Your Favorite Teacher

[Iceblink]

I thought it was time for a thread that's absolutely for everybody. We've all had teachers.

Who was your favorite? Why? What did he/she do that made her/him so special? Was it the things the teacher did? Said? Didn't do/say?

Are you still in contact with this teacher?

Let's limit this thread to favorites. If you want to start a least favorite thread, go for it. I could spend all day in that one.

I've had a lot of influential and wonderful teachers in my life. Some at every level. When I was hanging out, taking some classes at Penn State, waiting for my then-future wife to finish her degree, I had one.

He was a media communications teacher... a speech teacher... an amazing guy. He was so into the things he was doing and made everything seem so fresh and new, that I actually considered going into a media communications program at another university.

I took courses in television and children, rhetorical criticism, and a general intro to media communications. When I was done with these courses, I looked at things in a whole new way. He changed my perspective forever. I could see why people were saying things they were saying and how nothing was really accidental.

As it turned out, it wasn't really media communications that got me so excited. It was the fact that he was so into everything he said... so full of energy and information and fire! It was his teaching style, really. He rekindled my interest in going into education. I had always wanted to do it, but it just really didn't seem realistic. The later discovery that I enjoyed his classes so much because of the classes themselves and not the subject matter helped me along.

Anyway, that's him!

[Courtney]

I have two, one in elementary and one in high school.

The elementary teacher I had in both 2nd and 6th grade, she was awesome. We did lots of creative stuff and she put a lot of emphasis on reading and writing, which were my two favorite subjects. I go see her every once in awhile just to catch up.

My favorite high school teacher was for AP Government, which I loathed. But while the subject matter usually bored me, he made it interesting. We had lots of discussion and he said a lot of funny things, my friend and I kept writing down funny things people would say and at the end of the year we wrote them all on little index cards, punched two holes in them, and made him a little flip-book. When I went to visit him and it wasn't on his desk, he explained "If a principal or administrator read some of those things which are all completely out of context, I'd get fired!" One day we learned about protests and stuff, and we had a class in the middle of the day that was both before and after our lunch period. He decided if we could pull off a satisfactory protest, we could do whatever we wanted after lunch. Of course, we did. He was always very opinionated, and there were a bunch of "save the animals" types in our class. He said "I have no problem with killing Pandas. We should feed them to poor people." I got him a little Panda ornament around Christmas time that year.

But yeah, those are the two. I obviously remember a lot more about the second one because it was 5 years ago rather than 15.

[pething101]

Without a doubt my favorite teachers from high school would be ones that would never be teachers today. Sure, they cared about the standard course of study and the task analysis and all that crap. But what mattered more to them was the ability to think. The ability to form your own thoughts, communicate them clearly and defend them. I had two. Mrs. McLeod and Mrs. Wilmers. One taught social studies, the other senior English. Both were abrasive, outspoken and demanding. Neither were willing to let you sit back and regurgitate what they said back to them. I miss that. I wish I were more of that teacher. It seems impossible to be that today. So much to cram in 90 days and have your kids ready for the EOC or EOG.

Eh, I am going to drink another beer.

[elainemichelle]

I had my favorite teacher last year for AP Language and Composition, I'll have her again this year for Theory of Knowledge (IB's required Intro to Philosophy). She is definitely one of the few teachers I've had that forces you to think. Everyday we'd get off topic in class and usually start discussing politics or ethics or both. As the school year went by, everyone began to better articulate their thoughts and explain why they thought something instead of just saying "because I read this in so and so". She takes time out of her life to make school easier and better for us. She gave us her phone number, address, and email address and told us to let her know if we need anything. She never got involved in our daily emotional crises, she would wait for us to come to her. If other teachers were slamming us with homework (like everyone has already said there's so much to teach all at once) she would give us an extra day or two to get things done for her class. Rarely did anyone not turn in work for her, everyone WANTED to work for her.

There is absolutely no better feeling than having a teacher that you can think of as a friend. I think it must be extremely rare that a teacher can be a friend and still maintain the kind of order among her students that she does.

[LATL]

my favorite teacher was my mother...she was a high school math teacher. No book can teach me the things my mother taught me about life. Although I have no desire to be a teacher, I will never out do my favorite.