NationStates Jolt Archive

Yes, I'm being a bit of a copycat, but given I AM a teacher and I'm a little tired of hearing nothing but horrible stories about my profession, I felt it was time for a different point of view.

The teacher in question doesn't have to be in formal education, but who was your best teacher(s) ever?

For me, my best teacher was Mrs. Block, my special ed teacher when I was in junior high school. She had a heart big enough to hold the world. She cared for her students and helped us all to achieve our potential; even though all of us were special ed (LD and behavioral problems for the most part), but she also never, ever, let us hide behind our disabilities or use them as an excuse for not doing well.

My other two best teachers would be my senior year government teacher who was just plain nuts, but also an awesome teacher. To teach us about US law and how the US court system worked, she arranged a mock trial and got her husband, the town's assistant DA, to preside as the judge. Everything was done to legal standard and judge took great pains to explain to us why it was important that evidence be presented as such and what made a good legal argument and so on. Finally, everyone participated as either jury, prosecution team, defense team, court staff, or witness.

Finally there's Sensei, my Japanese instructor at my university. Tough lady, never gives an inch, and demands hard work all the time, no excuses. But, if you're willing to put in the effort, she'll bend over backwards and move Heaven and Earth for you, going as far as to run free tutorials during the summer when she should have been off... or writing one of the recommendation letters that got me to Japan in the first place.

So what's your story?

I guess my junior high school english teatcher was pretty good. Although I wasn't very good at english, she still managed to inspire me and I felt like I was really learning.

My best teacher in school was my German teacher in my final two years. He should have been teaching at university level, really. He also must have had something on his record we weren't aware of, because even though he was easily the most capable of all German teachers at the school, he only got to teach the Grundkurs, never the Leistungskurs (in our last two school years, people choose two subjects they want to do extra-intensively, those are called Leistungskurs, and have to choose a whole range of the remaining subjects to do as "normal classes", which are called Grundkurs. German and Maths were the two subjects everyone HAD to do, at least on Grundkurs level).
So anyway, he was stuck in a job that was wayyyyy below his abilities. He was a tough bastard, nobody ever got a better mark than a B+ with him, ever. But he also taught me more about literature than any of my teachers before. Reading Kafka'sThe Trial in his class and being shown the almost dozens of layers of meaning and metaphore and allusion was insane. He loved literature and he really managed to make you love it, too. Or at least be interested in it. :p

In university, I only had one class with our professor for American literature (literature wasn't my chosen field, but everyone had to do that one class), and he was similar, really (except he wasn't a bastard :p).
I remember doing the final exam on Hemingway's Hills like White Elephants, and this 60-year-old man, very renowned in his field, actually had the greatness (this is totally the wrong word but I can't think of the right one, so meh!) to write on my exam paper that, while he would interpret the story differently, my version was just as plausible, and gave me an A.
I mean, seriously, that story must have been talked to death among literary critics so he knew what the "right" or commonly acknowledged interpretation was - and how many people then actually still go "You know, that's actually reasonable as well. Well done."?
I also very vividly remember him standing before that group of like 80 students, most of whom were utterly disinterested in literature, and reciting to us a two line poem by Ezra Pound - and stopping and starting over, and stopping again and starting over again, because he hadn't gotten the rhythm just right. It was called "In a Station of the Metro":
The apparition of these faces in the crowd,
Petals on a wet, black bough.

I still know that by heart. Don't you just have to love a man who pours that much heart into two lines of poetry before an audience that'd rather be elsewhere?

And finally, my professor of American Sociology. He was so young and so fucking intelligent and knowledgeable AND a fantastic teacher on top of it.

Oh, and the Criminal Justice professor of my Death Penalty class in the US. She was brilliant.

Mr.Kool, my infotech teacher in my last year at my junior high school campus. He was awesome, he gamed, and ignored when I slept in class (not just head on desk, I set up chairs like a sort of uncomfortable bed).

My best teacher in school was my German teacher in my final two years.

That's something I've always wondered; all that literature and language crap they call English over here, is it called German in Germany, French in France, Italian in Italy?

That's something I've always wondered; all that literature and language crap they call English over here, is it called German in Germany, French in France, Italian in Italy?

Well, at least for Germany, that's indeed the case.

I actually have a hard time picking just one.

I loved my 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Ginn, to distraction. I actually cried the last day of 3rd grade. She was wonderful.

When I started middle school, I began working with a gifted ed adviser named Joel Anderson. He is possibly the greatest school councilor who has ever lived. He is personally responsible for the fact that I didn't drop out of high school during my Junior year.

My AP American History teacher, Mrs. Paige, is the smartest person I've ever met. She speaks like 10 languages and knows the entire history of the world. She's also a terrific teacher. She is why I can write a document-based essay in 45 minutes flat.

My AP English teacher, Mrs. Mooney, is the reason I can write pretty much any expository essay. She also is the one who finally taught me the parts of speech. (Yes, our school district was a bit...off...when it came to grammar.)

That's my short list, but Mrs. D'Alessio and Mrs. Gandrude and Mrs. Chapick and Mr. Alsted and Mr. Ruzak all should get honorable mentions.

That's something I've always wondered; all that literature and language crap they call English over here, is it called German in Germany, French in France, Italian in Italy?
In Japan it's 国語, which translates out into National Language.

Ms. Glover in primary school. It's fair to say if she hadn't spent two years pulling me out of assemblies to work on my handwriting, I wouldn't be at Uni now.

Most of my elementary school teachers were awesome, but Mrs. Jones, my third grade teacher was the best. She would always find new ways to challenge the students who understood what she was teaching.
Some honorable mentions to go Mr. Biondo, my 6th and 7th grade Geography teacher, Herr Weigner, my 10th and 11th grade German teacher, and Mrs. Mercer, my first grade teacher.

It's a tie for me:

Ms. Gartman, my senior year creative writing teacher. Just a cool, fun teacher all around (I actually "borrowed" her car one day during class and drove it to McDonalds - she had just gotten a new car and let me go out to take a look at it. It was her fault she gave me the keys as well...). It did freak me out a bit when I bumped into her in the grocery the year after I graduated and she asked me out...

Mr. Head, my chemistry teacher. Again, just a cool, fun teacher. His first name was Richard, and yes, he went by Dick. Always said he wanted to go into the military, just so he could get to the rank of major. It's always good to have a chemistry teacher who was funny, and even more importantly, a pyromaniac. We had the best experiments in that class...

Honorable mention goes to the Old Testament prof I had in college (went to a Southern Baptist university, so we had to take classes on the bible). Calling this man old is an understatement - I swear he could have told us some personal stories about the time he met Noah. This little old main was the kindest, most saintly man I have ever met in my life. But he had a devilish streak in him as well. When he was talking about Noah's ark, he was describing what a "cubit" was. He told us that it was the distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. To demonstrate this, he proceeded to hold up his arm, flipping the entire class the bird. I'll never forget the grin that man had on his face while he was doing it...

Two of my maths teachers; Ms. Anderson and Mr. Black. Mr Black seemed to be the classic, dry, humourless Maths teacher, but nothing could be further from the truth. He was brilliant, knew everything that was going on, and could explain anything.
Ms. Anderson was also brilliant. Brilliant teacher, hard, fair, funny. Also, offering her a sweet was excellent; most of the time she'd explain she couldn't eat x even to please her husband, but occasionally she'd explode and scream at you for eating in class. It was like Russian Roulette. Fantastic :D

My GCSE English teachers were saints. Analysing literature isn't my strong point, and it was even weaker when I was 15 ("Why would they be feeling anything? No, I don't understand... Besides, they're fictional characters, they can't feel anything. They're made up. No, really, it's just a story!") and yet they (mostly the female teacher, whose name I've criminally forgotten) still got me a grade C in Language and a B in English Literature (I swear someone mixed those results up). Despite that I'd been a little bastard to them in earlier years (I hated English). Saints. Really.

The A-Level physics teacher who joined in our second year... Mr. Tictin, I think. He saved our class's A-Level; the other teacher, Mrs. Jones, was hopeless in every way (if you didn't give her the answer she wanted, exactly the way she wanted it, nil points - regardless of correctness. Draw a graph in pen by accident? Nil points. Pointless rambling, and saying "Basically, at the end of the day, what you get is..."? Oh yes.) and if he hadn't turned up we'd've all failed. And we were the top Physics set.

Mr. Perini, my language teacher, was a nice one. He was somewhat of a performer in class, taught well and told us about true language, not the one the grammars claim to be true. Had good class management and was good at keeping the attention of the class to the subject at hand. Behaved in a somewhat Monty-Python-esque way. :D

my old English teacher was spiffy, though to be fair we only had a class of 4 on Fridays (which meant I got coffee!)

erm...guess he was a good guy especially when you think he managed to control a class who was more or less all part of a evil producing machine

edit: and I'm not putting the name because I can't spell it :p

my best teacher was my GCSE french teacher. he made me want to take french further, such a pity that my A level french teacher put me off again.

for some reason the guy's name has completely escaped me. something welsh anyway.

my other favourite teacher was mrs. swindell, she liked me because i was pretty much the only student who was interested in what she taught (geography) and i actually went on to study the same as she did at university, although by that time i'd focused more on human geography and archaeology rather than physical geography and archaeology.

It's a tie for me:

Ms. Gartman, my senior year creative writing teacher. Just a cool, fun teacher all around (I actually "borrowed" her car one day during class and drove it to McDonalds - she had just gotten a new car and let me go out to take a look at it. It was her fault she gave me the keys as well...). It did freak me out a bit when I bumped into her in the grocery the year after I graduated and she asked me out...

Mr. Head, my chemistry teacher. Again, just a cool, fun teacher. His first name was Richard, and yes, he went by Dick. Always said he wanted to go into the military, just so he could get to the rank of major. It's always good to have a chemistry teacher who was funny, and even more importantly, a pyromaniac. We had the best experiments in that class...

Honorable mention goes to the Old Testament prof I had in college (went to a Southern Baptist university, so we had to take classes on the bible). Calling this man old is an understatement - I swear he could have told us some personal stories about the time he met Noah. This little old main was the kindest, most saintly man I have ever met in my life. But he had a devilish streak in him as well. When he was talking about Noah's ark, he was describing what a "cubit" was. He told us that it was the distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. To demonstrate this, he proceeded to hold up his arm, flipping the entire class the bird. I'll never forget the grin that man had on his face while he was doing it...
Nice. :p

So - did you go out with her?

My best "Teacher" Was a professor here that I just recently (well in my education about two years ago) Just got to take.

Dr. Ghosh
He is a new teacher to this college I am not aware of any previous experience.

He is a networking professor, though he got all his degrees in Electrical engineering.

Why I think he is good:

He has done something I hope I have when teaching similar courses, Found an awesome balance of being both a nice guy, as well as keeping VERY high standards on quality of work and difficulty of projects. one a student has no problem walking in and talking to him about the coolest new project you just did , but know that you cant get away with unreasonably delaying on a project. (that seems messy to me hope it is clear)

He is a difficult professor, He has very high standards and his projects can kill you. That being said every single question and every single project was absolutely and completely applicable to the real world. I dont mind difficult classes that have a POINT and his do there is so much information you can take from him.

He also had a nice balance in teaching style, Solid block of lecture with a good balance of lab time. He has also found that balance in both "teaching" with making the student learn on their own... a usefull skill

I find it a pleasure to teach with this guy

The best teacher I had was my A-level Physics teacher - Mr Frayne, he had huge amount of enthusiasm for the subject, always made it interesting (and kept my interest in it, unlike my CS teacher who, if I hadn't ignored for two years, would have decimated my interest there). One of the more memorable times was at the end of term, he had the whole class shouting out a set of letter from the white-board to ‘try and get an experiment to work’ (written as shown below):

OH
WH
AT
AT
WA
TI
AM

After repeating it once, I shut up and let the rest of the class carry on for a good few minutes before twigging :p
Pity he left the school after my last year there.

The best teacher I had was my A-level Physics teacher - Mr Frayne, he had huge amount of enthusiasm for the subject, always made it interesting (and kept my interest in it, unlike my CS teacher who, if I hadn't ignored for two years, would have decimated my interest there). One of the more memorable times was at the end of term, he had the whole class shouting out a set of letter from the white-board to ‘try and get an experiment to work’ (written as shown below):

OH
WH
AT
AT
WA
TI
AM

After repeating it once, I shut up and let the rest of the class carry on for a good few minutes before twigging :p
Pity he left the school after my last year there.
I had a teacher who did the same once to pass the time. Hers was:
MR Ducks MR Not Ducks OSMR CDEDBDIs L MR Ducks. I've remembered that one for over 15 years.

My best teacher was Mr. Currias who they fired 2 months before our AP World exam. Although I thank the replacment, Mr. Cespedis, for replacing him instead of a sub, Mr. Cespedis had to give a lecture on the Cold War and instead, he gave us a lecture on Cuba during the Cold War. I was rather upset so I, being pretty good at history, had to give instructions to some of my friends and fellow classmates since he didn´t do anything to prepare me for the exam. But yeah. Currias was awsome. He was funny, cool, he cursed, and made you remember stuff. Best. Teacher. Ever.

Well, best PROFESSOR was mr. Júlio Jeha. He taught me the American Gothic lit class, and other ones. Demanding, ironic and all-around great professor. Went on to become my orienter at my final paper. :)

my old English teacher was spiffy, though to be fair we only had a class of 4 on Fridays (which meant I got coffee!)

erm...guess he was a good guy especially when you think he managed to control a class who was more or less all part of a evil producing machine

edit: and I'm not putting the name because I can't spell it :p

I had a very similar class - English class on James Joyce. Held in the professor's office. It was a Tuesday/Thursday class, so it was an hour and a half. The bad thing - it was at 8am. I don't think there was a single session where I didn't fall asleep (8am, and the prof had a very comfy leather sofa in his office). He basically taught until all of us were out cold, then did paperwork for the rest of the time. He'd wake us all up in time to go to our next class...

Nice. :p

So - did you go out with her?

Nah. She was separated from her husband, and I don't like getting involved in that sort of situation - this comes from sitting on the wrong end of a shotgun when an angry separated husband confronted a friend of mine.

Nah. She was separated from her husband, and I don't like getting involved in that sort of situation - this comes from sitting on the wrong end of a shotgun when an angry separated husband confronted a friend of mine.

Did you sue him and made his life a living hell for daring to ever threaten you, especially when you yourself had nothing to do with it?

Did you sue him and made his life a living hell for daring to ever threaten you, especially when you yourself had nothing to do with it?

Hell, he was broke, so suing him would have done absolutely nothing. Cops were called and he was arrested though...

Hell, he was broke, so suing him would have done absolutely nothing. Cops were called and he was arrested though...

You'd make him OWE you money. And have the personal satisfaction of holding his life back while he could be out working or looking for a job, while also exposing him to media ridicule and making it nearly impossible for him to make a living as anything other than a hobo. With a little luck you'd manage to destroy his life completely and drive him to insanity or suicide.

He could then be used as an example.

Nemo me impune lacessit. ;)

I don't get it. :(

I'm glad it's not just me :(

I had a teacher who did the same once to pass the time. Hers was:
MR Ducks MR Not Ducks OSMR CDEDBDIs L MR Ducks. I've remembered that one for over 15 years.

I don't get it. :(

Dr. Wanger

This guy was my Finite Math prof at UW-Madison. He was pretty much a genius. Vital statistics:

Hair - salt/pepper, one large shock on top, combed over. At some point during the lecture, the comb-over would fail and the shock of hair would stand almost straight up, resulting in the appearance of an off-kilter, very thin, mohawk.

Shoes - moon boots (no kidding)

Glasses - of course

Attire - shirt and tie, slacks (to accentuate the moon boots). The shirt, and sometimes the tie, doubled as an eraser for the blackboard.

Speaking style - terse but friendly (if that makes sense)

Voice - squeaky -- he always sounded like he was making an ironic statement

Anyhow, here's to Dr. Wanger, who gave me my love of finite mathematics.

(hehe)

Dr. Wanger

This guy was my Finite Math prof at UW-Madison. He was pretty much a genius. Vital statistics:

Hair - salt/pepper, one large shock on top, combed over. At some point during the lecture, the comb-over would fail and the shock of hair would stand almost straight up, resulting in the appearance of an off-kilter, very thin, mohawk.

Shoes - moon boots (no kidding)

Glasses - of course

Attire - shirt and tie, slacks (to accentuate the moon boots). The shirt, and sometimes the tie, doubled as an eraser for the blackboard.

Speaking style - terse but friendly (if that makes sense)

Voice - squeaky -- he always sounded like he was making an ironic statement

Anyhow, here's to Dr. Wanger, who gave me my love of finite mathematics.

(hehe)

This sounds like something Dr. Who would wear. :p

My favorite teacher was my science teacher in sixth and seventh grades, my math teacher for a few weeks in eigth grade, and my history teacher in eigth grade. I still visit him sometimes. He is really smart.:)

There is also my Latin teacher. She is awesome. She teaches three different languages and I know she know more languages than that.

My English teacher who died last year, or my Government teacher.. or my Science teacher.. or my Marketing teacher..

It's hard to tell, really..

My English teacher in 3rd grade... He basically tought me the tenses :)

My biology teacher of the 4th, 5th and 6th grade. He knew how to teach and make his lessons not boring.

My law teacher in the 1st year of uni.

My french teacher in 3rd grade, the one year I managed to actually learn some vocabulary :D

My "levensbeschouwing" (umm, learning about the different religions, their differences inside, how they relate to each other and what the modern culture is based on) teachers.

I won't name names, but it's odd you bring this up now. I was just out at my mom's place yesterday, and we got to talking about the teachers I had...most of whom are still there. One in particular was an English man who came over as a child, right after WWII. I remember him telling us stories of hiding out in the coal shed during air raids. Anyway...everyone I know from elementary school still remembers him, because he was such an environmentalist. He taught us how to track (not for hunting purposes ha) on his quarter section, which was close to the school, and he took us on an eco-tour of southern Alberta for two weeks.

Turns out he retired when his wife fell ill (she's since recovered). Being a teacher, I thought he might like to know that we still remember him, so I drove out to his place to say hi. My god, the man looks exactly the same as he did all those years ago. A little more frail, but still...so I caught him up on what the students I've kept in touch with have been up to, and that we've talked about him often. He's a pretty reserved type, but I could tell he was glad to hear it. Of all the teachers I had, he seems to be the one I, and other peers, remember the best. He always gave a shit, was respectful, and really worked hard to show us things we might not have seen otherwise.

Mr. Crawley, Social Studies teacher. Funny, kind, respectful of everyone no matter how much of a shit head they were, the man knows about everything. He put a lot of effort into making sure his classes were not bias, too. He was just a really cool teacher.

In chronological order:

My father: Started me on the path of education, still one of the greatest teachers I've ever had

Ms. Selman: 5th grade, first teacher who was cool

Mrs. Brown: High school geography teacher, the only teacher in HS I ever really honestly respected

Mrs. Huff: High School English, the first English teacher who really gave me a leash in what I read

Dr. Baulch: Gruff old Korean war era submariner and Poli Sci Prof, set me down the road of poli sci

Dr. Hudson: English and Creative writing prof., great encouragement and excellent expansions of musical horizons

Mr. Hallmark: International Relations instructor and a hands on real world political risk consultant, learned lots of critical thinking there

Dr. Lence: Political Philosophy prof, a lot of foundation stuff came out of his classroom

Doug Sensei: My Buddhist teacher, laid back and intense all wrapped up in one

Almost all of mine. My Japanese Teacher was amazing, my Government and History teachers changed my life, my Environmental Science teacher was one of the best in the world, the conductor for the Orchestra was great, my English teachers were remarkable. Even my 11th Grade Math teacher was a wonderful teacher who did me a lot of good.

I don't get it. :(
Try saying the capital letters as letter names and the lower cased words as the actual words. Then read in a red necked accent.

'Em are ducks. 'Em are not ducks. Oh 'es 'em are. See 'd itty bitty eyes? 'Ell, 'em are ducks.