.

In first and second grade, we heard that Mrs. Patton was the meanest teacher ever in our school. I remember that some of the kids referred to her as a witch. She was stern and expected a lot, and didn't put up with much nonsense. But nothing could have been farther from the truth.

Like most "lefties", I wrote with my hand and arm crooked around. As we began to practice cursive writing, Mrs. Patton worked very patiently with me to learn to hold my pencil the way that "righties" do. She never tried to make me write with my right hand; she just wanted me to enjoy the process of writing. Every time I pick up a pen, I think of her.

There were other good teachers - Miss Spare (1st grade) and Mr. Young (5th grade) in the same school - and so many others through high school and into college who gave their all and worked tirelessly to make sure that all of their students had a chance to be successful. The good teachers outnumbered the bad ones by a huge margin.

[proud2BlibKansan]

23. Every time you pick up a pen

That's an awesome tribute. I am sure Mrs. Patton would be thrilled to read that.

[Malikshah]

22. Simple. Mrs. Anzalatous. 3rd Grade. Springfield, VA. Best. Teacher. Ever.

Probably misspelled her name, but it's been a few years.

She was inspiring and encouraging.

[proud2BlibKansan]

24. I am willing to bet

she doesn't care if you spell her name wrong.